There are burger places, and then there’s that special burger place where you tell all your friends about.
Ladies and gentlemen, that place is called The Burger Guys.
You would think it would hard to heap so much praise for a burger joint on the bustling Westheimer strip, but The Burger Guys is simply worthy of all the praise it has received. An almost uncompromising level of quality and excess makes The Burger Guys the place to go for a burger that’s out of this world.
Consider the most expensive burger The Burger Guys has to offer. For $35, you can have a burger adorned with a slice of foie gras, the fattened liver of a duck. As no one can be expected to put down $35 just for a burger, foie gras or not, let’s focus on the more traditional Indianapolis burger, with cheese, lettuce, pickles and tomato. The formula is pretty standard — until you come face-to-face with the burger itself.
Cooked to a just-done medium, the moment you try to lift the burger, the juices start to run. A staffer said to flip the burger upside down so the thicker top bun would soak up the juices. Though the juices would proceed to flow after the first bite, there’s no telling how much splatter there would have been had the burger been oriented the other way.
After a while, though, you’ll just give up wiping your hands after every bite and just proceed with enjoying every bit of it. It’s a feeling people probably haven’t felt since kindergarten — that giddiness that comes when you’re not just enjoying your food, but having fun with it as well.
This goes double for any burger with a fried egg on it. Trying to eat when there are juices and yolk running down to your elbows becomes a herculean task. The impulse is to wipe up, and for courtesy’s sake you eventually should. Thankfully, rolls of towels are available to you reckless eaters out there.
And for you reckless eaters, The Burger Guys rewards you with a variety of different burgers to try. There is the Saigon, inspired by the Vietnamese banh mí sandwich with its pickled carrots and paté. Or how about the sweet and smoky Sydney, topped with smoked cheddar and a grilled pineapple.
But hey, how about some fries with that? The Burger Guys happily oblige with their Brussels fries. Crispy and liberally salted, they are simply divine. Though they come with a variety of dipping sauces, from house-made ketchup and ranch to loaded baked potato, they’re just fine straight. It doesn’t hurt that they’re finished off with a bit of duck fat.
And how about a little drink with your meal? The specialty of the house are their quite literally fresh ice cream shakes, where you can see the ice cream machine churning away from the counter. Shakes go fast, so don’t be surprised if you see the words “Sold Out” scratched in the chalkboard of the day’s flavors.
Don’t be bummed, though, because there’s always the fountain drinks. While some would be happy with the regular Coca-Cola or Pepsi, The Burger Guys mantra of excess delivers to you nothing less than sodas made with Imperial pure cane sugar.
These are smoother, crisper sodas that don’t have the harsh aftertaste of those made with high fructose corn syrup. Anyone who’s never been exposed to Dr. Pepper made with Imperial pure cane sugar, known as Dublin Dr. Pepper for the Dublin, Texas, plant that it’s made in, should come just for the soda. The sodas are not ones you’d recognize, but the flavors are beyond comparison.
There’s nothing revolutionary about the way The Burger Guys are making burgers. It’s still a meat patty sandwiched between a bun with some toppings. Rather, these fine folks are revolutionizing how we should treat the burger and how to eat it. There’s no need for a fancy ad campaign or a celebrity to market what’s done on 12225 Westheimer Rd. — because at The Burger Guys, the burger speaks, quite loudly, for itself.
