Eats - Burgers

NEW! - Ted's Sports Bar & Grill
398 7th St. (at Harrison)
San Francisco, CA 94103
415/626-6299
Rating: ****
This was another chance find. Our cab in San Francisco dropped us off in the middle of the South of Market district so we just walked in. This would make a perfect gay bar: it's perfectly located, it's got a dining room with a bar, and there's a backroom with a pool table plus more tables and benches. Anyway, we ordered burgers since we wanted to get to the bars fairly quickly. We played a couple of games of pool until our food was carried in by two women. These have to be the best burgers I've had in years. Juicy, perfectly cooked, with great texture. They included the usual toppings and good home fries, but the burgers were the standout. The bartender said that they grind the meat fresh daily. We'll be back. 02/12/05

Update 02/19/05 - Obviously, both my boyfriend and I really liked this place, since we returned after one week. The owner, Ted, said that the "BBQ" listed on the menu is really Korean-style BBQ. We'll be trying it out on our next visit. Again, these burgers are the best I've had in a long time. Huge, juicy, thick hamburger patties. Oh, I should note that we drove by Ted's during the day, we noticed that it's painted a deep magenta (pretty hard to miss).

Update 4/20/05 - Went with my boyfriend to have Korean BBQ. Unfortunately, Ted has Americanized it a bit, which is understandable. We asked for nori and kimchee, and it came in a flash. He told us to call ahead for panchan the next time we visited, but it seems like a huge thing to ask (we think he'd actually go out shopping just for us), so we'll stick to the burgers, which are fantastic.

Fast Food Burger Comparison
Fast food burgers are a great fall-back food, although they range from juicy and flavorful to tasteless and chewy. The perfect burger—a 10 on this scale—is juicy, well-seasoned but not overly salty, good beef taste, fresh bun (preferably toasted), and not smothered in condiments.