Dirty Birds (Double w/ Bacon)

Fortunately, our inaugural Burger Blog adventure at Rocky's Crown Pub was a great success as I, along with April and special guest reviewers Dave and Andrew, had some of the best tasting burgers any of us had ever had. Unfortunately, we may have set the bar much too high. For our second trip we made our way out to Dirty Birds located a block away from Pacific Beach. Dirty Bird's is a medium sized sports bar with one bar, plenty of places to sit and more then a dozen flat screen tv's lining the walls. Finding a place to sit was very easy as the place was mostly empty and the waitress' were very helpful and attentive. I ordered the Classic Burger medium rare and my mouth started to water immediately because I had brought my appetite. We didn't have to wait long as it was a slow night and I was greeted with a full basket of fries and a good sized burger. Before I dig in April reminded me about the task at hand which is to savor every bite so as to paint a picture of what we are tasting for our followers. I bit into my burger and sadly came away unimpressed with the "Classic Burger" burger Dirty Birds had to offer. But I am not one to judge a burger by its first bite and I could have ate a horse that night so I continued. I took another bite and let it roll around like a fine wine and this time the true flavor came out. While the bun was nothing special, my medium rare hamburger meat was pretty tasty. It wasn't the explosion of flavor I was hoping for but the man behind the grill definitely knew what he was doing. However, the best part of the meal was the seasoned fries. Taking a nice bite from my burger and throwing in a couple fries for flavor made the long wait for dinner worthwhile.  Dirty Birds seemed like a good place to catch any sporting event, and its location a stones throw from the beach was awesome, but we here at California Burger Bloggers are on a mission to find the best burger in town and Dirty Birds did not come close to ending that search. It wasn't bad, but it was not the best so Dirty Birds gets a rating of a Double (Quality Burger) and some bacon thrown in for some good fries. the search continues next week. Stay tuned.

Canada Steak Burger (Single with bacon)

Let’s just get something straight from the get-go, this is a takeout mission.  Keep your wallet in your front pocket, wear your pajamas for all I care, but please do not come in here with your Kenneth Cole loafers and your two button jacket on your shoulder, you will get jacked.  We’re talking ShadyCity here and yes, it’s just a few blocks from my apartment, but that’s a whole other story.  Anyway, the shop is about 20 x 20 with a few tables where you will wait for the finishing touches to be put on your takeout order.  Alright already, so after handing over my $5.97 the very friendly cashier handed me the goods, a brown paper bag and a soda, and I made my way to the car.  I settled into “my” spot at the dining table and laid out my purchase doing a thorough inspection.  The burger was sloppily put together (they probably didn’t know someone would be blogging about it) but the fries looked delicious with their golden-red seasoning.  So this place has a 4, 6, and 8 oz burger and it comes topped with cheese and your choice of bacon or gyro meat.  Did I mention CANADA Steak Burger serves mainly GREEK food?  Go figure.  Anyway, I chose the 4oz, no cheese, topped with gyro meat option…..  I’m not a huge cheese fan, what can I say, and I have had an affinity to gyros since the age of 8 (thanks Grandpa!).  My first bite was tasty, but I was hungry so I tried to focus on the mission.  I noticed the bun wasn’t much more impressive than the ones served at McDonalds.  The lettuce was definitely the bottom of the barrel and the tomato was thick but not ripe enough.  What I did appreciate was the healthy serving of onion, tasty!  I could taste the grill in my hamburger, in a good way, not the 40 year old Hibachi way, but other than that I wasn’t getting much flavor, I mean this was absolutely well done (but is it even possible to cook a 4oz patty medium?).  Honestly, it tasted like the Whopper from Burger King, which in my book isn’t what a burger aficionado is looking for.  But then it hit me, the gyro meat I mean.  It was so juicy and savory, I was tempted to actually remove the beef patty from the burger?!  The fries were a tasty treat but some were on the oily side so I tossed half of them.  If it wasn’t for the gyro meat the burger would have scored only a single, but I’ll throw on some bacon thanks to Petros’s suggestion to top that bad boy with some lamb.  Thank you Canada Steak Burger for the entertainment, I will definitely return to try your gyro plate just don’t be stingy with the Tzatziki sauce!