San Francisco, California – Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers

Restaurant: Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers
Cuisine: Burgers/American
Last visited: November 7, 2010
Location: San Francisco, California (Nob Hill)
Address: 708 Post Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5-4
Service: 4 (Pay at cashier)
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• 3 locations in CA
• Gourmet burgers
• Voted San Fran’s “best burger”
• All natural local beef
• All natural buns
• Fresh ingredients
• Big burgers
• Made upon order
• Casual diner style
• Local favourite
• Busy at peak hours
• Seats 10-15
• Moderately priced
• Eat in/Take-out

Hours:

• Mon-Thu 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
• Fri-Sat 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.
• Sun 12 p.m. – 9 p.m.

**Recommendations: Prized Pearl Burger with side of garlic fries. Apparently the buffalo burgers are great too.

Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers is a small burger joint in San Francisco, California specializing in gourmet homemade burgers in a casual diner like atmosphere. There’s limited tables and it’s becoming a local favourite for relatively affordable fancy burgers.

I was in San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Food Blogger Food Festival and I got the recommendation for Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers from fellow Vancouver food bloggers Kim and Sherman. It was one of our dining adventures outside the festival, but I got the times mixed up and ended up eating 3 burgers to myself because I was so upset… do you believe me? 😉

The menu offers the diner staples such as burgers, fries, hot dogs, and milkshakes in almost every flavour possible. You can either build your own or order one of their specialty burgers with gourmet twists. The beef patties range from their standard to buffalo, Kobe, organic and mini slider patties. The prices are decent, however considering the atmosphere it is a bit pricey, but at least the service is friendly and welcoming.

They were very good burgers, and I enjoyed the food, but it also wasn’t the best burger. It might be similar to a Vera’s burger, but I can’t really say since I haven’t really had one (I know :S) Overall I would actually prefer Romer’s Burger Bar in Vancouver, BC, although I liked the beef patties at Pearl’s better. Of course for a basic no fuss burger, and bang for your buck, I’ll always resort to In-N-Out Burger when possible.

Nonetheless Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers are topped with lots of fresh ingredients, the meat is all natural Niman Ranch meat, and the bread is from Sciambra Passini breads in Napa Valley. There are no preservatives in the bread or the meat and they’re substantial and heavy burgers that require two hands to eat.

On the table:

Th Spicy Sly Burger – 3.5/6

• Sauteed onions, spicy sauce, Jack and mayo $7.95USD
• I did a Kobe beef upgrade for an additional $4USD, which I thought wasn’t worth it.
• This was a highly recommended burger and ideal for people who like spicy or Southwestern flavours.

• It’s piled high with lots of fresh sauteed sweet bell peppers and a thick slice of melted Jack cheese.
• The predominant flavour was the hot chili pepper sauce which was almost like a salsa that was smoky, very tangy and spicy. It’s actually really spicy and I like spicy, however the spice just overpowered the ingredients especially the Kobe beef flavour so I thought it was a waste.
• The patty was juicy and thick and I could taste the quality beef, but honestly there wasn’t much of a difference between the Kobe patty and the regular patty. It was grilled to a medium with a little bit of pink on the inside and I wish it was a bit more rare too.
• It wasn’t actually that greasy, but just messy to eat with ingredients squishing out everywhere.
• The ratio of bun, patty and toppings are actually quite well balanced.

**Prized Pearl – 4.5/6

• Bacon, sauteed onions, Blue Cheese, and mayo $7.95USD
• This was the 2nd recommended burger, but easily the favourite of the 3 burgers.

• I could taste each layer of ingredient used. I liked the combination of creamy salty semi-melted crumbles of blue cheese with the salty thick slices of bacon and caramelized sweet onions for a gourmet burger. It was moist, creamy and I could taste the blue cheese without it being too much and it was still meaty as a burger should be.
• The sesame burger buns here are actually quite soft and not overwhelming considering the size and thickness of these burger patties. I personally prefer the buttery brioche buns, but this bun wasn’t anything to complain about or anything to rave about for that matter.

BBQ Grilled Chicken Sandwich – 3/6

• Bacon, grilled onions, BBQ sauce, mayo, and Cheddar $7.95USD
• I wanted to try a chicken burger just to get an idea of what else Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers can do.

• The chicken is pretty big and quite tender, but I wish they marinated it in the barbeque sauce. It was quite ordinary and seasoned with salt and pepper and it would have been better with beef. The beef patties are just way better than the chicken here.
• The barbeque sauce was sweet and tangy, but I expected a dark thick and bold barbeque sauce with tons of flavour, especially for a hearty diner like this.
• It was a sweeter burger, but the thick slices of salty bacon and generous amount of salty ooey gooey melted real Cheddar cheese helped balance it out.

Garlic Fries – 3.5/6

• Small $2.49USD Large $3.49USD
• The flavour was actually very garlicky more than salty, but I don’t think they were freshly minced garlic bits.
• They were good fries and most of them were crispy and the oil was clean. I would have preferred the skins on as well though.

Not uber greasy, but just really messy.

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