Ted's Montana Grill St. Johns 2 out of 10

Our burger hunt brought us to Ted's Montana Grill located in the town center.  I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks.  I was very excited to finally taste a Bison burger made by someone who specializes in Bison meats.  First a little about the restaurant.  For sure something to see and experience.  Enough said, back to the burgers.  I think all the burgergeeks were excited and had high hopes for this restaurant.

There is a quote that comes to my mind from Alexander Pope “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” I'm sure you can already see where this is going. I was disappointed at that burger. Let me get into why I was without getting into to much detail. As you can see from the picture it was for sure a nice looking burger. It was big, loaded with tons of stuff. Of course I had to get the little more fancy one with chili and so on. As a total package it looked promising. Huge onion rings with it, fries and I was excited to let me taste the hopefully first high rated burger of the burgergeeks. Well, I took the first bite and first thing that came to my mind was. Hmmm, taste just like another beef burger. There was no distinct Bison taste to it. I kept going, bite for bite I was looking or this, 'oh wow' factor. Still nothing. I do understand the meat is suppose to taste the same as beef, just better. I was not getting this.

Don't get me wrong with my review here. The burger wasn't bad at all. It was good, but again, not what I expected. If you read my review about hooters I have to say I started to get the same feeling here. It was a feeling of a fancy fast food burger. There was nothing special about it other than that it said it was Bison and with a over $25 dollar lunch bill shock just for myself, gave me another bad taste about the whole experience. I rated them a 2 out of 10 because even though it wasn't a bad burger, there was not a wow factor that put this burger in its own category, it was a fancy burger with a bad fast food after taste to it. BurgerMeister

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Today our schedule takes us to Ted's Montana Grill. We decided it was time to go find the "Cadillac" of burgers, so where better than Ted's Montana Grill. 
They're known for their all natural bison, which is supposed to be better than beef, so we had high hopes to find a truly great burger.

My selection was the Red Rock burger. You can choose either a certified Angus beef patty or an all natural bison patty. I had to go for the bison, and I ordered it cooked medium. They top this with pepper jack cheese, fresh diced jalapenos, chopped cilantro and fried onion straws. Finally, they add something 
called Z-sauce, and serve it all on a toasted ciabatta roll, accompanied with french fries. Sure sounded delicious, and at $14 bucks I expected it to be. 

I rate my burgers in 3 main components for consistent ratings; 1) bun 2) burger 3) toppings for a total possible 9 points. I reserve 1 point for what I call the 'wow' factor, which to me is for a unique touch that a restaurant may add to their burger to make it unique.

Ted's serves the Red Rock burger on a ciabatta roll. Ordinarily this would earn top marks for the roll. I love ciabatta rolls, and I like to see something different than a plain hamburger bun. I think a good bun or roll can really add to the overall taste of a burger. Unfortunately, my ciabatta roll was so dry 
that I would say it was almost stale. It just started falling apart when I tried to handled it.

If I've learned one thing about burgers, it's that how the burger is cooked can ruin the whole burger. I had ordered my burger cooked medium, and it was served under cooked, more medium rare. I didn't like the flavor of the bison at all served this rare. 

The cheese, jalapenos, cilantro and onion straws were good. The Z-sauce? It looked and tasted like raspberry jelly. No wow factor there.

So, my search for a "Cadillac" burger ended up with a Yugo. My overall rating for my Red Rock burger is a 2. Truly a disappointment. The most expensive burger turns out to be one of the worst to date, and my bad experience was not the only one among our four burgers. After leaving the restaurant, my fellow Burger Geeks and I discussed the fact that paying so much for a poorly executed burger really 
made the experience seem worse. I considered SUBTRACTING a point for the "wow" factor because "Wow, this burger sucked!", but I decided to let it stand as is.

Burgernator

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The BurgerGeeks

Hooters 4 out of 10

I think we all know what the main attraction is to Hooters but we wanted to see if they know how to make a good hamburger.  The locations of this Hooters is the Jacksonville Landing which by itself is a great place to check out and enjoy the view when sitting outside.

But for us the main purpose are not the different views you can enjoy at Hooters but if they know how to make a Hamburger.  Again I would like to point out that for myself I'm looking for the burger that stands out. Sadly the burger at Hooters did not stand out at all.  Even though it was not a bad burger, the first thing that disappointed me was that the burger was not medium cooked as I ordered it.  Second if you look at it from the picture it looked like a burger you can get at any kind of fast food restaurant.  Even though it was their BBQ burger nothing about it was special.  Don't get me wrong, it was a good burger, well average burger.  Compared to all places we have reviewed so far I have to say I was maybe used to very good hamburgers and it will be tough for any kind of restaurant to stand out or even top them.  For sure, Hooters did not accomplish that.

As you can already see from the picture the whole presentation felt fast food to me.  There was nothing special about the bun, nothing special about the burger.  My rating for this place will be 4 out of 10. I was not impressed with it and for sure was not the burger I was looking for, which is the one that stands out of the crowd, this one was just one of them.
MikeR.

River City Brewing company 7 out of 10

 Today our burger adventure took us to the very scenic restaurant by the river.  We had to check out if a classy restaurant is able to produce a good burger.

First I have to say that the place itself shows class and to my surprise a very reasonable lunch menu.  In addition to the atmosphere you get a gorgeous view of our river and city.  But enough of that, the important aspect is, can they make a good burger?
I have to say I didn't expect the hamburger to taste as homemade as it did.  We asked if they burgers were done fresh and were told, they are handmade fresh daily.

As you can see the hamburger not only looked good, but tasted great.  You could really taste that it came of a grill and in my case, asking for medium, was perfectly medium cooked. The burger was topped with mushrooms and were also perfectly done.  The salad tasted fresh and the fries were very good as well.  I rated them a 7 out of 10 and would recommend this burger to anybody who wants a good one in addition to a great dining experience with a wonderful view of our city.
MikeR

Hunt club 7 stars out of 10

The hunt club is located at 6426 Bowden Rd. , their site is huntclubsubsngrill.com
My first impression was, wow, different kind of place.  You are greeted with deer heads on the wall and a bunch of hunter memorabilia around. My first thoughts were, oh yes, they should know a good burger.
Seeing antillope burger and elk burger on the menu really got me exited, sadly, haven't been able to try them yet, they always been out, but I will and once I do I will update this post.

But back to the burger that they did have.  I've ordered the double barrel burger and as you can see from the picture, a good looking burger and size.  As you can see I ordered the Cajun spice fries with it.  Now to the taste test.  The burger was very good.  I liked the spices they used and also the freshness of it.  I wish mine would have been a bit more moist, but the other burgergeek had a more moist one.  His review should be posted pretty soon.
The bacon was crisp and plenty of it.  The staff was nice and friendly.  I will give them a rating of 7 out of 10 because I wish my burger was a bit more moist and being there twice, not having what you offer on your menu, talking about the elk and antiloppe burger rubbed me a little wrong.  I might give them a higher rating once I tasted them, because I do look for the burgers out of the norm.
MikeR

Appetites Cafe 7 stars out of 10

 Our first contender was the Appetite cafe located at 815 S. Main Street.  First impressions were that it is a very nice and clean cafe.  A very homy look, which i like. The staff is very friendly and helpful.
Now to the important aspect, which this blog is all about.  They only serve burgers 2 or 3 days a week.  Why do you ask, well they are homemade.  In this blog we try to find the places that stand out from the crowd.
I think if you look at the picture of my hamburger it speaks for itself.  Almost picture perfect how a burger should look.  Not only was I impressed how the burger looked and how fast they made it for me.  The burger tasted very freshly made and the toppings, lettuce, pickle in my case tasted very fresh.  The burger itself tasted very good, homemade and the spices used were a great combo in it. The kaiser bun tasted fresh and a perfect match for it.

In my personal view the only negative thing was that you couldn't get french fries but had to get chips or coleslaw, which was home made as well and oh yes, very good as well, not your typical coleslaw.
In all I have to say I highly recommend this if you like burgers.  To make our recommendations a bit easier to follow I think we'll give the places a rating.  I would have to give them a 7 out of 10. With 10 of course being the highest.  We'll see how the other burgergeeks rate it, but this one is mine.
MikeR

The burgergeeks

Welcome to the BurgerGeeks Blog site.  On this site we share our experiences that we encountered finding the best burger in Jacksonville Florida. The group consists so far of 4 work buddies who one day came up with the question:  What is the best burger in town?
Up to the challenge we thought, well, lets find the best burger in Jacksonville.  Each of us will give their opinion what we thought of the burger we tasted.  We all have different views what makes a good hamburger, but we agreed on that we are looking for to total package.
Was the burger freshly made?
Did the burger represent what was on the menu?
Was the burger out of the norm?
Would we recommend it to our friends?
This will not be a scientific adventure like so many other food blogs are, but just your normal Joe blow giving his honest opinion about a burger.
We are open to any suggestion you might have for a good burger restaurant in the Jacksonville area for us to try.

Thank you for checking us out and hopefully you will enjoy our blog and it will help you find the best burger beautiful Jacksonville Florida.

The BurgerGeeks