Ed's Easy Diner

Venue/Restaurant: Ed's Easy Diner

Website: www.edseasydiner.com

Location: Basingstoke, UK

Our Menu Choices:
1x Cheese or Cheese (with Swiss cheese)
1x #2 Plate (Combo - Smokey Joe's with fries, coleslaw and onion rings)

Finally back in the UK after going away over Christmas and thought I should start as I mean to go on, by visiting a burger joint! With a 20% off voucher through January, this place is even more good value for money!

My burger (Smokey Joe's) was very saucy (after moaning that the burgers I had in the US didn't have much sauce, this one definitely made up for this!), actually too saucy! The BBQ sauce is really smokey so the amount in this burger was pretty overpowering! Still, a great burger, kept its shape, nicely cooked and the bun was perfectly soft and most importantly, toasted!! Plenty of onion in the burger too, a lot ended up spilling out! The burgers here actually taste of something, so many places you can't really notice much flavour in the patty but not at Ed's! The burger is a good size, very filling and nicely cooked (personal preference, I don't like pink burgers!). Quite liked that the bottom part of the bun didn't end up drowned in grease like in some other places!

The Mrs had a Cheese or Cheese with Swiss, she said the cheese wasn't very noticeable but the burger was still the usual high Ed's standard! Lots of (raw) onion in the burger which was nice! After dunking one of my chips in some of the sauce that had come out of my burger, she said she will be asking for some in this burger next time!

One thing that let the meal down a little was the lukewarm chips and onion rings. We noticed that another table sent their fries back due to being cold. Apart from this, the meal was nice, fast service and tasty food.

This is our first visit to the Basingstoke branch, we usually sit at the bar in the Leicester Square branch and quite enjoy sitting there and chatting with the staff. There does seem to be a better atmosphere in Leicester Square, Basingstoke staff seemed more serious (which isn't a bad thing at all!), anyway, I'm not here to review the restaurant am I! 

Ed's never fails to deliver!

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 4/5

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

2nd In N Out of our holiday!

Venue/Restaurant: In N Out Burger
Website: www.in-n-out.com
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
Our Menu Choices:
1x Double Double Animal Style
1x Double Double, no onion
1X Double Double, regular
1x Double Double, no lettuce or tomato with grilled onions 
All with fries
Spread on the side

So on the morning of our last day in San Jose, my fiancee told me that she couldn't leave without having one last In N Out. We made a stop there on our way to the airport and glad we did rather than eat at the airport!! 

Mine was, as before, cheesy, onion-y (creating words here now!), saucy and just plain yummy!! 

This time the Mrs decided not to have Animal Style, but did ask for grilled onions (that come in Animal Style burgers) instead of the regular onion slice that comes in a Double Double. She said if we weren't about to board a 10 hour flight, she would have had the normal onion, but due to uncooked onion lingering on ones breath, she decided she wouldn't put me through 10 hours of bad onion breath! She tells me that the burger is better with regular (uncooked) onion and is looking forward to returning to have a normal Double Double in the near future! 

We have to recommend you ask for some spread on the side - it is the best for dunking chips in and had it have not had warnings telling us it was for immediate consumption and had to be kept refrigerated, we would have bought loads of sachets home with us! This spread is the stuff they put in the burgers (see bottom of burger in above pic!).

We took a New Yorker with us as we had been telling her about In N Out since she arrived, she LOVED the fries! Don't actually remember her saying much about the burger, I did notice that she had asked for it without onion and it came with onion so she had to remove it when we started eating. Apart from that, I think she enjoyed the experience! 

=Also, on this visit we learnt that there are bible references on some of the packaging, no idea why, but apparently they have been doing this since the 80s... 

Anyway, yet another great experience and so glad that we introduced it to our new friend, Yalena! I have no doubt she will be eating there whenever she is in San Jose! 

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: as always, very sturdy 4/5

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

Applebee's

Venue/Restaurant: Applebee's
Website: www.applebees.com
Location: South Lake Tahoe, California
Menu Choice:
1x Cowboy burger

Pretty dark photo, sorry...

The one thing that really stood out to me was the wholemeal bun! I had started to notice that burgers came in either white or brioche buns in the US so it was nice to see a different bun! Nice squishy bun, tasty burger, nice amount of lettuce, onion and pickles. Very crispy bacon was nice (still American bacon which I'm not a huge fan of though). The onion strings were also very crispy, I am thinking they were actually overcooked? Could have done with some more cheese on the burger, there was only a tiny bit on there! This burger was a good size and very filling. Really liked the fries here, skin on and tasted like they had some seasoning on them! 

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter: 4/5 

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Chevron

Venue/Restaurant: Chevron Gas Station
Location: Danville, California
Menu Choice:
2x mini burgers

Anyone who lives in the UK will know what I mean when I say these are just mini Rustlers burgers... but worse... Nice size for a snack on the run, but completely rubbery, tasteless and hard buns. Not quite sure what else to say about these burgers! Again, no photo of them, they looked ok, unfortunately didn't taste anywhere near as nice as they looked! 


Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 1/5
Comment: I think I would only eat these again in an emergency... life or death emergency that is! Sorry, these were just awful! 

Lark Creek Blue

Venue/Restaurant: Lark Creek Blue
Website: www.larkcreekblue.com
Location: Santana Row, San Jose, California
Menu Choice:
1 x Hamburger, reg fries with garlic and herbs

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of this burger, but wanted to give it a little review!
This burger was fairly large, quite dry and to be brutally honest I am having trouble remembering anything I would like to compliment about it. It was dry, tasteless and did not have any cheese on it, not sure if there was the option to have cheese on it... 
The fries were tasty, you could taste the garlic and herbs on them, was given a very big portion! 
Such a shame that the burger was a let down as the customer service was great, the waiter chatted to us about football (English football, not American) and made us feel at home! 

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 2/5
Comment: as mentioned above, this burger was dry and tasteless, needs some moisture! 

Cheesecake Factory

Venue/Restaurant: Cheesecake Factory
Website: www.thecheesecakefactory.com
Location: Valley Fair Mall, San Jose, California
Our Menu Choices:
1x Smokehouse B.B.Q Burger, reg fries
1x Mushroom Burger, sweet potato fries

This is a pretty big burger... you will struggle to get your mouth round it! It needs a good squish to make it a good size for getting in your mouth!! 
The BBQ sauce for this burger came on the side and even after putting the majority of the sauce on the burger I couldn't really taste it! Once again, American bacon (personally I do not think that it is anywhere near as good as English bacon, sorry!), cheese, lettuce and onion rings. The onion rings are more like onion strings, lots of really nice thin bits of onion in a light coating, delicious! The burger patty was small (by American standards!) but thick so the burger had this 'tower' look to it. Fries are nothing to write home about, normal medium cut, skin on.
I have had a double version of this burger once before at Cheesecake Factory, and thankfully remembered to just have a single one this time! The big one was a bit over the top and way too difficult to eat (in terms of size of burger vs size of my mouth more than anything!). Below is a photo of the double one...

The Mrs had a Mushroom Burger (no photo unfortunately as we hadn't thought about doing this blog at the time of eating here!) and wasn't overly impressed with it. There was plenty of flavour, but that came mainly from the herbs that the mushrooms had been seasoned in. The burger patty was slightly on the dry side, but the cheese and mushrooms gave it a bit of moisture! As usual, she opted for the sweet potato fries and has said that they are the best ones she has had on our trip.

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 3.5/5

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

Carl's Jr

Venue/Restaurant: Carl's Jr

Website: www.carlsjr.com

Location: Oakridge Mall, San Jose, California

Our Menu Choices:

1x Western Bacon Cheeseburger Combo (fries & drink)

1x Bacon Swiss Chicken Tender Sandwich Combo (sweet potato fries & drink)

OK, so before I upload any photos, can I just say that neither of the photos of the above burgers does either of them any justice...

Carl's Jr is always a winner and is a place I look forward to going to whenever I am in San Jose. This time I opted for a Western Bacon Cheeseburger - single burger, 2 strips of bacon, onion rings, bbq sauce and cheese. A very tasty burger, I don't actually think I tasted the BBQ sauce very much, could do with a stronger sauce. Think it could also maybe do with a bit of lettuce, it comes with no salad as standard - not sure if you can add any to it? The bun was squishy but went flat way too quickly (as you can see in the photo), this did not effect the taste of the burger whatsoever though! The onion rings are breaded, full of flavour (as onion always is!) but is the type of onion ring that with the first bite, you remove the whole ring of onion from its crispy breaded shell (god that annoys me!)

This burger is let down by the crappy American bacon they put inside it (don't know if I am the only person who thinks the bacon in America is no where near as good as English bacon!). 

Carl's Jr kind of reminds me of Burger King's burgers back in the UK, but a better version! 

Fries here are really tasty, the Mrs said that if her sweet potato fries were slightly warmer they would have been awesome! 

The Mrs opted for a Bacon Swiss Chicken Tender Sandwich and was really happy with it, said that it was perfect, the chicken was tasty, nice squishy bun, ranch sauce was slightly on the mild side, but all in all a very yummy sandwich! 

Bennett Burger-O-Meter Rating: 4/5

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

In N Out Burger

Venue/Restaurant: In N Out Burger
Website: www.in-n-out.com
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
Menu Choices:
2 x Double Double, Animal Style, one with no lettuce or tomato
1 x Double Double
2 x reg fries
1 x Animal Style fries

L-R burgers: Double Double Animal Style, Double Double Animal Style no lettuce or tomato, reg Double Double

Double Double means 2 burgers and 2 slices of cheese, Animal Style is when the burger patties are cooked in mustard and includes extra pickle, extra spread and grilled onions. Animal Style fries have 2 slices of cheese, spread  and grilled onions.

In N Out Burger is always a winner, good burgers, nicely cooked and very tasty. I usually have a regular Double Double but decided to go for it cooked Animal Style on this occasion. You can really taste the difference from the burger being cooked in mustard, the mustard taste isn't too overwhelming, but I would suggest steering clear if you do not like mustard. Grilled onions are really nice in this burger, but the regular onion in normal Double Doubles is also very good. Burger nice and cheesy and buns soft. Animal Style burgers seem to be a bit more greasy than regular ones, but nothing to major! 

In N Out fries get a very mixed review from people online, my Mrs loves them, I think they are alright, not the best ones in the world! Animal Style fries are different..... A whole portion to myself would be way too much! The AS fries are tasty and the onions on them are lovely, definitely worth a try!
PS. It is advised to mix the fries up as soon as possible after getting your order before the cheese sets! 

Bennett Burger-O-Meter Rating: 4/5



COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

Came up with this genius idea...

So whilst out at lunch today munching on a Carls Jnr burger, I decided that due to the amount of burgers I eat, it would be a cool idea to set up a burger blog! My name is Gary, I live in the UK and when I travel abroad, I tend to only eat burgers... yep, sounds like it can get boring, but I like to stick to what I know and also, other countries do some pretty good ones! 

Planning on posting the name and location that the burger is from, photos, reviews and ratings of burgers I try! Hopefully other people will get involved and send me photos and reviews of burgers they try too, contact me via bennettsburgerblog@gbdents.com if you have tried a burger that deserves a shout out!

First review will be up very soon, keep your eyes peeled! :o)