Burger Project - George's Giant Hamburgers

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.

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.

The condiment bar. Very well stocked and clean

Nice looking tomatoes and onions.

We all had pretty much the same thing but different: bacon cheeseburgers with different fixin's 

Standard set up

They do Burger King one better: my burger my way.

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.

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