Craft Burger

Really good burger and selection of draft beers. I love the signs on the wall. I hope they expand into Northern California.

This place should be rated at a 10! My husband and I went here for Valentines Day and from the beginning it was an amazing experience! The staff knew all the wine and craft beers on stock and could easily recommend an awesome drink.
The Chef is an incredible master at his craft. He made the Valentines’ Day menu incredible from the first bite to the last bite. Truly a skilled man.
Thank you for having a passion for what you do, it shows some much in what you present to your guest.

Bring your appetite. Burgers are huge and super juicy… I suggest you add a fried egg! I had the craft burger with cheddar which was awesome. Others in my group had the BBQ burger and said it was amazing!
Next time I’m in Carlsbad I’ll definitely hit up Craft burgers (and beer) for sure. Shot out to Alex and crew; great burgers and an A+ for service.

Very tasty, organic food ! I had the blue craft burger and a ginger brew ! Wow, what a great burger !
Made from Rib-​eye and New York strip beef !!
Great music and atmousphere !!
Give it a try !!

Wow.
I’ve tried the house craft, the house craft with cheese, and the chef craft. Craftburger makes a burger that must be in the top four or five burgers I’ve had in my life. An In-​N-​Out Double-​Double is still pretty much perfection for me, and Rocky’s Crown Point Pub makes a burger that tastes like its straight from your best friend’s backyard grill. But Craftburger is a different style. They remind me a lot of Umami Burger, where the burger just melts in your mouth in a collage of fresh flavors.
The late night fries are outstanding. I’m already a sucker for anything with green onions, so you add them to fries and top them with cheese, I’m all yours. Unfortunately the portion size for them is way too big for one person, so only get them I’d you share. The regular fries are really good as well. You can tell when you have quality fries that still taste good when they’re cold leftovers.
The service has been terrific the times I’ve been there, and you can tell they take pride in their food. Yes it’s pricey, but I always feel like I get my money’s worth when I come here.

Great burgers! Lots of bottled beer options. No fountain drinks tho… Just bottled soda.
Ordered the bbq bacon burger… It was good… but per my picture, there was plenty of grease dripping on my plate… But so worth it.

Bottom Line: Terrific burgers, friendliest staff in North County but the concept is a little confusing.
I’ve been wanting to try Craft Burger since they opened about nine months ago and I finally got my chance last night. (I’d tried to visit a previous time but they were closed for a special event.) What I love about craft burger is the taste of the food and the friendliness of the staff. Neither of those can be beat in North County. You can really taste the quality of the ingredients in the burgers and fries and you immediately feel welcomed and appreciated here as the staff is warm and engaging. I also really like their craft beer menu although I reluctantly decided to just stick with water last night.
Craft Burger is located in Carlsbad Village Drive in the two-​story shopping center anchored by the Land and Water Company, downstairs on the east side (next to Cougar Coyotes). If you hit it just right, they have several one hour parking spots out front. Craft Burger has some seating on their heated patio as well as a decent size dining room inside.
As others noted, the logistics of Craft Burger are that you order at what feels like a hostess stand and then they bring your food out to you. The menu is written largely and artistically on a chalkboard and is easy to read. Beer and wine options surround you. In addition to having beer on draught, they also have a decent bottle selection. I was salivating. For those wanting a non-​alcoholic selection, they have craft bottled sodas and teas but no fountain beverages or freshly brewed iced tea.
Certainly Craft Burger delighted my pallet and filled my heart but my the business side of my brain was a little confused by the concept. The restaurants very much feels like two distinct halves — one half where you order food at a hostess stand and taste beer and wine at a bar and the other half where you sit to dine. Also, the décor was a bit disjointed. The seating area seemed too nice for a burger place and didn’t feel too crafty. There was some vintage inspired signs hung on the wall and a few TVs throughout, including a large projection screen. I think a more cohesive design and hip interior (rustic woods and metals, a oh so popular community table, maybe some chalkboard art, etc.) would really pull this concept together. My very rough understanding is that the original vision for Craft Burger was for it to be a fine dining experience but the concept may be in transition. Anyway, I am totally rooting for Craft Burger to find their niche and be a huge success!

There is no doubt that these are the best burgers I’ve ever tasted and consistently so. Love that they opened up in Carlsbad. My favorite is the barbecue burger and sweet potato fries are awesome, as well

I’m thinking this might be my new favorite gourmet burger place in North County. Had this place bookmarked for awhile, but just didn’t find the chance to come to Carlsbad Village during the busy holidays. Came here for a late lunch on a rainy weekday and was quite pleased. You order upfront and then take a seat and they bring to you. The burgers are quite good, like a backyard burger with great seasoning and fresh quality taste. You have your choice of standard toppings — butter lettuce, tomato, onion, and options for cheese, egg or avocado. They have side fries (regular or sweet potato) or basket of fries to share. The side fries were ample for me to share with another. The craft beer lineup is excellent and updates posted online. They also have craft ice tea which is an interesting twist. They have frozen custard which I would like to try next time. The staff were super friendly and made you feel welcome. I will return to try a burger with an egg, and some dessert :)

Simple restaurant with good philosophy towards fresh food. People are friendly. Menu is interesting. Price can add up quickly though if you customize the order to a burger bowl or substitute beef with chicken or ahi tuna.
Hamburgers are delicious. Salad is very fresh but dressing is way too salty even for the remake. Recommend you ask for the dressing on the side so you can decide how much to put in.

Great local burger joint. Can’t beat their charred to perfection (rare, Med-​rare) burger blend (New York /ribeye)-absolutely luscious with bacon and sunny-​side up egg and sauce.
Craft Burger also has a small but good selection of local craft beers on draft.
Price point-​my burger was $ 12 and well worth the price. But if price is what your looking for, then maybe a fast food burger joint is more in line.

This place is in a higher class from your everyday burger. The handcrafted burger over a bed of fries was our choice and we didn’t go wrong. They allow you to customize your meal if you chose wild ahi or chicken instead. They also have house made custard that is on a level on its own. I suggest the vanilla bean. Impressive a slight draw back that due to the quality it is more expensive than other burger joints.
Environment: relaxing and upper class style
Food: higher end burger experience but does come with the higher end price
Service: friendly and very helpful

Boom! Buffalo ranch burger was a chef special and a culinary panty dropper. Wait. a what? Ya, it looked and tasted that good.
To start, their patties are delicious. Thick, 100% Angus beef that they can prepare as you like. I asked medium rare and I think we got rare. Cut it in half to share with my special lady friend and I thought I heard a moo as the knife went through. Pink and then some. Inside lay the bacon, lettuce, onion, and jack. Not to mention it’s dressed in their housemade buffalo sauce and ranch dressing. You call yourself Craft burger, you are indeed. Shoestring fries were crispy and delicious. We did not hesitate to level the plate in a matter of seconds.
The beer menu is short, yet distinguished. The dining area is nothing special. Industrial and a little stale. They had a projector throwing up a game so we had something to look at. Hopefully, as time goes on and they keep delivering on the quality burgers, they’ll add some character to the dining area to give it some character and charm.
That burger tho!!!

Well, I must say, much better this time. As before, we were received very curtiously by the guy behind the counter. He was very informative and told us about their take-​out beers. They have a very nice selection but nothing that touches Pizza Port or Texas, but still nice to not have to make a second stop.
I decided to get the Chef’s craft burger, wifey got the Cali burger but in salad form. This time we got medium rare, which I HIGHLY recommend as it seems they like to overlook their meat a LITTLE too much. Last time we got ours cooked medium and they were far too done. This time, although they slightly overcooked it, it was still nice and juicy. The balance in flavor is thrown off slightly by all the salt they use. Very salty for a burger, but still pretty darn good. Wifey said her meat was salty too but by eating the burger with the included slices of peach offset the salt. She wished she had more peach.
So bottom line, I can see they are improving but they still have more room to get better. They have the customer service part down, it’s just a few other kinks they need to work out.

Oh man where do I begin…
You must save room for their frozen custard. It is amazing!
All the burgers were juicy and delish. All the guys added a fried egg to their’s (is that a thing)
The craft burger salad was great!
Cali burger made me so happy and FULL. So tasty!
Oh and the late night fries are a must.
You really can’t go wrong with anything here.
They do NOT have a soda machine. Just bottles of small company and local stuff (no Coke or Pepsi).
It’s great support the smaller beverage companies!
Parking is a b*tch. Don’t be surprised if you circle the lot a few times.

We has an excellent lunch here with my entire family. My parents are picky eaters and really enjoyed the house craft as well as the fries and complimented the quality of the meat as well as how good the fries were. My husband went with the bbq craft and also loved it, the kids craft, again a very nice meal which he enjoyed.
I had the ahi salad and it was light and refreshing.
Good quality fish, nice dressing, a perfect lunch.
Service is fantastic, there are a few tables outside as well as inside, the place and menu is small, but everything they have fantastic!
We rounded off our meal with some made in house strawberry custard, so fresh, rich and creamy, cannot wait to be back to try more, great addition to the area!

I will start by saying the burger patty itself is phenomenally good, so juicy and flavorful and perfectly cooked.
This is probably a 4* but I am giving a harsh 2* in the hopes they tighten some things up and I can update to a 4* on the next trip. In fact, in my ranking system a burger place generally couldn’t get 5* but I think this place potentially could. But now i think they are suffering from expectations because when you hold yourself out as a gourmet shop and charge those prices, people expect more. And their processes for ordering and communicating the menu go hand and glove with their issues.
To borrow from the profit: the people here are good, the product is good but the process is broken.
As a sidebar, I have been to lots of these fast casual gourmet spots and I am beginning to question if fast casual works for this style of food. The more successful gourmet burger spots I feel have tableside service. The higher level of service would do more to explain the menu, what you get for what costs (add ons, additions, etc.)
We went because you could get salad options even though you have to pay the salad penalty (this drives me nuts) of $ 2 for trying to be healthy. Most places do this and I think its becoming criminal in our obese society. My wife, for another $ 2 added bacon to hers and only got a few bacon bits. For paying extra we expected bacon strips. We then asked someone what you get on a burger for $ 2 and I am pretty sure they misinformed us and said it was also bits on the burger with bun but clearly you can see form pics they are bacon strips.
So for three of us to eat salads with a drink our bill was $ 75!!!
And we weren’t the only ones, we overheard another patron complaining that they didn’t get fries with the burger and he would have to go back up to the front to order them if he wanted them to which he replied he will never return. Can’t blame him, at that cost to get fries isn’t unreasonable. And again the complex menu and fast casual not working as no way he was going back up to front to order especially when food is on the table.
The good:
The burger patty itself is phenomenally good and perfectly cooked. They are very helpful, place is clean, and you can tell they care and are passion about their product.
The bad:
Pricey, décor needs help, high expectations that don’t deliver, fast casual might not work.
They seem like smart guys who have some passion and care though so with that combination I think they will get it worked out.

Craft Beer and Craft Burgers…
Located along Washington St and Carlsbad Blvd, Craft Burger fairly easy to find and parking is in abundance in front of the store.
Craft Burger is a fairly casual dining experience with a patio out front and a dinning room with great group seating. Definitely the patio is the way to go to watch the train go by.
The menu is on a blackboard on the right hand side when you walk in with a very creative menu. The burgers here are made with ½ pound Angus beef and freshly made brioche buns. The beer menu is all hand crafted beers that will appeal to pretty much any beer guru.
I can recommend the Cream Ale and the Chefs Craft Burger. The burger was outstanding and I’ll be coming back for another. They also offer kids burger as well that won’t last long if you kids are hungry.
Overall
Food: 5 – 5
Drink: 4 – 5
Service: 4 – 5
Coming back: Yes

Love trying new restaurants! Walked by this place a few weeks and saw the new burger joint and had to try it! So came here last night, Tuesday, around 7ish. Not very busy, with a few filled tables here and there. You order at the counter, they give you a number and then they serve you. The ordering at the counter needs a little bit of improvement, like they should move their beer/​drink board closer to the front counter so customers can see it better.
We ordered:
Cali Craft
BBQ Craft (fried onions on it are amazing!)
both with fries (extra $ 2.00 each)
Hard cider and beer
This new burger place is a little on the pricey side but the burgers were big, juicy, and delicious! We ordered our burgers medium rare. Fries were tasty as well. I think the burger patties are like ½ ones or something.
They can improve their décor on the inside. It’s like they want to be trendy and hip with the name and chalkboard menu, but then you go into the actual dining area… and it falls short.
But the food was good!

My family came here for a Saturday lunch after seeing a coupon for it in the local mailbox flyer. $ 5 off $ 25, $ 10 off $ 50 or Free Fries with a burger purchase. I figured our lunch would come to around $ 25 so I clipped off that coupon. Little did I know our lunch would actually come to well over $ 50 (that’s with two beers).
We opted for the House Craft ($ 9.50 w/​cheese) and Bleu Craft ($ 11) burgers with two Little Craft burgers ($ 5) for the kids along with a bowl of fries ($ 4).
What I liked:
* The burgers were thick and juicy. VERY tasty.
* The fries were well-​seasoned and also very tasty.
* The draft beers were great, though could be a bit colder.
Needs improvement:
* Initial front-​door ordering system is awkward
* Food (and beers) took a while to arrive
* Cold, stark interior… lack of overall design.
* Drink and beer menu on opposite wall of cashier
* Kids burger $ 5. No drink. No fries. No lettuce or tomato
I believe they’ve only been open for 5 weeks but there definitely seems to be some kinks need to be worked out. You have to order and pay for your food at the front door when you walk in. Not so bad unless there’s someone right behind you. Worse still, the draft beer board and beverage refrigerator are far away from the register, so you have to walk all the way down, figure out your drinks then walk all the way back. This is very inefficient.
Everyone seemed nice and the food was good, though a bit pricey. The large dining room needs some kind of life… plants, flower, or paintings. Some local Carlsbad surf swag would spruce the place up considering how close it is to the beach. And that relic of a projector screen has got to go. I’d rather listen to some hip music than watch a faded soccer game on the wall.
I had high hopes for Craft Burger. The food was good, but not good enough to make up for the other areas that fall short I’m afraid. Maybe in a few months we’ll notice some differences.