Saturday September 29, 2012
With our vacations and otherwise active lives, it's been a while since we were able to all get together for burgers. Thankfully we were able to get a start for fall. John picked and determined it was time to get back to the
original 10 from the Oregonian article last winter. So we headed out to George's Giant Hamburgers in Tigard.
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| 11640 SW Pacific Hwy Tigard, OR 97223 |
One sign that it had been a long time since our last outing is that I forgot my camera and had to make do with my iPhone.
George's Giant is different from the other burger joints we've visited in that you make your own burger. You order the basics, a cheeseburger with bacon and you get a patty with melted cheese on a bun with some bacon. Then you go to the condiments bar to add whatever combination of pickles, relish, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and sauce that your heart desires. The condiment bar was extremely well stocked with good looking purple onions and tomatoes.
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| The condiment bar. Very well stocked and clean |
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| Nice looking tomatoes and onions. |
We all had pretty much the same thing but different: bacon cheeseburgers with different fixin's
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| Standard set up |
They do Burger King one better: my burger my way.
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| My burger my way. |
Good idea but not perfectly executed. The burgers were warm, not hot and not as tasteful as we'd like. I think if they used some of the magic dust they have at Killer Burger things could be much better.
The owners are really nice and work hard to ensure you have a great experience. When they learned about our burger project they brought us some home made
moon cake, a traditional Chinese desert made during the autumn festival. This was undoubtedly the most original thing we've eaten in our burger quest.
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| Moon Cake |
All in all I think the Oregonian had it right in their ratings. Good idea; okay burgers.
Ratings
Comments
Burger
John
Buns a little dry. Minimum size patty cooked medium-well. The onions, pickles, mayo, ketchup, relish, mustard etc. - okay. The 'american' cheese was nice and melted. No 'secret sauce' or special seasoning detected.Finely chopped lettuce - okay if you like it that way. Me, not so much. The fact that you have to 'build your own' takes some of the pressure off these place to make a great burger but they have to start with a good foundation, and I don't think they quite met that standard.
Norm
Pretty Average hamburger however the bun was nice and fresh, and did not mush up considering all the items it held. Bacon was average, as was the cheese patty. It was an ok burger but we are looking for something better than just average.
Howard
Okay. you get the basics: bun, patty, bacon, cheese then go to the condiments bar for sauces, relish, pickles, tomato, onion, whatever. The condiment bar was wonderfully maintained with lovely slices of tomatoes and purple onion. The bacon was cooked just right.
Ray
Pretty ordinary. Good bacon, though. All the trimmings were available to be added by the diner. The bun was not unusual, just what I buy at Safeway.
Jay
Fresh, American cheese, my own secret sauce fro salad bar, shredded lettuce, patty well done - no hint of pink
Side - French Fries
John
A little under-cooked, a bit mushy is not my favorite.
Norm
Pretty average fries, better than some we've had, but again, we are striving for something outstanding. They also needed a lot of salt.
Howard
Great french fries are hot and crispy; okay fries are hot or crispy. These were neither. I only ate a few
Ray
Again, very average fries. Not seasoned or salted. Not freshly made. Not brown or crispy.
Jay
Hot
Drink
John
Milk Shake. This was not a good shake. Not enough syrup or whatever they use for flavoring and the consistency was ' icewatery'. I might have had better luck trying to order chocolate milk. Terrible.
Norm
The flavor seemed to be a little off. The "ice cream" was pretty thin. Not worth the money
Howard
Root beer shake. Okay shake; not real rich ice ceram
Ray
Not especially thick and not very chocolatey. Pretty weak and not made with real ice cream.
Jay
Soft ice cream
Atmosphere
John
Clean, no-frills burger joint. Nothing really stands out. The place seems to be pretty popular.
Norm
Pretty average non franchise burger place. And I did like the condiment bar. Everything seemed fresh and there was a large variety
Howard
Nice clean place.
Ray
It was OK. Not fancy, not funky, just functional. Very clean. Nothing to set it apart from hundreds of other fast food joints.
Jay
Very clean and tidy
Service
John
They delivered the buns with a patty with cheese on it to the table. Pleasant servers.
Norm
The high point of our visit was the service. Prompt and attentive. The server was very friendly!
Howard
George's Giant is owned and operated by a wonderful couple. They were very helpful and even brought us a little Chinese Moon Cake for desert.
Ray
Very good service. Friendly, fast, and efficient. She even brought us a special chinese dessert she had made.
Jay
Server brought food out, explained ingredients, prepared special dessert
Overall
John
I cannot not say I would suggest others go there. The price was okay, $8.50 or so, but the hassle and the quality don't get it up to anything but maybe average. Of the ten restaurants on the list rated by the paper, this place rated number 10. I can see how it might get that score if there were only ten burger joints in the metro area, but I wonder how it got on the list to begin with.
Norm
Average
Howard
A nice place worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood, but not epic
Ray
Just average
Jay
The burger was average, service and ambience above average
