Burger Crew meeting called to order on October 17, 2020.
Members in attendance: Angela, DK, Innie, Trevor, and Wayne
We’re still following pandemic protocol and picking up our food and eating it elsewhere. As Trevor alluded to in the last review, he concocted a master plan to evade our insect tormentors. That plan: to eat at a higher elevation because as we all know, insects suffer from altitude sickness. We ended up setting up our chairs and eating on top of a nearby parking structure. On to the review!
I. Ordering
All of us ordered our food ahead of time through various food ordering platforms. Surprisingly, the restaurant’s own website had the incorrect link for ordering food, and depending on which platform you were ordering from, different food options were available. Most notably, onion rings were missing from some of them. Trying to place an order by phone resulted in the call going straight to voicemail, and on top of that, their voicemail inbox was full.
As far as meat burgers go, Pop’s follows the In-N-Out model of basically having only one type of burger but you choose how many patties you want. All of them have “Creekstone Farms Beef Patties dusted with House Blend Seasoning, Red Wine Sauce and Grass-fed Butter topped with Special Sauce Pickles, Caramelized Onions, and American Cheese.”
Angela and Trevor ordered a double ($8) with egg ($2.50), onion rings ($4), and fries ($4). DK ordered a single ($6) with Skittles. Innie ordered a single with iceberg lettuce. I ordered a double with Pop’s secret sauce and fried pickles ($6.50).
II. The Burgers
Everyone was in general agreement right off the bat that getting a double was better than getting a single. Trevor said that double meat was the way to go, and Innie felt that her single burger wasn’t beefy enough, nor did she think that it was seasoned enough, and even though I had a double, I still felt like it wasn’t beefy enough. DK thought the patty was like a McDonald’s patty with a slightly better sear.
Aside from the meat, the burgers had a good amount of pickle in each bite, and the cheese was melted well over the patties. The onions were nice and caramelized and the bun was sweet and gooey, but these might’ve contributed to an overall mushiness in terms of how the burgers felt in your mouth.
Angela complained that her and Trevor’s burger (which was cut in half by the restaurant) was super messy and that the burger wasn’t cut appropriately in half, with the bun not distributed evenly.
III. The Sides
The fries were thin cut, and agreed that they were overly salted/seasoned, and Trevor thought they were too peppery. However, they managed to stay crispy despite not eating them right away.
The onion rings had a soft and thick batter, and the onion inside was cooked throughout so it didn’t pull out when you bit into them. They were very good overall.
The big winner of the sides was the fried pickles. They had lots of flavor and the batter stayed crispy as well.
IV. Miscellaneous
Pop’s is located in the 3rd Street Promenade inside of the SocialEats food hall. When we picked up our food, there was only one person handling order pickups for all of the establishments inside of the food hall due to the pandemic, so during a busy time, this might be a problem (we ordered for 4:30PM pickup). Parking is also what you would expect from Santa Monica, where street parking can be hard to find.
V. Value
Most of us valued the burgers between $6-$8.50, with one outlier of $12, so the burgers were priced OK and could be a good value if they were executed better.
VI. The Verdict
The ratings were 2.5, 2.5, 2.8, 3.0, and 3.1. None of us were impressed by the burgers. If you want burgers in Santa Monica, HiHo Cheeseburger is nearby and has much better burgers.
Next meeting: Big D’s Burgers in Whittier on November 15, 2020.