The Counter Restaurant Review

Another trendy fancy burger place… This one opened in 2006 and is a fancy one located in the California Avenue shopping district.
They have locations in CA, CO, GA, NC, and TX with many more coming soon.
You get to select a patty, 4 free toppings, optional premium toppings, cheese, sauce and bun. This is almost identical to Custom Burger in San Francisco.
You can get certified humane turkey, 100% natural ground angus beef, certified humane chicken, and veggie burgers. You can order takeout or have a full serviced sit down meal.

The place has very modern decor with a unique bar where they serve beer, wine, and mixed drinks.  Lots of college kids (Stanford is nearby) and families were eating.

Menu pics

Picks:

The 1/3lb Beef burger ($8.50) was just ok size. Not as big as many other places. They do ask how you want the meat done and default to a slightly pink in the middle.
The Tilamook cheddar cheese tasted good.  The sesame bun was much bigger than the burger. The Bermuda red onions, Tomatoes were fine. The sweet BBQ sauce was on the side and was really, really sweet.
We’d rank this burger below top notch places like Custom Burger, Pearls, and Mo’s, but above fast food joints.

Smores Shake Special ($4.95) with marshmellow, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, and graham crackers was good.  Relatively thick and not too sweet.

OK:

French fries ($3.50) with some seasoning salt on top were of decent quality and in good quantity.

Kids Mini Burgers (2) ($4.95) with American cheese, pickles, and Fries were a good deal and enough to feed most kids upto 8.

Pans:

Fried Dill Pickle Chips ($4) with apricot dipping sauce were weird.  Crispy and piping hot, but an acquired taste.

The service was fine.  It took about 15 minutes for the burger to arrive. They have a kids menu.
If we wanted a good burger and were nearby, I’d definitely consider The Counter. There are so many customization options that almost anybody could be satisfied.
You can also down an adult beverage of your choice at the same time.

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