Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Father's Office Review


The first place I will be discussing is Father's Office gastropub in Santa Monica. This is going to be my first review for a reason: Never have I tasted a burger so complete, a burger in which every ingredient complemented each other so perfectly. This delicious burger contains a fine beef patty topped with caramelized onions, Gruyère and Maytag cheeses, small bits of bacon, and leaves of arugula on a soft french roll.

Father's office IS a bar and unfortunately is 21+, with identification checked at the door, so it isn't a family place. As for the seating, all seating is open seating, with no table service. In order to sit, you have to watch for a table and swoop in and claim it once they leave. It seems like its packed and would take forever to find a table, but I've never had to wait more than 15 minutes.

Now, for the burger itself. The father's office patty isn't the greatest patty out there(yet still above average), however, the burger is great do to the fact that all the ingredients go together so perfectly. The onions are caramelized perfectly to a sauce to give them a delicious sweetness to them. The exotic cheeses complement eachother nicely as well. At first I was a bit skeptical about the burger being served on a french roll, but realized that it adds a nice touch and does a better job absorbing some of the juices than a standard bun would. The burger isn't enormous, but a burger and fries should satisfy most.

Misc notes:
-The shoestring french fries are delicious, and the garlic aioli dip they come with is DELICIOUS.
-Great beer and wine selection, unfortunately there are no soft drinks on tap, and must be purchased in bottles.


As for the price, Father's Office isn't the cheapest place around, and should probably be seen as a once in a while thing. An office burger is 12.50, with an extra 2.50 to have fries added. Most beers are between 6-9 dollars.

Final thoughts: A great place to treat yourself if you're up to spend a few extra bucks, because it is DEFINITELY worth it.


Final score: 94/100

Reasons and Motivation

I'm creating this blog because I've found it difficult to locate reliable information on top burgers in the LA/Orange County area. Sure, there's sites such as yelp, citysearch, urbanspoon, etc, but I've found those reviewers to be fairly inadequate in giving burger places proper reviews. Some will comment on how delicious the burger was, yet give it 1 star because the bathroom was messy. Others will give burger places 1 star ratings only because they had a long wait, not realizing that if you're going to an upscale burger joint during peak hours, that's to be expected. Not to say that the environment doesn't factor in, it just could never be bad enough to drop multiple stars off one's experience. I would MUCH rather go to a boring place and enjoy a delicious burger than go to a fancy place and get a sub-par one.

So here is where I begin. I will be posting up review from several burger joints in the LA and Orange County area that I've gone to within the past year, posting new blogs when attending new restaurants, or revisiting old favorites. I will also be posting updated rankings every time a new place is visited, or if a place is revisited and makes me realize that a place needs moving up or down.

Thanks for reading!