The Buggy Whip

LOCATION –

Just off the 405 freeway at 7420 La Tijera Boulevard lies the Buggy Whip. A staple in the Los Angeles community, which still boasts that it won the best steak dinner in LA almost a decade ago. This once super classy ‘fox and hound’ type restaurant has been featured in several movies and TV shows such as Superbad, Big Love, Date Night, Blow, etc. I figured since they were known for their beef this would be the place for me, so I took a seat at the bar.

ON THE MENU –

After a bit of squinting at the menu in this super dark restaurant I told the bartender that I would take the hamburger with cheese cooked medium please. It didn’t take long before my burger showed up. It looked good at first site and I was happy to see 2 pieces of cheddar melted on top of the patty. It came with onion slices, tomato, arugula lettuce and a dill pickle spear. I found out later that they normally use iceberg lettuce. This was all on your average sesame seed bun. It came dry so I grabbed some mayo, of course, and I was instantly satisfied with the first juicy bite. The simpleness of this burger was very pleasing, especially for the price.

ON DRAFT –

Nothing is on draft here, but they do have bottles of your everyday beers from Bud to Stella, served, however, in a not so average way, the bartender reached down and pulled a wine glass out of the ice and set it in front of me along with the bottle. I have never seen this before, but I must say I kind of liked drinking beer out of a wine glass.

ON THE SIDE –

Fries came with the burger. There was nothing special about them, but I did eat them all.

TIP –

They have great happy hour specials from beer to food, I even saw an $11 a la carte lobster on the menu. And remember to put your sunglasses on before you exit the restaurant.

SUMMARY –

My satisfyingly juicy burger, served with fries and an Amstel Light ended up running me a meager $11.00. This plus the fact that it was just a good burger left me with a smile on my face.

RATING – 7 out of 10

Check out their website here.

http://thebuggywhip.com/

Jinky's Cafe

LOCATION –

Jinky's is located at 2nd and Broadway in Santa Monica. When you walk through the door it looks like a breakfast café with bright yellow walls. I chose to sit on the porch and soak in the sunshine.

ON THE MENU –

I perused the menu looking for what I came for and my eyes lit up when I saw it, the Kobe Burger. I ordered it, even though it was a hefty $14.00. The burger came with your choice of cheese. I opted for cheddar, which covered the sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions and awesomely draped the top of the half-inch thick patty. The cold items were on the side, such as; a tomato, lettuce, pickles, salad peppers and sliced onion. It came on a barley-toasted bun. When I took my first bite, it reminded me of a back yard bar-b-q grill burger (in a good way). The onions were perfectly grilled and the burger was tasty, however they served my burger “well” instead of “medium”. This was a problem because I was paying for Kobe!!! Kobe beef has a higher fat content than regular Angus therefore making it more flavorful and juicy thus making it more desirable driving the price up. When you cook Kobe beef at a temperature over medium it melts the fat, therefore making it almost indistinguishable from your regular Angus burger.

ON DRAFT –

Nothing. Grrrrrrrr. I just had a glass of water.

ON THE SIDE –

You have 2 options that come with the burger, mixed green salad or crinkle cut fries. I ordered the fries and with one bite I felt duped. They tasted like they came straight from the local grocery store freezer section. Note to self – whenever a restaurant says, “crinkle cut fries” this is more than likely the scenario. I also had ordered tater tots as a starter since it was not a side option and guess what… same thing.

TIP –

The place is only open from 7:30am to 3:30pm, so if you are going to go for a burger make it lunch, otherwise I have heard the breakfast is good.

SUMMARY –

Their slogan says “reasonable prices” and “superior quality cuisine”, and those were my two issues with this burger. Even though the burger tasted good, I feel that it wasn’t worth more than 8 dollars, especially when it is served with frozen bagged grocery store fries.

RATING – 4 out of 10

Check out their website.

http://www.jinkys.com/