I love hamburgers, always have, so people have been asking me to rate two new Durham locations (as a benchmark, I included a highly regarded Raleigh outlet with a Durham location.)
Over the course of several weeks, I’ve tried the doubles at King’s Sandwich Shop in the Downtown Foster-Geer District, Only Burger (both the famed food truck and the newly opened stand in Hope Valley) and to be fair to nearby Raleigh, its famed Char-Grill and to be ultra fair, both at its Durham location and at the original location.
First, I must admit some other long-standing Durham favorites. The All-Pro Big Guy at Devine’s Restaurant and Sports Bar in the Brightleaf District has long been a favorite in Durham. In the Ninth Street District, I was a devotee of the unique Parizade Burger (only served a lunch) until someone there messed with perfection and decided to substitute a bun for what made it unique (regular sliced bread.) I was also a fan of burger specials at the former Starlu restaurant which were always special and unique and were actually the genesis for Only Burger.
I sampled burgers (and fries) at King’s, Only Burger and Char-Grill three different times each over a decent span of time to ensure I had a consistent sample. All three had good customer service, although with my “essential” tremor I pity the poor folks at Char-Grill which requires patrons to write out their order and name.
Without a doubt, King’s is best of the three and quickly becoming my favorite in Durham overall. King’s potato fries took it over the top. They are perfect, fresh sliced, not too thin, not too thick, long and very consistent.
Only Burger is a close second but their fries for some reason are always much too oily. Char-Grill (at both the relatively new Durham location and to be fair, the original down in Raleigh) came in a very distant last compared not only to the three tested for this blog but behind the others I’m mentioned as well.
To be fair I tried the burgers at each location both with and without cheese, with and without mustard, both on my Harley and in my Jeep but always with lettuce, tomato, ketchup and onion.
For those of you who haven’t experienced Durham as one of America’s foodiest towns, the best and most comprehensive source for both local favorites (2010 results just released) and those that are even more widely acclaimed is www.durham-nc.com.
4 comments:
You talked about service and fries, but you didn't actually say anything at all about the burgers aside from how you tried them (with and without cheese, etc).
Burgers at King's and Only Burger were both superior. Fries made the difference.
My favorite burger is at Bull McCabe's--I was told they get their buns from Ninth Street Bakery and I like mine topped with pimento cheese and jalapenos..mmmm!
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