By Mike Thayer

I recently completed a pizza challenge, sampling 19 local/regional pizza joints and finding the 10 best in the Wichita area.

It’s time for a new challenge:  Burgers

Who makes the best burger in the Wichita metro area?  I’m going to find out, sampling all the local/regional burger joints to see who crafts the best burger. 

During the course of this challenge I’ll be sampling classic cheeseburgers, straight forward beef and American cheese goodness with the typical toppings. The way I see it, if you can’t put together a classic cheeseburger and do it well, then there’s no reason to sample a burger joint’s other burger options.  So there will be no mushroom & Swiss, no on BBQ & onion strings, no on jalapeno & pepper jack cheese, etc., versions of burgers

Being evaluated on a point system scorecard will be a plethora of categories that includes but is not limited to the appearance, meat, bun, meat to bun ratio, how the burger is dressed (that means the assortment of veggies, sauce and/or condiments for those of you who live in Valley Center), service, time to order and more.  Weighing most heavily in the score of course, is TASTE and depending on the size of the patty, I could be sampling a single or a double, there’s a quarter pound minimum.  After scoring the burger, the point total is then broken down into a star system, 1-5, with 5 stars being a top rating.  I’ll post all the numbers for each burger joint and their offerings in the final report.

No national chains will be included in this challenge, no Five Guys, no Red Robin, no BurgerFi, no Freddy’s, etc….    Only the local, regional burger joints qualify.  Besides, when it comes to burgers, McDonald’s is most everybody’s last resort, Wendy’s is nothing extra special with their square patties and Burger King, well, isn’t a king at all.

Here’s my starting list of 28 restaurants that tout burgers, more joints are to be added, I’m sure I missed a few when putting this challenge together.

  • The Anchor
  • Big Larry’s Burgers
  • Bionic Burger
  • Bomber Burger
  • Braums
  • Broadway Burgers & BBQ
  • Buster’s Burger Joint
  • Calvin’s Hamburger Haven
  • Chicken N Pickle (Yes, really, a chicken place that does burgers!)
  • Deano’s Grill & Tapworks
  • Dempsy’s Burger Pub
  • Dog & Shake
  • Emerson Biggins
  • Fizz Burgers & Bottles
  • Harry’s Uptown
  • The Hill Bar & Grill
  • Lotus Leaf
  • Oasis Lounge
  • O’Malley’s Irish Pub (1/2 pound burgers!)
  • Side Pockets
  • Spangles
  • Sport Burger
  • TJ’s
  • Two Brother’s BBQ
  • Ty’s Diner
  • Walt’s
  • West St. Burgers
  • Yo-B Yogurt & Burgers

Doing this in the name of “Food Science” (cough), I’m looking forward to finding the best locally crafted burger!  I’ll eventually whittle this list down to the 10 Best Burger Joints in the Wichita Metro.

$pend Wisely My Friends…

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