As I previously reported, the burger/pastrami/ubi shake awesome Eagle Rock eatery known as Oinkster is conducting burger week. Yes, a week of burgers. Namely burgers that originated in this fine city of Los Angeles.
The week got started with a fast food staple in the Big Mac.
Oddly enough the big mac was a knock off of Bob's Big Boy's burger. Either way, McDonalds originated in Southern California so it was the first one to be tossed out there and it had got to be the best Big Mac I have ever eaten.
Think of it as a Big Mac on steroids. Though I'm pretty sure the McDonalds version has had actual steroids injected into their cows for some time. But in the Oinkster's case all the fixings felt fresh. The middle bread felt like it had just been baked hours ago and the meat was cooked perfectly and really substantial.
While it was more than what you would pay for a Big Mac at McDonalds, it was well worth the ride and also worth the price of admission just to see how a Big Mac should be cooked to avoid what you get at the golden arches.
Then you have Tuesday's offering in the form of a huge slice of tomato, diced onions, pickles and a good portion of chili. Have you've guessed what burger chain they were going for the homage in this one? Tommy's indeed.
I do have to admit that it was a bit of an odd choice given that there's a Tommy's not more than two blocks or so up the street from Oinkster that I used to love going to before my college days. While I enjoyed it, I thought it could have used a little more chili, but to have that huge bite be filled with that thick cut tomato, that took me back.
As a sign that Oinkster uses quality ingredients, the burger patty in this was way beyond anything I have ever eaten at Tommy's. The thick chunks of beef in the chili was also a nice surprise. What made the burger just as tasty was that the NBA championships were on Television and the Mavs won while eating this burger. So you could add the taste of King James' tears to the flavor pallet that I was savoring.
Wednesday got started off right with a version of The Father's Office burger. A burger that you simply have to try and that also has a sort of reputation as being very stern like in that you can't get any modifications to the burger nor can you find any ketchup at Father's Office. Just doesn't exist in that building.
So to have the option of having a side of regular or chipotle ketchup on the table was really strange at first. As for the burger itself - I love it. It was damn delicious and very true to the original. Then again, I haven't been to Father's Office for at least 6 months and maybe I missed it without realizing it. But this burger was damn fine.
On Thursday was a special day where the burger special was only going to be offered for 2 hours in the late evening as Grill 'Em All was taking over the Oinkster. Of all the days I went to Oinkster for Burger week, this one was probably the most craziest. There was a wait to get your order in and let me tell you, it was a long one.
But considering I was the first one to review them on Yelp and given the number of other events that I have followed them blindly for, the wait was well worth it. They had most of their regular menu from the truck offered up as well as the Burger Week Burger in the Oink 'Em All.
The thing was a beast. So damn good and so damn filling. Along side having it with a Craftsman white ale, my night was pretty damn pleasing. I didn't care that I just waited about 2 hours for a burger, the burger was a thing of beauty.
In talking with Ryan and Matt, they didn't expect it to be a mad house and had to up the order to about 500 pounds of meat. At about 7oz a burger that comes out to about 1143 burgers to come out of that... though I can't account for pre-cooked/cooked meat weight. Still, that's a lot of burgers to be slinging on the grill. Besides that, come on bro's. You know that everything you do is so awesome that you're going to get a lot of people out there cause you're just that hardcore. \m/
Friday highlighted the Umami burger, which ended up lower on my list compared to the other burgers I have had over the week. It was still pretty good, though I felt that the Parmesan frico on it took a little bit of getting used to having something sort of crispy, but not so much on the burger.
I was also a little thrown off by my camera not having a charge, so you'll have to do with the stock image of the burger. It did have a decent amount of sauteed shitake mushrooms, which did give the burger a distinct fungi blast to it. And if there's nothing more that I like in my mouth, it's some fungi in there.... wait, that didn't sound right.
Today and Tomorrow they're doing one burger and while it may be just one burger, it's a way of going out of burger week in a bang. It's the $25 burger. Though it will only set you back $9.50. You can say that it's a perfect way to on-up Carl's Jr. Six Dollar burger.
So what makes this burger net worth so vast? Well, you have porcini and white mushrooms sauteed with shallots, cream and grated parmesan with some cambozola cheese, arugula, truffle aioli and crispy onions all on a french bun. Does that not sound like it's well worth the price of admission?
That's what I thought. The beast was a great way close out the week with burgers and besides a couple of pounds and bragging rights to actually eating six extreme burgers in a week is if you eat one of each, you'll get a snazzy "I SURVIVED BURGER WEEK" T-shirt. And really, if you've tackled a burger a day, you're going to want to show it off.
For every purchase of their burger you also got a wooden nickel, which I now have a nice little stack of them, which is good for half off a regular price burger the next time you go in there. So really, how can you beat that?
Over all burger week was damn wicked awesome and as fattening as it sounds, it was well worth doing. Burger week comes to an end this Sunday, so make sure to hit them up and enjoy a their $25 Burger before it goes away.
Oinkster is located on
2005 Colorado Boulevard
Eagle Rock, CA 90041
(323) 255-6465
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