Restaurant: The Burger Joint
Location: 1514 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
Date: 12/07/10
Burger: The Southwestern
Score:15.3
Burger (10 pts): 5.4
Comments: The Southwestern isn't really a burger. The chili that is mixed in with the burger meat results in something more resembling a sloppy joe. While the flavour was nice and spicy, and it tasted great, everyone's burger fell apart almost immediately.
"Great taste and cooked well. Onions mixed in a plus. However, I don’t prefer half of my burger to fall apart after one bite." - Hamburg
Bun (3 pts): 1.9
Comments: Good bun topped with sesame seeds. Well done.
"Nice bun! Sesame seeds a plus… best part of the burger." - Canter
"Bun was alright, overpowered by salty taste and messy burger. Doesn’t compensate." - Flyer
Cheese (3 pts): 1.4
Comments: The pepper-jack cheese had nice flavour, and was an obvious pairing for a southwestern burger. The spiciness of the burger overwhelmed the cheese though. It needed to have more than one little slice of cheese to have an impact.
"Pepper-jack; always a fan." - Day
Toppings (4 pts): 1.9
Comments: It comes with black bean salsa, which includes beans, corn, mango, and a few other things. It added a distinct southwestern zing to the burger. It did not come with lettuce, tomato, onion. At The Burger Joint, you have to ask for these toppings to be added. They should be standard on any burger. Disappointing.
"The chili, beans, and mango provided an excellent southwestern taste." - Shubert
"Didn’t even come with lettuce and tomato." - Blank
Synergy (10 pts): 4.7
Comments: It's located in a prime place in Dupont, but it was packed and overcrowded. The walls are painted a disgusting purple and are falling apart. They were playing loud Christmas music that only your grandmother enjoys. There were flies hovering around, and the server denied a promotional coupon for a free burger. That's a great way to treat customers. The sweet potato fries were great, and the fact that they have Dogfish Head on tap is the only saving grace.
"Christmas theme was bumpin’! Purple walls were a little weird." - Eide
Total (30 pts): 15.3
Comments: The burger and the synergy really killed this experience. It's in Dupont so it's 'hip', but this place is a dump. The Burger Joint in Bethesda is ten times better. The Southwestern fell apart. A burger should be able to last at least one bite before breaking into a thousand pieces. The chili added great spice and flavour, but it can also be blamed to the messiness of this high class sloppy joe. It needed more pepper-jack cheese to compete wit the spice, and a burger needs to come with lettuce, tomato, and onion. The bun, sweet potato fires, and the beer were all good and should not be brought down by the rest of the burger. We have all eaten at The Burger Joint before so we were looking forward to this one. The Burger Joint has other burgers and other locations that are very good, but this experience was overall very disappointing.
"Overall, not impressed. This place has other burgers that are much better, so I still like this place a fair amount." - Eide
"The burger fell apart which brought down the overall experience, but the flavor was good and tasty." - Shubert
