Best-O-Burger

Comparing Best-​O-​Burger to the other available burgers in downtown San Francisco definitely warrants 5 stars. If I were rating it towards all of the burgers in all of the world, I would give it 4 stars, but I’m in San Francisco.
I was heading downtown on MUNI to meet my Mom for lunch. I was watching the Best Burger episode of HIMYM on my iphone. By the time I got downtown, I finished the episode and was of course craving delicious burgers. Unfortunately for me, downtown San Francisco has a lack of good burger places. Beale Street — meh, good but kinda expensive; Taylor’s — way expensive, long slow lines; Harrington’s — dry burgers; Royal Exchange — mediocre burgers at best. So when my mom suggested this new place that she heard about, I was all for it.
Man, was she right?! We didn’t realize that the place sold sliders — even when the cashier told us they were sliders … I really need to learn to pay more attention :/​But it didn’t matter because the 2 burger Sloppy Bob with cheese combo was plenty of food for the both of us. The cashier even threw in 2 free fountain sodas because we were new! I love the «ring-o’s» — thin crispy onion rings — delicious!
I liked their downstairs dining room. It was quiet and relaxing. I liked that someone delivers your food to your table. I hate standing around waiting, so I enjoyed sitting and having a nice conversation with my mom. We didn’t have to wait very long either even though the line was out the door when we got there.
I look forward to my next visit!

Often when you see small you think «packed with flavor» along the lines of the discretionary-​spending-​on-​appetizers-​that-​are-​better-​than-​the-​main-​course theorem. Sadly, these mini-​sandwiches were shrunken versions of full sized mediocrity. I will admit that the flagship BOB Burger might be 4-​star worthy because of the perfectly seared outside, but all his low brow menu companions bring him down.
BOB Burger: They call it a «Gourmet Mini-​Burger», but it’s basically a slider. The iron skillet searing does add a very nice taste on the outside unlike regular grilling or griddling. The special sauce was ok, but nothing outstanding.
Mozz-​O-​Meatball: A huge meatball lightly covered in tomato sauce on a dinner roll. The meat was pretty bland and boring until I got to the middle: hidden mozzarella inside! In theory I love hiding cheese in meat, but in practice the mozzarella probably would have tasted better on top if lightly crisped. Also, the tomato sauce was pretty bland as if the only ingredient were tomatoes.
Spicy Crispy Chicken: Spicy? Even a Middle American would think this bland. I did like that the breading was less KFC and more Japanese panko.
Sloppy Bob: The ring-o’s really make this sandwich. A traditional Sloppy Joe lacks complexity so the added crunch is a step in the right direction. The ground meat was comparable to other Sloppy competitors.
Sloppy Dog: Basically a Sloppy Bob on a hot bun with a lengthwise sliced hot dog. The dog it self was disappointing. By slicing it before grilling, I would have thought it would be extra crispy. The poor dog was char marked, but too limp to be any fun.
Ring-​Os: These very thin strings of onions often only appear as topping to casseroles and sandwiches in other restaurants. It’s cool that they are a complete side here, but they are way too thin to effectively dip in any sort of sauce. By themselves, without a sauce and not on a sandwich, the novelty wears off quickly and they become too greasy.

Size DOES matter and I think a more appropriate name should be Best-​O-​Slider.
A misleading sign which read, «Best burger under $ 10» managed to pull me in off the street on my way to the office. Maybe I missed the other part of the sign which should have said that they’re also 30% the size of their competitors. No shit you beat your competition in price.
Anyways, as an In-​N-​Out fan I appreciated the familiarity; the red/​yellow logo and few items on the «easy» menu. Wait, this menu isn’t easy… what the hell are «strings» and «ring-o’s» and since when does a combo NOT come with a drink? Gimme a break.
When my Plate-​O-​Grease arrived consisting of two tiny little burger sliders and a greasy heap of french fries and onion rings, I took a deep breath and tried the burger. It didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t nearly as hung over as I should be for this type of crap and basically threw my $ 10 in the dump.
Lately I’ve been trying to write more positive reviews and not totally trash restaurants that suck, but this place is just misleading and disgusting.

If I had known that they were famous for being greasy, I wouldn’t have gone. I don’t enjoy greasy food unless I have the hangover from hell, and that’s not the deal today at all. Just needed some iron.
It was greasy, the cheese (which I asked they leave off, but they didn’t) curdled as it melted, and the bread was so soggy after my 3 minute walk back to work I had to eat the burger without it. Then I could only even finish half because of the massive amounts of garlic in the patty.
I won’t be going back.

K. I went back here yesterday since the initial craziness of when it first opened up. I’m sadly disappointed. They’ve expanded, raised the prices and the burger suck.
What was initially a small slider has expanded into a mega-​slider, which means that two was too much. We opted to eat downstairs in the IKEA-​inspired dining room (cheap yes). However, the experience was kind of demeaning sitting sub-​level and looking out the window watching the rich folk chow down on food at Tiramisu above us.
My burger arrived to me kinda cold, it was properly cooked, but the initial juiciness and greasiness that I had come to expect (and liked) was gone. I had to douse it in ketchup and top it with onion rings to spare it. The soft easy to eat bun has been replaced by a monstrous Cibatta bun. (When will people learn that cibatta doesn’t belong on a burger! It’s too hard of a bread, and frankly not that tasty!)
I mixed and matched my 2 burger bag and tried out the spicy crispy sandwich. It was dark meat, breaded with panko breadcrumbs which I enjoyed. Perhaps someone dropped the ball that day, but there wasn’t any spicyness to be found. Overall, it was kinda good, but could have used some cheese, and I’m over the thousand island dressing.
The fries and ringo-​s are still a win though. Will I be back? Maybe, next time I go I’m going to be hitting them up with all kinds of modifiers In-​n-​Out Style. However, I definitely won’t be sitting downstairs again.

Fast food places with simple menus have a special place in my heart. It is one reason I love In-​N-​Out. Good food, simple offerings, and not having to fret over 101 options.
Best-​O-​Burger is pretty awesome. They dish out little slider-​type burgers at about $ 2 a pop. Think of it as a fancier, more healthy White Castle.
Place is busy at lunch time, so be forewarned. Final verdict: you can eat well here on the cheap. Service is prompt, but there’s no seating so you gots to eat on the run or back at the office.

They serve Sloppy BOBs now and they are extremely good! Still pretty darn greasy, but it had a wonderful tomatoey, red pepper taste. Great use of seasoning and I’d almost have to say they are better than their burgers.
The crowd has subsided, so ordering is quick and fast. I realize this is a pretty good deal for a FiDi lunch. Under $ 6 for 2 sliders and a generous heaping of fries/​strings. I always leave off content instead of uncomfortably fat with guilt.

Best-​O-​Burger in San Francisco is a unique way to get your burger. The choices are few. The burgers are slider-​small. The onion strings and fries that come with your burger are crunchy and flavorful. The experience is inexpensive and fresh. Have a 2 cheese bag and chow down.
Hoosier Burger Boy

A decent fast food burger. All their burgers are sliders, so be prepared to eat 2 – 3 of them if you’re average size.
Pros:
— Cheap
— Fun and less messy eating multiple sliders instead of one large burger
— Restaurant is bright and clean
— Fries AND rings combo!
Cons:
— No better or worse than most fast food burgers
— Fries and rings nothing to write home about
Overall it was a fast pickup experience, the simplicity of the restaurant and ordering system keep things flowing, and the burger was enjoyable if nothing special.

Want sliders? Come here!!! Gourmet sliders that is.
Little two-​bites of heaven.
And if you check out their menu, you can get the fries, shoestring onion rings, or a mix of both. Shoestring onion rings are great to go with the sliders.
Service = a tad slow. Orders are made to order, so give it some time!
Décor = simple, and no place to sit. So… be ready to do take out.

Thought it would be better. Best-​O-​Burger hardly sucks, but the burgers did not blow my mind as I had hoped. Luckily, they didn’t blow out my wallet, so I’m making this 4 stars for the value aspect. Yes, converted to the downtown lunch scale, that’s the equivalent of 5 stars.
I like the fry and onion ring combo a lot, but there’s ways to do a better job of draining the grease — 4 stars
Delicious, juicy burger patty, a little greasy, but well-​cooked on cast iron — 4 stars
Soft buns — 5 stars
Bizarre sauce — 2 stars
I may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m from LA, which most people haven’t figured out is a burger haven… Fat Burger is just the tip of the iceberg folks. However, lucky for my waistline, I haven’t had even one 5 star burger in SF. I simply don’t have enough resistance to handle it anyway.

As a vegetarian, I find it super-​frustrating when I’m craving a veggie burger and I’m stuck in the FiDi. It seems that the cheapest burger-​and-​fry combo I can find is no less than $ 10…which is RIDICULOUS.
Enter: Best-​O-​Burger.
My co-​workers all raved about this place for quite some time, but I only went to check it out today. For $ 3.99, I got plenty of grease for a meal. (A Veg-​O-​Burger, Strings’N’Rings)
The Veg-​O-​Burger is soooo good! Pesto and mushrooms on a burger = pure genius.
The service was great, too. No problems at all requesting extra-​ketchup and the like.
It’s good to note that there is nowhere to sit inside. It’s a tiny place — just a counter and that’s it.
Ahhh, cheap veggie burgers from the heavens. I’m a satisfied customer.

Overall — methinks not but their fries are yummy enough to make an honorable mention
Even though I’m veggie, don’t mean I don’t likes me some good-​old, full-​o-​fat burgers & fries (veggie burgers, that is)
Ordered their Vegg-​O-​Burger & it was a big Ball-​O-​Grease. No «burger» to speak of but rather loose mushrooms & melted cheese all smooshed together which meant it fell apart upon 1^st bite
You should be embarrassed, calling this a burger!
Also won’t need to moisturize my face for the next month due to all the greasy spillage all over my face, every time I took a bite…
And minus big points for charging $ 0.50 for lettuce & tomato… I mean really?! They’re completely standard people — not extras!
Good news is that they had yummilicious fries — thin & crispy on the outside but mooshy on the inside… lots-​o-​salt!
I can feel my face breaking out as I write this…

I’m not sure how to feel about this place.
Almost $ 2 for a mini burger? And when I say mini, it fits on my palm, without spilling over. So maybe a 3-​inch diameter at most.
And then they also charge a quarter more for tomatoes and lettuce per burger?
I guess it’s alright. Come here if you need a burger fix but don’t want to deal with a huuuge honking burger.
The mini burgers are sandwiched between what I think is a sliced dinner roll. Definitely not your normal seeded hamburger bun. Kinda weird but I guess it works. The meat tastes flame-​grilled but it really isn’t — they just grill it on a pan like thing over an open flame.
Come here to try it and if you absolutely LOVE it, then I guess you have to get the «twenty-​o-​something» burger box and share with your coworkers, haha!
The two mini burgers I had didn’t give me the runs (since I had it yesterday for lunch and I’m quite alright now) so I guess this place comes off better than White Castle. I hear WC is notorious for sending people straight for the crapper…
(Photo uploaded)

Went here for lunch. Thought we try something new.
Not impressed. Much much prefer Bistro Burgers.

I ordered the 2-​burger bag and a vegg-​o burger to try. The wait was long. One of my burgers was VERY undercooked (raw meat pink and cold inside) in the middle, while the other one was well done. The burgers are tiny, smaller than my cellphone (can you belive that?!!). The poorly wrapped miniatures are very greasy (the paper wrapping shows the oil stains). They looked like crumpled balls of paper that you’d toss in the garbage. I felt that the vegg-​o burger was a rip-​off, it was mushrooms with lots of melted cheese (vegetarian cheese?), pesto sauce and a few pine nuts. I was expecting a vegetarian pattie. They should call it a mushroom burger or perhaps provide a menu descrition.
They charge 25 cents to add tomato, lettuce & pickles (if you only want the pickles, there’s no cost. Just say «pickle me!»). The onion rings were good, thin, crispy and tasty. But they were cold when I got them. The fries on the other hand are subpar. When the owner bags your order, he’s skimpy with the napkins (just ONE), so be sure to get extra napkins from the counter.
Overall, the burgers tasted like something you’d grill at home (not including the undercooked one I got), and the brioche bread makes them a little different from most burger places around. But they are not as addictive or as well prepared as In-​n-​Out burgers for example. Yes, the increased popularity is the cause of the long wait time, and the food was probably good when they first opened. But now the quality of the food preparation is POOR, you normally expect more consistency in fast food. In my opinion, the long wait, undercooked meat, cold food, the greasy unappealing wrapping, and skimping on minor things like napkins, are not worth a return trip.

I was there the week they opened and my burger was delicious! Just the right size for this gal on her lunch hour and I loved the mix of fries and rings in my burger bag! No it is not a gourmet burger experience, like burgermeister, but it is a yummy and quick to-​go lunch.
The staff was super friendly.
My husband required two burgers, but we liked how the bread to burger ratio is well matched.
Will add one more star when they add somewhere to sit! :)

A fun, new burger place at the end of Belden Alley!
The mini burgers are delicious and I applaud their embrace of small portion sizes. Well done.
Minus one star for being open less than a week and already having out-​of-​date info on their website.
Example 1: The salad is $ 2.79 on the website and $ 3.49 at the counter. This annoys the shit out of me. Ridiculous.
Example 2: Pickles are on the menu, but you can’t actually get them on your burger. Hot damn, I loves me some pickles! This actually is a big deal to me. F* it, I’m deducting another star.
Also note: There is no seating or counter space at Best-​O-​Burger.

Oh I’ve been praying every night…
In my jammies with the back door opening buttoned on my butt…
On my knees next to the bed with my hands clasped tight…
I’d say…“Oh, Supreme Entity of No Particular Affiliation…
May I just call you the Big G? It’s easier… Oh, Big G…
How I pray that I can get sliders without having to go to a fancy bar…
And wolfing them down between two drunkards with bodily odor issues…
How I wish there was a place I could get them with a bag of fries…
And wolf them down in my own solitude.
Oh, Big G… how I wish you would answer my prayer.“
A bolt of lightning came from the skies, and the Best-​o-​Burger was born on Post this very day, May 5, 2008. Ah, it takes me back to my golden youth at Krystal Burgers in Dallas and White Castle Burgers in Chicago. Them little patties of greasy goodness were all I ate after I bowled gutter balls with my team of Asian cool-​wannabes, the Orient Express.
These ain’t square like I remember them in the little boxes. No, these are small round burgers tucked between soft, fluffy buns and wrapped in paper (see my photo). They are apparently made in cast iron skillets. You anorexics can order just one BOB Cheeseburger for $ 3.68. Gym bunnies can get two for $ 5.57. But the gluttonous among us can get three for $ 7.46. I’ll give you three guesses what I ordered today. They all come with the same bag of fries which they call «strings and ring’o’s» since they cut the potatoes that way.
Good, not great, at least not yet, except the fries and onion remnants (not quite rings)…those were tasty. It’s slightly cheaper without the glob of cheese on them, and they even have a Vegg-​o-​Burger for the same price as the cheeseburger. Adding insult to injury, they serve gelato and gelato shakes. There’s no place to sit, so expect to get it to go. Lines were long today, but the service was pretty quick and friendly. Oh, Big G… you answered my prayers. Now could you work on lower gas prices and world peace?
FOOD — 4 stars… throwback to days of yore when Krystal and White Castle ruled the suburbs
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… well, it’s orange and well, who cares… you’re gettin’ it to go… so git!
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… fast and furious… though their routine should settle since it was the first day of operation
TOTAL — 4 stars… how I’ve prayed for those sliders

Update:
Got damn it! Stupid FiDi! I wanted my mini burgers and of course it was closed on Sat Afternoon. Phooey!
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«New Custome Burger restaurant opening soon. According to Stephen Weber President of B.O.B. they should be opening end of March/​Start of April… updates to come.»