Hamburger Hamlet241 S Lake Ave
Pasadena
626-449-5820
Hamburger Hamlet. That name brings back a lot of good memories. As a kid Hamburger Hamlet was a treat for doing good in school or special occasions like birthdays. There used to be a ton of Hamburger Hamlets but slowly most of them closed down. According to their website, there is only eight Hamburger Hamlet left, five in the LA area.
While Hamburger Hamlet has a lot of other choices, sandwiches, salads, seafood amd chicken, I always get a burger. Today I decided to get the Gourmet Baby Burger Sampler, $10.95. The sampler includes mini versions of their All American, Hickory Cheddar, Caliente, and Steakhouse Blue burgers. Burgers are cooked medium.
The first picture is the steakhouse blue burger, Pepper crusted patty with ripe tomato, Bermuda onion, iceberg lettuce, Wisconsin blue cheese, horseradish sauce and a touch of A1. This was a great burger. All the flavors come together so well. I normally don't like onions on my burger but they grilled their onions perfectly and I loved them. For a mini burger it was bigger than McDonald's burgers. I would order this burger anytime.
The second burger was the Caliente burger, pepper jack cheese, ripe tomato, caramelized onion, iceberg lettuce and roasted Serrano chili and cilantro pesto . Not my favorite but still a good burger. It was just too spicy for me.
The third burger was the All American Classic, American Cheese, ripe tomato, Bermuda onion, iceberg lettuce, dill pickle, and thousand island dressing. Your classic burger. Nothing special about it but solid, good burger.
The last burger was the hickory cheddar burger, crisp onion rings, bbq sauce, crisp bacon, Cheddar cheese, ripe tomato, Bermuda onion and iceberg lettuce. This was my second favorite burger coming really close to the steakhouse blue burger. The bbq sauce had a mild flavor, the onion rings were crispy and all the other flavors came together well.
Service was good. The host was helpful, he answered my questions about some menu items and allowed me to site at the outdoor patio. I got there early and asked to sit on the outdoor patio that faced Lake Ave. I was the only one there and there was one other table in the indoor section. But the server came around often and made sure I had everything I needed. The food arrived quickly.
I enjoyed my trip to Hamburger Hamlet. I would go back anytime.
