38 Degrees Ale House & Grill100 W. Main St.
Alhambra
626-282-2038
Another restaurant trying to get into the gourmet burger rage that is hitting LA, is 38 Degrees Ale House & Grill. Father's Office started this rage and Umami Burger is a recent addition. But this time instead of opening in downtown or the westside, a gourmet burger place opened in the San Gabriel Valley. 38 Degrees is right the street, just west of the Tony Roma's that I reviewed earlier.
I got the Smokehouse Burger, $10, certified Angus, Smoked bacon, onion ring, cheddar cheese, and I asked for the Smoked Porter BBQ sauce, on the side. I was very impressed with this burger. Full of flavor, cooked to medium rare, as I asked, great toppings with the cheddar cheese and onion rings. This burger was moist and juicy and there wasn't any other condiment on there. Such a good burger at a better price than Father's Office.
Service at the bar was good. The bartender was attentive and friendly.
I'm glad to see that people who live in the San Gabriel Valley don't have to drive to the snotty Westside to get a good gourmet burger. 38 Degrees is the place. And the beer is very cold!!!!
Update October 29, 2010.
I went back to 38 Degrees for their happy hour specials. All starters are $2 off during happy hour; which lasts until 7pm Mon-Fri, I believe happy hour starts at 5pm, but may start at 4pm.
I got the calamari, regular price, $7, happy hour price, $5. The calamari was crispy, pretty fresh, but dry. As in it was sitting under heat lamps for too long, but it wasn't greasy.
The calamari comes with a plum sauce, that is just way too sweet for the calamari, which needs a spicy dipping sauce. They need to have either tartar or marinara sauce, as the dipping sauce.
The portion was pretty large, especially for the price. But I wouldn't order this again.
I got the sliders, $8 regular, $6 happy hour, because I was very happy with the burgers, the first time I came here, but the sliders were a big disappointment. Why? Very dry, overcooked, and just not as good as their burgers.
There was too much char on the each slider, the cooks didn't pay close enough attention while cooking these sliders. Also, these was suppose to 1000 island dressing but all three sliders had maybe a drop, thus making for a very dry slider.
Service left a lot to be desired too. The server was very slow, wasn't friendly, and just bad. She needs to learn customer service skills like; saying Hi, smiling, and greeting people. She took too long to refill drinks, take orders, and clear plates.
But what I didn't like was the way she handled the seating. I got a table for four, when I first arrived, but was expecting about 6-8 people to arrive throughout the two hours I was going to be there. But quickly, the table for four was filled up and there was a table for two, right next to us, that opened up about an hour after we arrived. I asked the server, if I could take that table and she said there are people waiting for the table and she would need to check. When she left to go check, two other people, from my party, showed up, and they just took the table. I turned around and there was nobody waiting for a table.
I wouldn't go back to 38 Degrees, again, with the bad service and bad sliders.
