I Ate a Burger and I Liked It…

If you came across me anytime between Sunday night and Monday afternoon, the first words out of my mouth may have easily been, “I found the best burger place last night.”

On a Sunday afternoon, we strolled up to Joy Burger Bar on Lexington and 100th.  The place is “order at the counter” style and the whole concept is similar to Five Guys.  From my research on Yelp, I could tell that it was the owner who quickly sat us down at a table, after kindly asking the solo diner if she wouldn’t mind moving to the counter seating.  (And you may think, how did I know it was the owner?  Because he was the cute, charming employee that everyone highlighted in their reviews.  Ladies, take note and go grab a burger).

We quickly were presented paper menus where you could choose your burger size, as well as select from a variety of free toppings and sauces.  Toppings included the typical lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapenos and pickles among a few others, but the sauces were what really stood out.  Instead of mustard and ketchup, I was able to choose from garlic mayo, spicy mayo, spicy mango chutney, pesto, sweet chili and the list goes on.  You can add some fancier toppings to your burger for an extra 75 cents – like mushrooms and avocado.

I headed to the counter and ordered an 8 oz cheese burger with lettuce, sauteed onions, pickle, tomato, and jalapenos.  The owner was great about advising what sauces to pair together and was really friendly, asking us where we heard about the restaurant.  Burger came in at $5.95 and cheese was 50 cents extra – so the burger is very inexpensive!  I decided to add a chocolate shake to my meal at $3.25 and even splurged on fries – make that sweet potato fries at $2.75.

We headed back to our seats and the owner brought over within a few minutes our shakes, which were delicious.  I sampled both the chocolate shake and tried Ben’s strawberry shake and they both were the perfect shake consistency and delicious.  I was actually sad when I finished mine.

Next came out our burgers and fries.  Delicious.  The burger was juicy and just a tad greasy, in that way where you know if you are hungover, Joy Burger Bar would be the instant cure.  The toppings and sauce tasted great, and my only complaint was that I ordered possibly too many toppings because at the end, my burger started to fall apart.  Usually I’m not the type of girl to sit and eat an entire burger, and if I eat most of the burger, I usually leave the beef behind and eat just the toppings. I found myself cutting up what was left of the burger and eating the whole thing – and yes, some mouthfuls were just of the burger sans toppings and bun, which is truly a rarity. 

Then, on to the fries.  My god how I love sweet potato fries.  I’d never think to pair sweet potato fries with maple syrup, but Joy Burger Bar thought of that and it received mixed reviews from the table.  Ben liked the maple syrup, while I thought the sweet potato alone was great alone.  Ben and I shared an order of fries, and as we both left the restaurant, we admitted that we each wanted more fries but didn’t want to feel like a fatty ordering another order after finishing the meal.  So please take note – get your own fries.

The only way I can sum up Joy Burger Bar is by using the word phenomenal.  And for those (Larry Hahn) who have read my post on Jackson Hole and thought “Laura is a girl, she doesn’t know burgers,” let’s just put it this way – I attended Joy Burger Bar with three guys and there were no complaints.