The Counter, Custom Built Burgers

Customize your burger with fresh, quality, ingredients at this cool, fun burger place. And now, in addition to the awesome burger-in-a-bowl (pictured), all Northern California locations now serve Udi’s gluten free buns for their outstanding burgers.

When you walk into one of the many Counter restaurants, you get the industrial warehouse feel with a very simple concept. After you are seated, you are handed a clipboard with all the ingredients and you spend a few minutes checking boxes on the order form, so that your burger is built is exactly the way you want it.

You begin by picking your meat and size of burger: beef, turkey, veggie (not GF), or chicken (not GF). Next you choose the gluten free bun, if you are in one of the locations that offers that, or you have the option called “Burger in a Bowl.” That’s the one you choose if you’re looking for gluten free. It comes on a huge bed of lettuce, and then you work your way down the list to choose the toppings you would like. All together, there are 312,120 different combination possibilities, so they say.

They have many cheese choices, besides the expected, you can get something like horseradish cheddar or herb goat cheese spread – or skip the cheese if you’d like. All the cheese is GF, except the blue cheese, according their allergen chart.*

The next step is toppings like boiled eggs, grilled pineapple, cranberries, coleslaw, sprouts, tomatoes, just to name a few. Sundried tomatoes, avocado, fried egg and bacon make up some of the premium choices. All  toppings are gluten free, except for the onion strings.

By the time you get to the sauce choices, you feel like you are taking a pop quiz in school, “Wait, I didn’t study this part!” Twenty-one sauces like roasted garlic aioli, basil pesto, honey mustard, and more unusual plus all the expected choices. More than half of the sauces are gluten free.

If you’re not a burger eater, order the side salad or the Hobo Pack, which is a yummy assortment of grilled veggies with fresh herbs.

If all that isn’t enough to make you want to try The
Counter, here’s a message from corporate headquarters about that huge order French fries or sweet potato fries that you will certainly want to order, “We dedicate one fryer to the sweet fries and French fries. There is another fryer used for food items that have flour. The teams are trained on how to use each fryer.” (We’ve eaten there many times with no evidence of cross-contamination with gluten items.) The Sweet Potato Fries are reason enough to eat there!

If you’re missing your old burger and fries, this place should definitely be on the list of restaurants to visit! It’s not your old burger and fry joint – it’s much better!

*Keep in mind that if you look at their allergen chart, the items checked in the Gluten Free Column DO NOT contain gluten, as opposed to the other columns that have a check if the ingredient IS contained in the item.

(Updated review from March 2010)

CURRENT LOCATIONS (as of 12/11):

Illinois
Chicago – Lincoln Park

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Etoile Center King Abdulaziz Road Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Send Email Opening Early 2012	Naples, FL The Mercato 9123 Strada Place Naples FL 34108 Send Email Opening Early 2012	L.A. – Downtown 725 West 7th Street Los Angeles CA 90017 Send Email Opening Early 2012
San Diego – Downtown 655 6th Avenue San Diego CA 92101 Send Email Opening Early 2012	Irvine, CA Park Place 2981 Jamboree Road Irvine CA 92612 Send Email Opening Early 2012	Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 7 1 World Way Los Angeles CA 90045 Send Email Opening Winter 2012
San Diego International Airport Terminals 1 & 2 3225 North Harbor Drive San Diego CA 92101 Send Email Opening Early 2013	Saar, Bahrain The Avenues Bahrain, United Arab Emirates Send Email Opening Early 2013	Fremont, CA The Block at Pacific Commons S-6 Pacific Commons Boulevard Fremont CA 94536 Send Email Opening Early 2013
Los Angeles, California Orange County, California Sunnyvale, California	Broward County, Florida Miami-Dade County, Florida	Seattle, Washington Washington D.C.