Jb’s Burger

This place is its own worst enemy, I can’t decide to give it 2 stars (for having a serious management problem) or 3 (for having a relatively decent culinary thing going on)…so let’s give it 3 in the hope things improve.
I fist visited about a year ago: service was confusing, it was byob, they were working on their liquor license and I had the turkey burger. I have some fairly stringent criteria for eating beef so didn’t even ask about it. I was told halfway through my meal that all the meat was organic, sustainably this and environmentally that. All this was great news but not posted anywhere on the menu, if I was running the place I’d make sure this info got out.
Fast forward a year. I go specifically for a draft beer (they must have the license by now) and a burger I can eat. Neither is the case, the menu is the same. I ask the sever and he doesn’t know about the beef. One quick question to the cook brings the answer of non-​organic, just plain old beef, but it’s black angus (…don’t get me started). The beer tap was gone, but they had beer in bottles, they had run out of our first 2 choices. I was about to leave but felt slotted in for a meal, so stayed.
The turkey burger is ok. Salty, white meat, hand formed (some report a preformed puck but that’s not the case) the bun is good — it’s homemade and occupies the bread space between diabetic-​white and hard-​pallet-​destroying-​hard. The fries are ok, frozen yes but so is every other decent fry in the city. The salad’s a nice touch, it’s actually a lot of food for $ 8.75 (on Smith street that is).
The flip-​flop about the organic, etc. meat was disquieting — really enough to swear this place off for good (I read another review that said the beef was grass-​fed, so someone’s still spreading bad info). But the place seems so anonymous I don’t know who I’d talk to about it, there, The servers both times I’ve been there act like they never done it before. The music is top-​40 and the bass is really quite loud. They put cheese on the wrong burger. They ran out of ice. They are cash only (I understand this is popular but a dangerous decision for a place with so many strikes already).
One last thing: their website is flash (…why?) and throws to a mobile site (thank you) that says to install flash (fail). It’s this kind of attention to detail seems to be the problem.

I if can give [negative ]5 stars I would.
Let’s just say that pre-​cooked leftovers at McDonald’s are more appetizing than a serving of anything at this place.
I must say that it isn’t too surprising, giving the rapid plunge in quality from their owners, 2 doors down (Provence en Boîte).
I guess I know why they call it JB — just blah!

I’m kind of surprised by the low ratings for this place. We stopped by not expecting anything and weren’t disappointed. I thought the burgers tasted great and the fries were just dandy. We sat in the garden and I wouldn’t really call it «clean» but not bad. The service was a little slow too. All in all, it was a-​ok.

The burger was a burger, not worth the $ 10 they charged. It came with fries that were fresh from the freezer, and a crappy salad.
The service was even worse than the food. The bartender found some people who spoke his native French, and he couldn’t be bothered with customer service.
The only highlight was that he forgot to charge me for my beer.

I live in the neighborhood and wondered why this place is always, always empty.
Today I found out why.
Every single item on my plate was unacceptable — the beef burger was a fried lump of crudge, the fries were straight from the freezer, and the salad was disgraceful.
Really, don’t bother.

MEH! definitely sums it up. Worse than mediocre… even the fries were tasteless and seemed like the frozen kind… and this place is owned by a Frenchman.

La Petite Provence came & went in the blink of an eye, but the owners are back with more mediocrity. JB’s is a below average burger joint that’s not even trying.
We sat in the back garden which was a sparse collection of rickety patio chairs. The patio needs a major cleaning, it just felt grungy, dirty & dank. The menu is bare, but adequate. We ordered one turkey burger & one beef burger for variety. You had your choice of fries, onion rings or a side salad. I could’ve sworn that one choice of cheese was included, but we ended up getting charged for my slice of cheddar. So, back to the «food».
When we were walking past the «kitchen», I noticed two portable electric griddles. I didn’t think anything of them until we got our burgers and realized that’s how they were cooked. Yes, even Burger King promises an open flame, but these guys fry their meat. It’s the one thing you can actually taste too. The beef burger was a hunk of flavorless ground crud. And the turkey burger was a pre-​made frozen slab.
What really drove me over the edge though was the sides. The side salad was a handful of iceberg lettuce shards, a slice of frozen tomato & cup of dollar store russian dressing. My onion rings were straight-​up frozen Oreida bullshit. I’m dining out to eat the same shit I can cook myself! And not to be a foodie neighborhood snob, but this is Smith Street. Give a shit.
I’d say skip it, but like La Petit Provence JB’s won’t be around for long.