BIX

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BIX is one of those restaurants that I imagine how SF was back in the days - classic with a touch of mystery and romance.  Its located in probably the only alley in the city that doesn't have a homeless person loitering around.

BIX is probably the only restaurant I've ever seen that prepares and serves beef tartare tableside.  How classic!  Fresh rare beef, a raw egg, and some seasonings mixed in makes this one of the best beef tartares I've had in a long time. 

Not the biggest fan of this preparation of roasted bone marrow because of all the effort to get the fatty marrow out!  Not bad, but it takes a lot of work.

Its not apparent when you first glance at the menu, but there are actually two burgers on this menu.  The $28 black truffle cheeseburger is the one listed in the dinner entree menu.  This burger is served open faced on rye bread along with truffle fries.  The truffle lends both the burger and fries some earthiness.  The burger was juicy and ultimately satisfying, but the only complaint I had was the huge conundrum of how to eat this burger elegantly.  This fancy restaurant with their fancy ingredient burger and a hefty price tag left me wondering if I should eat this like a piece of toast or civilized with a fork and knife.  I think the latter was the right answer, but I couldn't bring myself to eat a burger with a set of utensils so the burger ended up sliding all over the place.  It was still delicious, whatever way it ended up in my mouth.

Bix Club Burger at BIX-  2013 7x7 SF's Top 100 Eats

The more hidden burger option is their cheaper club burger.  Not quite as fancy as the truffle burger, this burger is still made with quality ingredients that compared to its fancy counterpart makes it a standout option.  The bix burger is advertised on both the lunch menu and bar menu.  The $18 burger is sandwiched between a poppyseed bun for proper burger handling.  Its juiciness competes with that of the truffle burger.  Which one is better?  Hard to say, both are really tasty, but if you are feeling fancy, then opt for the truffle burger.  If you want a solid, no frills burger, the the bix burger will satisfy that burger craving. 

The desserts here aren't very risque.  In line with the classic architecture and entrees, the desserts are very modest.  Although, they do a bananas foster tableside.  The warm chocolate brioche bread pudding was rich and chocolatey.  Nothing extravagant, but it ended the meal on a nice sweet note.

updated - Working my way through the 2013 7x7's SF big eat 100 things    

Address:                    Bix Restaurant
                                  56 Gold St.
                                   San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                          American/burger

Popular chomps:        Bix Burger
                                    steak tartare

Chomp worthy:           steak tartare
                                    Bix Burger     

Wayfare Tavern

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Tyler Florence has graced us with his presence in San Francisco with Wayfare Tavern.  With all things fusion and innovative gastropub fare popping up all over the city, Wayfare Tavern gives us the classic American dishes done right. 

The popovers make a perfect carb filled start to the upcoming rich meal.  They are light and eggy and always remind me of the Chinese egg puffs without the sugar.

I'm getting so used to eating bone marrow from canoes rather than this presentation.  I find it harder to scoop out every piece of all the fatty goodness.  This bone marrow dish was a more garlicy take than I've had before.  I think there might have been some garlic butter on the toasted bread.  The only negative to this dish was the whole parsley salad, its too hard to spread.

Each piece of the fried chicken is juicy and tender.  Its breaded very lightly, but packs a lot of seasoning.

Mac and cheese is hard to resist ordering in any restaurant.  Although the top had a nice crisp crust, the mac and cheese itself was rather bland and unexciting.

There are a lot of other fancier things to get on the menu, but the burger here is really good.  Plus you can add an egg, which is always a plus.  They put a very nice runny egg here.  The yolk drips over any and every piece of the juicy, flavorful burger.  The herb flavored fries also deserve a mention.  Almost as addicting as Bouchon's (see post HERE), these fries have the perfect balance of crispy and salty.

Address:                   Wayfare Tavern
                                 558 Sacramento St.
                                 San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                         American

Popular chomps:        burger
                                  bone marrow
                                  fried chicken
                                  popovers

Chomp worthy:          popovers
                                  bone marrow
                                  fried chicken
                                  burgers       

TrueBurger

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Being from the East Bay, I'm a little surprised I've never eaten at this spot.  Its known as one of the best burgers in the area.  It's even made Grubstreet's 50 best burgers.  TrueBurger is ironically located around the corner from Whole Foods in the Lake Merritt area of Oakland.  

The menu here is comfortably simple with no frills.  Chili, cheese, and bacon and some combination of the three make up most of the menu put out by former chefs from Delfina, Bay Wolf, Absinthe, and Jardiniere. 

 

 Hearty, beefy chili with melty cheese and sprinkled with green onions and a dollop of sour cream all over some McDonald-esque fries.  You don't have to rush and finish these fries because the cheese is melted nicely and doesn't clump.  Not sure if it was the smaller than expected portion or what, but this just didn't satisfy me.  The taste reminds me of Taco Bell hard shelled tacos, which isn't a bad thing in my book.

 

The portion size and shape of the burgers here remind me of Super Duper (see post HERE).  These burgers fit perfectly into your hands.  The cheesy bacon burger comes with cheese, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, and a garlic mayo. The patty is a little on the small side so if you prefer a more beefy burger, I'd suggest a double.  It's not one of those greasy burgers you can really sink your teeth into.  It's more of a clean tasting burger that doesn't leave you feeling guilty afterwards.  The fresh housemade bun doesn't hold up too well and ended up falling apart halfway through.

You can see the patty is a little on the thin side, but the bread is fluffy and fresh.

The breaded and fried mushroom burger reminded me of the mushroom burger at SuperDuper.  Juicy, but fried with a light crust.  The surprising feature of this burger is the stuffed mozzarella cheese inside the portobello mushroom, which would have been really awesome had I been more prepared for it squirting at me.  Although both burgers had a garlic sauce, I could only taste it in the mushroom burger.  I preferred this mushroom burger over the cheesy bacon burger and not just because I'm not a bacon fan.    

 The mozzarella cheese oozes out of the portobello in a very nice cheesy consistency and not oddly clumpy like most melted cheese..

I prefer my milkshake to be a little on the thicker side so that the first sip hurts your cheeks.  The milkshakes here are on the liquidy side, but they do have a real ice cream taste to it.

Comparing similar styles of burgers, I prefer Super Duper to this, but you can see its similarities right down to their housemade pickles.  I'm not sure if its the best burger in the East Bay.  I guess I'll continue my search for that. 

updated - Working my way through Grubstreet's 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco

     

Address:                  TrueBurger
                                 146 Grand Ave.
                                 Oakland, CA 
 

Type:                        burger

Popular chomps:      chili cheese fries
                                  bacon cheesy burger
                                  mushroom burger
                                  pickle
                                  milkshake 

Chomp worthy:         mushroom burger
                                  bacon cheesy burger    

Grubstreet's 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco

Pin It Now! Check out Grubstreet's list of their 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco:

1).   4505 Meats
2).   Absinthe
3).   Balboa Cafe
4).   Bar Jules
5).   Bix
6).   Bourbon Steak
7).   Burger Bar
8).   Steakhouse burger at Burger Urge
9).   Burritt Tavern
10). Citizen's Band
11).  Docs of the Bay
12).  Double Decker
13).  Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem
14).  Epic Roadhouse
15).  Fifth Floor
16).  Five Ten Burger
17).  Gather
18).  Gott's Roadside
19).  The Grubstake
20).  Heirloom Cafe
21).  In-N-Out Burger
22).  Jasper's Corner Tap & Kitchen
23).  Lark Creek Steak
24).  Magnolia Gastropub & Brewery
25).  Marlowe/Park Tavern
26).  Maven
27).  Maverick
28).  Mission Bowling Club
29).  Mo's Grill
30).  Namu Gaji
31).  Nopa
32).  Pearl's Deluxe Burger
33).  Plum Bar
34).  Public House
35).  Prospect
36).  RN74
37).  Roam Artisan Burgers
38).  Serpentine/Slow Club
39).  Show Dogs
40).  Source
41).  Southern Pacific Brewing Co.
42).  Spruce
43).  Starbelly
44).  Super Duper
45).  TrueBurger
46).  Umami Burger
47).  Wayfare Tavern
48).  West of Pecos
49).  Wise Sons Jewish Deli
50).  Zuni Cafe