There is a little place down in Brookfield where the owner is trying his best to make an awesome burger.

Chicago Burgerwurks
8819 Ogden Ave, Brookfield
(708) 387-2333



A nice selection of juicy, fresh burgers! This is where My Bride fell in love with the Bleu Cheeseburger (w/ mushrooms).



Nice buns too.

Steak Sandwich is a winner.



Nice crunch to the fries and a rich gravy <edit> if you are so inclined.



So if you are driving down Ogden and see a sign for Hey! Viv's you are at the right place as they haven't changed the sign yet.



Edit = Spelling. Thanks! Santander

Panther in the Den wrote:
Nice crunch to the fries and a rich grave if you are so inclined.

There's more of gravy than of grave about those fries!

Panther in the Den wrote:There is a little place down in Brookfield where the owner is trying his best to make an awesome burger.

Are these half pound, hand formed patties?
I'm planning a trip for lunch today, or maybe Friday. I drive by the joint often.

Try the Garden Dog! He uses Vienna 8-1 dogs and piles on the veggies.Yummo.
The soups are made from scratch and so are the frie's. This guy deserves a break for all the effort he puts into his cooking.

jerryg wrote:Try the Garden Dog! He uses Vienna 8-1 dogs and piles on the veggies.Yummo.
The soups are made from scratch and so are the frie's. This guy deserves a break for all the effort he puts into his cooking.

Garden Dog

Not a bad option if your feeling like something healthy. The sign and the Garden dogs remain. I haven't had a burger but the fries and chicken sandwiches are also good eats. I'll get back in for a burger next time I'm around that area.

Well where has all this love been? That settles it, I'm trying hard to hit em up for lunch today. Hell, look at the time - where are those car keys???

jerryg wrote:Try the Garden Dog! He uses Vienna 8-1 dogs and piles on the veggies.Yummo.
The soups are made from scratch and so are the frie's. This guy deserves a break for all the effort he puts into his cooking.

Where?

=R=

Chicago Burgerwurks
8819 Ogden Ave, Brookfield
(708) 387-2333

Not sure there can ever be a 'best' - but a really good one is Brando's Beef in the Berwyn Train Depot section (Winsdor west of Oak Park Ave). Had the beef there (also one of the best I've had) last week and noticed a lot of the customers were ordering the burger. Well, 2 days later I was back to try it and it did not disappoint! Fries are the handcut/crispy variety - also not to be missed....

As I'm halfway done with the BurgerWerks "American Classic" (lettuce, tomato, onion,) I'd say that there is nothing special about the burger itself, but the menu lists MANY different, interesting sauce flavors for dressing yer burger i.e. chipotle relish, dijonnaise, and many others - left the menu in the car, but there is some interesting stuff. The fries are solid, tho mine are too salty to eat. The burger appears to be a 1/3 or 1/2 lb foodservice made deal. Not BAD, just nothing special, imo. I'll go back and try some of the funky sauces, for sure (there are plenty to try.)

I have yet to try Brando's burger - although I hear plenty of good things. P.s. Brando's makes one hell of a meatball sammich.

I have found Hamburger Nirvana and it is located at Rootstock. They will only prepare your burger one way....medium rare and it is absolutely delicious, full meat flavor, the bun is just right, a pickled jalapeno on the side. I drive out of my way to pair this burger with a well priced red wine or a terrific sampling of beers!

The fries, that must be ordered seperately, do not live up to the burger, but they are fine...the onion rings on the other hand are in the same league!

MFK wrote:I have found Hamburger Nirvana and it is located at Rootstock. They will only prepare your burger one way....medium rare and it is absolutely delicious, full meat flavor, the bun is just right, a pickled jalapeno on the side. I drive out of my way to pair this burger with a well priced red wine or a terrific sampling of beers!

The fries, that must be ordered seperately, do not live up to the burger, but they are fine...the onion rings on the other hand are in the same league!

I agree with everything you said . . . I like pairing the onion rings with the Quattro Mani, a Slovenian tocai (assuming it's still on the wine list).

I agree entirely with Habibi, Five Guy's burgers to me are the champions of the fast food league with a good balance of flavor, moisture, texture, and the grillmen know how to cook them the right way. The buns are pretty good too. And I would vote for the fries as being some of the best in the city if they did not sport these remnants of skin that I personally do not like.
Anyway these burgers remind me of the kind that we could find in fine diners around Chicago in the 70's.

Happened to be near Triton College a while ago and decided to stop at...

Clavio's Eatery
1908 5th Ave, River Grove
(708) 453-5450



Seeing they had hand formed and flame grilled burgers I gave it a try...



I wouldn't kick it out of bed on a cold night. Fries were so, so. With the wealth of better burgers appearing all over maybe we have to up the standard a notch?

seebee wrote:As I'm halfway done with the BurgerWerks "American Classic" (lettuce, tomato, onion,) I'd say that there is nothing special about the burger itself, but the menu lists MANY different, interesting sauce flavors for dressing yer burger i.e. chipotle relish, dijonnaise, and many others - left the menu in the car, but there is some interesting stuff. The fries are solid, tho mine are too salty to eat. The burger appears to be a 1/3 or 1/2 lb foodservice made deal. Not BAD, just nothing special, imo. I'll go back and try some of the funky sauces, for sure (there are plenty to try.)

I have yet to try Brando's burger - although I hear plenty of good things. P.s. Brando's makes one hell of a meatball sammich.

Ok, I'm about 4 bites into this Brando's burger. IMO, it trumps the Chicago Burgerwurks product.
I might venture to say this is the best sub $5.00 burger I've had in quite some time. Half pound of what I think is meaty chuck, lettuce, onion, tomato, good pickle, decent char marked bun, and "secret sauce" (yes, it's kind of 1000 island-ish, but at least they are using real mayo instead of sweet garbage.)

This Brando's Beef place - oddly I'm not really big on their beef (it's not bad at all,) but I'm turning into a big fan of their other stuff. Their meatball is one of my favorite renditions, and this burger is pretty top notch. It's not Chicago's best, or anything, but it might be way up there for the price.

I guess this might not fit in this thread per se, but I've had a couple of burger let downs lately. Last Saturday at Top Notch (95th & Cicero) and was served what I would think was a very low grade preformed frozen patty. I guess there is no way to know for sure but it was not up to par. It does so happen that we were the first customers of the day (10:30 AM) and perhaps that had something to do with it. My wife didn't notice a difference. The fries were still outstanding, as well as the malt. Just a few days later I found myself at Jim's on "Maxwell". The usual burger was devoid of any flavor. I had to add salt to the patty - I have never had to do that in 25+ years of eating down there. Am I just going crazy? Any thoughts?

I know Wauconda is a long ways a way but http://www.bulldogsrestaurant.com is a contender for best of in a couple categiories IMHO.

To follow up from earlier in the thread Chicago Burgerworks in Brookfield
- The patties are prepackaged food service black angus
- cooked to order on the grill

Lucifurger with sweet onion and chipotle relish and awesome fries. The relish is HOT but tasty.



He does a really good job at this little outpost by making everything to order and making all of the toppings, sauces and soups by hand.

My vote for best burger in Chicago goes to Edzo's - though I guess technically, it's in Evanston, not Chicago.

Cast my vote for Paradise Pup in Des Plaines. Their char cheddar burger is a true charcoaled masterpiece. The real Wisconsin Merck's cheddar is the best cheese I've ever had on a cheeseburger. Combine that with grilled onions ( or raw if you like ) and mayo and this is the best burger in Illinois.

In addition to the char cheddar burger, I always get the fries with the same Merck's cheddar, sour cream, and bacon bits. My cardiologist hates me.

deepdish wrote:Cast my vote for Paradise Pup in Des Plaines. Their char cheddar burger is a true charcoaled masterpiece. The real Wisconsin Merck's cheddar is the best cheese I've ever had on a cheeseburger. Combine that with grilled onions ( or raw if you like ) and mayo and this is the best burger in Illinois.

In addition to the char cheddar burger, I always get the fries with the same Merck's cheddar, sour cream, and bacon bits. My cardiologist hates me.

I found a raw milk cheddar cold pack at Caputo's that is simply amazing. It's just cheese, thinned out enough to be spreadable. No artificial color or flavors. I've been using it at home to make some onolicious cheddar burgers.

Fayette Creamery- Brunkow Cheese of Wisconsin
Raw Milk Cheddar
Cold Pack Cheese

I really love the brunkow/fayette cheddar spread (especially the jalapeno cheddar...) but the texture is more creamy/buttery than Merkt's, and I don't think it would work QUITE as well on a burger, and not well at all on fries.

Merkt's can't be beat for that stuff.

I know i'm in the Minority but I still love Epic Burger and Paradise Pup a close second.

The burger special at Simone's bar in Pilsen -- $7 for a rather juicy burger on a pretzel bun, good fries (hand-cut?) and PBR (workable pairing). Medium rare, of course. The patty stands up to (though won't conquer) Kuma's Corner; the fries will kick Kuma's butt.

I think Jury's is good too and they also send you money off coupons via email if you sign up. Sadly I live too far away to enjoy.

Love oliveburgers but yes they are most often found at diners. Hate burgers on black bread. Oddly I do like patty melts though. I wonder if Patty melts are only a chicago thing?

toria wrote:Hate burgers on black bread.

Have you tried the Hackneyburger on pumpernickel? (Harms Rd. Glenview - the original - is the best place to try it.)

gleam wrote:I really love the brunkow/fayette cheddar spread (especially the jalapeno cheddar...) but the texture is more creamy/buttery than Merkt's, and I don't think it would work QUITE as well on a burger, and not well at all on fries.

Merkt's can't be beat for that stuff.

Interesting. I was looking for an improvement on supermarket quality cheese products. I will stick with the Fayette, if it's alright with you. By the way, the same cheese factory that makes Merkts also makes Kaukauna, and Wis pride cheddar in a tub, so buy whatever is on sale at the Jewel.
Cheddar burger and cheddar fries from a tub land seems to be pretty much limited to hot dog stands on the North side of Chicago and the Northern and Northwest suburbs. The rest of the world thinks you are wrong. I have had lots of really good soft cheddar in Wisconsin served as a bar snack, but never on a burger and they would never ruin fries with it.

Damn, you sure told me. Boy do I feel like a schmuck.

Sparks fly when the pot meets the kettle.

Because I feel like I should say something nice:

Pete Miller's in Evanston makes a fine cheeseburger. I especially recommend a medium-rare Juicy Lucy with blue cheese. I've had one easily half a dozen times since I've moved to Morton Grove. I like Bad Apple better, on the whole, for the more creative burgers and amazing beer list. But when I don't want to go far & the cheeseburger itch needs scratching in the evening [and I like Edzo's too! But he's home with the kids at night!] I head for Pete Miller's.

Not only is the meat good, the bun fresh & the martini potent, but you get to choose from the steak sides with your burger. Creamed spinach! Garlic mashed potatoes! Fries! Onion rings! Other stuff I'm forgetting!

There. I feel much better. And I said nice things about 3 restaurants.

Giovanna

Not actually in Chicago proper, but for folks in the Northwest 'burbs, check out Cruisin' in Gilberts, IL.
It's on RTE 72 about a mile and a half west of Randall Rd.

They make their burgers out of fresh ground Angus beef, and they will cook to order. It's one of the best I've had anywhere.

http://www.cruisingilberts.com/