Thursday, December 20, 2023 — Burger Vibe, a relatively new spot located at 3730 Washington Ave, recently hit my radar and subsequently became this week’s Friday burger adventure. For a place called “Burger Vibe,” the vibe is super-weird right out of the gate — nestled inside a La Vita Coffee (across the street from Velvet Taco), it’s not even clear there *is* a burger component to the establishment until you walk up to the register area and haphazardly discover a freestanding 8.5×11 menu. I dig a little bit of mystery and “hidden” eating establishments (NYC loves this tactic), but in this instance I’m not sure it’s working. There was *no one* in the entire shop and it was prime lunch hour. I can look past ambiance (ahem, Old School Burger), but there’s something slightly off about ordering a burger in a place that’s very specifically primarily a coffee shop. In any case, enough about this bizarre experience.
Burger Vibe’s supposed hook is “proudly serving flame-grilled New York-style burgers.” I’m a native New Yorker and *I* have no idea what constitutes a “New York-style-burger,” but sure, why not? (Maybe the restaurant-inside-a-restaurant gimmick 😂)
I ordered a double cheeseburger, which comes with cheddar, tomato, lettuce, and onion. I added jalapeños and bacon, because when those are available as extras, you do it. Overall the patties were thick — this is no smash burger — and cooked satisfactorily if a little overdone. The meat blend was solid but I didn’t detect a ton of seasoning.
You could do worse, but you could also do better. 3.75 burgers out of 5.
Author: Larry Koestler
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The vibes are slightly off at Burger Vibe
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My Top Houston Burgers of 2023!
Friday, Dec 13, 2023 —
When 2023 started I didn’t anticipate becoming a burger influencer, but here we are. Though as someone whose favorite food has been hamburgers for a long time, and who also has historically enjoyed obsessively cataloguing and rating things that he loves, it’s almost a wonder I didn’t start publishing reviews sooner.
In any case, having knocked a good number of Houston’s best burgers off my to-eat list these past few months (notably I’m pretty pleased to have consumed 7 of the 11 on Houstonia’s list), I thought it’d be fun to count my top five down. Drumroll please…
5) Fusion Grill (1453 S Mason Road in Katy). I just published my full review of Fusion a few days ago, so I won’t repost the entire write-up here, but it’s worth reiterating that Fusion (which began life as a food truck) has staked a claim among Katy’s ardent burger-loving populace as one of the best burger spots around — and I believe it’s a worthy contender for all of Houston. The sheer number of different and delicious burger options makes choosing anything a daunting task, but my go-to at Fusion is the Asadero Burger. The asadero cheese combined with roasted jalapeño and jalapeño ranch sauce give it a jolt of spiciness for those of us the love an extra kick in your burgers, and the oversized bun makes for the ideal delivery vehicle. In addition to the burgers, the parmesan truffle fries are also outstanding as is the fried calamari. Fusion may well be Katy’s best overall restaurant — it’s high enough on my list that I selected it for my birthday dinner this past year. Just make sure you come hungry 👌
4) Lankford’s Grocery. It seems one can’t have a conversation around Houston’s best burgers without Lankford’s entering the chat. And now I know why. The eatery’s Grim Burger—fortified with a jalapeño-laden base, smothered with mac and cheese, and topped with bacon and a fried egg—is a carnivorous delight. Extra points for the flavor of the beef blend and seasoning of the patty still shining through under the weight of a plethora of delicious toppings.
3) Bubba’s Texas Burger Shack. Famously situated under the Westpark Tollway, Bubba’s not only lived up to but exceeded the hype. I ordered a double beef burger with jalapeños, zesty pickles, a fried egg, bacon and cheddar, and it was everything I’d hoped for and more. Intense, flavorful, meaty, no-frills greatness.
2) Old School Burger (975 S Mason Rd in Katy). Convenient for me that two of my top 5 burgers of the year are located right in my backyard on Mason Road. I’d started to hear rumblings of Old School’s excellence around a year ago, and knew I had to check it out. It turns out their Blue Star Burger—smothered in blue cheese crumbles, bacon, caramelized onions and blue cheese dressing—is just about everything I want in a meat delivery vehicle. The closest thing I’ve found to a replacement for my beloved Substitute Burger (also a blue cheese icon) from the former Katy GOAT Bernie’s Burger Bus (R.I.P). Completely unassuming from the inside, let’s just hope they’re still here by the time next year’s list rolls around — despite rave after rave among Katyites, the other commonality within every laudatory review of Old School Burger is an observation of just how empty it is at any given time. Hopefully they do a LOT of takeout business.
1) burger-chan. Hell yes burger-chan! I have a confession to make: I had tried (and enjoyed) burger-chan all the way back in 2020 (not that I said anything about this list comprising only burgers I’d consumed during this calendar year). However, I’d previously had it to-go from their former food hall space — enjoying it this year at their Alabama Street location was indeed a first, and also made me wonder why I went so long between devouring their utterly astonishingly delicious hamburgers (well, part of the reason was that they were also closed for part of 2021, and then when they reopened I was trying to eat healthier, but still — shame on me for taking as long as I did to reunite with Houston’s very best hamburger joint).
More importantly though, we need to talk about the sandwiches themselves — unlike almost every other establishment on this list, burger-chan burgers are FULLY customizable, enabling you to mix and match combinations and toppings to your heart’s content. Just as — if not more — importantly is that even though their patties are smashburgers (and I’m generally a classic oversized patty fan), theirs are perhaps the most generously-sized smashburgers I’ve ever encountered. One patty could pretty easily satiate you, which is uncommon in my smashburger experience. And of course, the meat blend — expertly seasoned, mouthwatering, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The only downside of burger-chan is how quickly the burger disappears from your tray (that, and also the lack of a bleu cheese option — let’s make that collab happen in 2024, friends! 😊)
Which burger places should I prioritize in 2024?(Honorable mention to Stanton’s City Bites, Trill Burger, Loro, and The Montgomery Grove)
Resources
Houstonia’s “Houston Burgers You Absolutely Need to Experience” [8.08.2023]
Eater’s “30 Houston Burgers to Add to Your Bucket List” [8.08.2023]
The Infatuation’s “The Best Burgers in Houston” [10.24.2023] -
Kicking it Old School with Katy’s best Burger
Friday, February 20, 2023 — While I love a great slice of NYC-style pizza, hamburgers are my favorite food on the planet. I don’t know that this photo fully does it justice, but I wanted to take a moment to add to the chorus of excitement around Old School Burger on Mason Rd.
Certainly we have no lack of options when it comes to hamburgers locally, but my family and I have felt a bit of a void in the “mid-tier sit-down greater-depth-of-flavor-than-fast-food” burger restaurant in Katy cohort following the sad closing of Bernie’s when COVID hit, and more recently Grub (side note: don’t get me wrong, I will absolutely crush a Whataburger / Shake Shack / In N Out / even McDonald’s — no snobbery here). We enjoy JLB well enough, though the Mason Rd spot isn’t really the most appealing place to take a seat, and we admittedly need to revisit Craft Burger one of these days, as we haven’t been back following a less-than-ideal experience closer to when it first opened. But enough about other places!
Old School is absolutely as delicious as advertised, with patties that are more smashburger-style than traditional (though I don’t know that I’d call it a true smashburger), and a meat blend chock full of juicy, beefy flavor. This is a true melt-in-your-mouth patty; I’m actually not sure I’ve had beef quite like *this* in Katy/Houston before. I ordered the Blue Star Burger and added their Jalapeño Ranch sauce — I know that sounds a bit unorthodox, but it was fantastic — and my entire family thoroughly enjoyed their burgers! My only nit was with the queso fries — they were also excellent; there just weren’t enough of them on the plate to constitute a large order.
In any case, if you enjoyed my recommendation for Gino’s Italian Joint, I hope you’ll take me up on this one as well. Similar to others’ experiences, there was virtually no one else eating there for the duration of our 45-minute visit, which is wild for how rich the burgers are. Next time you’re wondering which burger place in Katy to check out, I’d put Old School at the top of your list.
Best Burgers Near Me 