Grill-A-Burger

We stopped by this afternoon to see what all the hype is about and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. The food was okay… overpriced, but okay in taste. The service though could use an overhaul.

Closed now – Palm Desert location continues

I was told to go here but when we got to the place they had a B rating from the health inspector… No thank you…

I’ve been to Grill-​a-​Burger a number of times since it opened (5 years ago?) The fries are what I recommend to anyone who likes fries. They’re made fresh from freshly-​cut potatoes. Delicious!
I have had at least 7 or 8 different burgers, but am partial to the bacon cheeseburger. The burgers are big, fresh, and delicious.
Most of the seating is outside on the patio. It’s fun to eat here during the Thursday Palm Springs VillageFest, although you can get a lot of good people watching here anytime.
The service has varied from excellent to good., but averages way above average for a burger joint. The wait staff tend towards friendly, and I remember getting drink refills without asking on every visit. Food has always always arrived pretty fast and I always enjoy the food here.
I recommend Grill-​a-​Burger to my friends who visit the desert if I think they’ll enjoy a good local burger place.

We came in for a late lunch and ordered the two for twenty which includes two burgers — your choice of beef/​chicken patty and fries.
I tried the Mama Mia burger on a focaccia bun with basil mayo, roasted red pepper, grilled onion and mushrooms topped with mozzarella cheese.
The burger and fries were both a hit! I really enjoyed the three dipping sauces they give you with the large portion homemade fries. The burger was piled high and could barely get my mouth on it to take a bite. All the ingredients were so fresh including the freshly baked buns.
This place is pretty popular and were out of yam fries and certain buns. They are closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

ha. I walked past Grill-​A-​Burger on my way to Ruby’s to get a burger and saw a huge hand-​written sign at the entrance …
NO SEPARATE CHECKS !!!
geez… welcome to you too. I still maintain my ONE STAR rating.

I came here because my friend Debbie W highly recommended the burgers at this place. So I knew this had to be good.
However, I need to preface this that the poor rating comes from waiting for at least 40 minutes from the time we placed our order to the time we finally got our food, at least I think it was. It may be because by the time we got our food, we were all starving. The food was great. Our waitress was nice. But sorry, having to wait over 40 minutes to get our food when the place wasn’t very crowded and customers who came in after us, got served, paid and settled the check and had left, while our table of 5 still sat there hungry and patiently.
When our burgers finally arrived, they were good. But I’m not sure if they were good because by then we were all starving that we thought these were good burgers.
Our waitress did comp us for our second order of sweet potato fries since the first order she brought out to us way before the 40 minute arrival time of our burgers.
Anyway, the burger I scarfed down from our long wait was a bacon cheese burger. The burger is served on a ciabbata type bun. All burgers are cooked to a perfect medium, unless specified. I can’t elaborate too much on the burger since I do remember I liked it, but I ate it so fast since I was starving by the time I got it. Next time I have to wait that long at a restaurant, I’m walking out… I don’t care how nice the waiter or waitress is.
Did I mention that we had to wait 40+ minutes for our food from the time we ordered? So word of caution, if you’re starving and expecting to get served fast, you may want to look for another burger joint.
I don’t know what it was, but this entire weekend eating out in Palm Springs, we encountered lousy terrible service! Get your act together Palm Springs!

A really good burger. Fresh lettuce. I see why it was rated best burger in the valley for 2009. Sweet potato fries were great. Plus some great non-​burger options. Just surprised that out of their 24 burger versions there wasn’t one with pineapple. Based on the name/​theme/​décor you would think there would be.

Some of the best hamburgers in town. The fries and sweet potato fries are delicious as well. The court yard is the place to be. It’s also dog friendly and our waitress brought out a bowl of water for our pooch on a hot summer day. Now that’s service!
Exc — Service, dog friendly
Good — Food, atmosphere
Ave — None
Poor — None

Waitress was a bit pushy. She forced the pepper jack cheese on Jeff when he ordered just a regular burger. Of course, it gave him heartburn.
We got some onion rings and cole slaw to split. The rings had a thin, slightly salty, slightly spicy kick to them. I thought they were great, if a bit greasy. Jeff thought they were too salty.
I got the Big Fat Greek Hamburger. it had kalamata olives and feta cheese. I expected something much saltier than I got. I thought the olives were underwhelming. The feta was almost non-​existent. I liked it, however, especially with the red onion.
The cole slaw was much like the slaw at Tylers. It is mostly mayonnaise with a little cabbage and red cabbage. It needs something. Caraway? I added black pepper, but it still needed something.
I asked for water and got this tiny plastic cup. I thought it was just a smidge bigger than the Dixie cups. the only saving grace was the waitress refilling it after I gulped it down.
The stuffed animal hippo was cute. There are big giraffes and other stuffed animals all over the place. The walls have jungle themed wallpaper and pictures of animals, like gorillas and monkeys.

Best darn burgers in the Palm Springs area. The garlic fries are killer and the beer is always cold. The staff treats everyone like family… which may offend some people, but not me.
One of the true hidden gems in the Palm Springs area.

Fries: Sweet potato fries aren’t salty which surprises you at first, but then they are so crispy/​chewy scrumptious it doesn’t even matter. We also got the Parmesan fries and they had real Parmesan cheese grated on top with salt and pepper. I filled up on fries instead of focusing on the burger, they were that delicious.
Burgers: We noticed that all of our burgers had pickles on them (not on the side!), which seemed odd. I got the one with bbq sauce/​onions/​bacon, husband got the one with blue cheese/​avocado/​bacon, parents got the blue cheese/​bacon and the classic. Out of all of those, don’t you think that just the classic should have pickles on top? My bbq sauce burger was ok but could have had more sauce. The patty itself was delicious. The blue cheese/​avo/​bacon was out of this world. I didn’t get much feedback on the others but I imagine they were similar. I also had to ask for a knife because my burger was way too big for my mouth, but that was just fine with me.
Other perks: The drink guy was super knowledgeable about beers. He knew the difference between Amber Boch and Arrogant Bastard and could tell which one my husband’s dad would prefer (the Boch) – but then he brought out a shot glass of Arrogant Bastard just to make sure he was right. What service!
The patio was also fun. Really nice evening and the heat lamp made all the difference.
I really liked this place! Certainly up there in terms of service, food and enjoyment.

Best burger I have had, by far. The first time that I stopped here, I had a Holy Moly burger and a half order of fries. Service was slow, but we weren’t in a hurry. We were watching the Festival of Lights Parade, so we weren’t going anywhere. Yes, drinks are served in a red plastic dixie cup, but the refills are free, so I don’t care. Food presentation has never been a big deal for me, anyway. What I care about is TASTE, and these burgers are the BEST. The fries are homemade, so they take time to make. This ain’t McDonald’s where you can grab a heat-​lamp burger to go within minutes.
The second time I ate here, I tried the Mama Mia burger. The burger was so juicy, it squirted meat juice on my shirt. I didn’t know that I needed a bib to eat a burger! I also got the ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ half fried and half rings, requesting garlic fries. The garlic was raw and very generous, so we did smell like garlic for quite a while. Luckily, both my boyfriend and I love garlic! Too bad I can only get these burgers in Palm Springs. I will plan to come back to this place every time I’m in the area, which is usually yearly. This place serves a mean burger, and it’s the best that I have had in my life.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I were craving a good hamburger so we walked from our house to downtown Palm Springs and ventured over to Tyler’s. Unfortunately they were packed and i remembered that our neighbor Bill had mentioned that this was a good place to have burgers. So after a few more blocks we walked into Grill-​A-​Burger and came upon a small restaurant with a small patio attached. There weren’t any seats inside so we were seated outside under a heat lamp.
I first noticed that the place is definitely not clean! The table was sticky and gross but I soldiered on and looked at the menu. I decided on a turkey burger, with boursin cheese, grilled onions, lettuce, and pickles and a half order of sweet potato fries. The boyfriend had the same but with a meat patty. The fries and my boyfriends side salad came out first and the salad was just a normal side salad nothing to hoot over, but the fries were really good and a half order was the perfect amount for two people. The burgers then came out and were decent but not the best I have ever had. No real complaints just not the best.
Oh and the drinks are served in red party cups??? I felt like I was at a house party hahahaha!

It’s about the burger and fries, baby!
In the Palm Springs area and definitely in the mood for a grilled hamburger? Kind of in the mood for a burger? Maybe in the mood for a burger? Get your butt over here, and you will be happy. Very happy. The meat is so good and grilled that you can just get the classic (burger with tomato, lettuce, onion and pickles on a toasted bun) and be very satisfied with the flavor. You don’t even need all the fancy add-​ons, but they have ‘em if you want ‘em. The sweet potato fries and the regular fries are both fantastic. You can also ask for specialty dipping sauces, like a chipotle something or a basil-​mayo for the fries. Nice additions. The bloody mary was not that great to me – too much horseradish or something spicy… Service was very good. Went for the first time on Saturday, and went back on Sunday. Nice.

I had a very tasty burger here. Like, the meat itself was tasty, not just the fixins. Everything on the menu has a clever name (my fave was the Blu Job burger — lots of blue cheese) and I found the place to be pretty cheery and pleasant overall. We went to eat here after wandering the Thursday night Villagefest Street Fair. They messed up our fry order and so they brought us the right order AND the mistake — I can’t stand it when a place would rather throw something away than let you have it for free.
Great people watching patio, friendly staff, good service, awesome sauce choices for your fries. Eat here.

Seriously, you have to try this place at least once. I had the double cheeseburger and it was juicy, cheesy and yummy. The garlic fries are potent and I don’t recommend eating them before a date, but if you’re secure in your relationship, go for it. The onion rings are well seasoned. They have this burger there called the «Heart Attack» that I must try next time I go.
My tastebuds were happy, but I have to apologize to my arteries.

Any burger joint that cannot make fries at least decent deserves no more than 2 stars. The garlic fries were very misleading because I could barely taste the garlic and I didn’t even see actual garlic on my fries.
The mushroom burger I ordered was just average and I have to say I’ve had much better mushroom burgers in my life. The wait was long to get our takeout order done. I think we saw some people who got seated after we came get their orders first.

This place is pretty small — they have very limited indoor seating and a little bit more outdoor/​patio seating.
They have an extensive menu here offering burgers, non-​meat burgers (boca, chicken, salmon, turkey), hot dogs, salads, shakes, and fountain drinks. The burgers here were nothing special. On the menu it says that they will cook it medium or medium well unless otherwise specified.
The Magic Mushroom Burger ($ 6.95) — comes with swiss cheese and sauteed mushrooms on a white bun. It was okay — the beef patty was tender enough but the overall burger lacked taste. The meat patty was pretty thick and big though, it will definitely fill you up.
Salmon Chanted Evening ($ 7.95) — where do they come up with these names, haha! This salmon burger said it was «grilled» on the menu but it came out as a deep fried patty. It was on the dry side, even with the addition of tartar sauce.
The cool thing about this place is there MANY varieties of french fries. They have sweet potato, garlic fries, parmesan fries, cheese fries, and beer battered onion rings! My four friends and I split an order of sweet potato fries and garlic fries. The sweet potato fries were pretty good, but the garlic fries tasted funny. They didn’t use real garlic and instead just threw some garlic powder on top of the fries.
Prices are pretty good for downtown Palm Springs, this is definitely one of the more affordable joints around town. Burgers range from $ 6 – 8.

Palm Springs is unfortunately not a culinary mecca. Maybe if you are rich, or have been saving up to afford you decent Palm Springs food budget, then you can, but otherwise you need to search for places that that are affordable and have good food. Years ago we stumbled upon Grill-​A-​Burger. their menu was crass and punny and so we figured a good sense of humor might translate into a decent meal. Long story short: it did.
The prices are a little higher than your standard burger place, but only really becuase of their ingrediants. Some have blue chees, others avocado, you can get your burger substituted for a Boca berger (which i do) if you are vegitarian. There are also hot dogs, chicken sandwiches etc. Name on their menu include: The Blu Job, What a Friend You Have in Cheeses, Prov-​o-​lone Ranger, Mother Clucker, The Tammy Swin-​ette, and so on…
Fries or onion Rings order separately. They are pretty accommodating on requests. Last time i was there i was getting over a sore throat and also a little stressed so i wanted some hot booze. I asked for a hot toddy and they had no clue what it was so i said forget it. a minute later the guy behind the bar (one of the owners) comes over with a book and shows me the ingredients it says to have for the drink. «We don’t have cinnamon sticks, or simple syrup, but i can make something similar? wanna try it?» he said. I couldn’t resist. Instead of the cinnamon stick there was an herbal tea bag in my hot booze which made me laugh. It actually was pretty good in the end and did the trick. The point of this anecdote is that they are accommodating, nice, and have established a nice atmosphere. Listening to the staff harass each other lovingly, is better then most floor shows.
Food good, people good, atmosphere good. When in Palm Springs you can’t beat their meat… (their line, not mine.)