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The quest for the best burger in the Triangle - can anyone defeat the Angus Barn?
Thursday, July 21, 2016
The Burger Shop - table for two
A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some friends at a restaurant not worth blogging about when I was accused by my good friend DJ Felonious of being a burger snob. Judging by the way I was critiquing the burgers we were eating at said restaurant, he might be right. I thought for my next burger blog I would go searching for a good lunch burger to knock me off my high burger horse. By recommendation of one of our neighbors, our family packed up for a Friday night in downtown Wake Forest at The Burger Shop. This restaurant is a relatively new establishment right in downtown Wake Forest, in the former location of The Barber Shop. Don't worry though, it is a new business. The only remnants of the barbershop history is the small spinning barber pole adorned in burger graphics. The hair and scissors are long gone.
The parking at this location is on the street, so you may need to drive around a bit to find parking since it is in downtown Wake Forest. We luckily secured a park right outside the building and went in to check the joint out. It is a quaint location that is perfect for a date night. By quaint I mean tiny, and by "perfect for a date night" I mean the only tables they have there are two person tables. Don't get me wrong, it might still be good for a date night, but only if you get your order to go and find yourself a good romantic picnic spot. The menu is very simple, burgers, dogs, and few other items that no one probably orders because they most likely came here for the burgers. For those of you who have visited Five Guys, the way you order your burger is similar. You just order the size of your burger and then what toppings you want, simple enough. We ordered our burgers and quickly scrambled to secure a table before someone else did. With four of us there, the beautiful and lovely K and I got to share a small table while J-Train and C-Monster sat at the window barstools, of which were also in pairs, two on either side of the door.
The food came relatively quickly and looked quite delicious. I had ordered the double cheeseburger with bacon and slaw along with the normal lettuce/pickles/ketchup/mustard. The rest of my clan ordered normal human size cheeseburgers with bacon and the usual condiments on top. Looking at the photo now, I wish I would have gotten just a normal cheeseburger because that just looks disturbingly big for one meal. Camera puts on a few pounds, right? Nope, but this burger does. The taste was definitely there though, and we thoroughly enjoyed these burgers. The meat was fresh and obviously not a pre-purchased patty, it was like it was straight out of a backyard cookout minus the charcoal flavor. And I mean a good backyard cookout where your friend actually put some effort into making the burgers. Oh man, there I go again, even burger snobbing my friends' burgers. Sorry guys, I see it now. Everything was cooked well though, the toppings and buns were fresh and the slaw was delicious. Their fries were equally good, which were thin fries with lots of salt and cooked fresh.
So how does this stack up against other burgers we have eaten? Seeing as this is clearly a lunch burger, it doesn't get close to an Angus Barn Burger, but it does fare well against other burgers in the lunch burger genre. It is impossible to eat here and not draw a Five Guys comparison though, the similarities are eerie. K even commented that it was like a Five Guys employee quit and started this place, the menu looks similar, the presentation is similar, they even serve their fries in an overflowing drink cup. With so many similarities, we had to evaluate the burger against a Five Guys as we ate. While we agreed that the burger was great, it was just not quite as great as a Five Guys burger. So what rating do we impart on this local burger dive? All things considered, it is a good burger, but not quite as good as a Five Guys burger. As such, we will have to give it one step below that and bestow upon this burger a two Angus Barn Burger rating. Definitely glad we tried it, but we may be more inclined to go across the street to Shorty's for a quick burger.
The Burger Shop
203 Wait Ave.
Wake Forest, NC 27587
919.562.2333
http://www.wakeforestburgershop.com/
The parking at this location is on the street, so you may need to drive around a bit to find parking since it is in downtown Wake Forest. We luckily secured a park right outside the building and went in to check the joint out. It is a quaint location that is perfect for a date night. By quaint I mean tiny, and by "perfect for a date night" I mean the only tables they have there are two person tables. Don't get me wrong, it might still be good for a date night, but only if you get your order to go and find yourself a good romantic picnic spot. The menu is very simple, burgers, dogs, and few other items that no one probably orders because they most likely came here for the burgers. For those of you who have visited Five Guys, the way you order your burger is similar. You just order the size of your burger and then what toppings you want, simple enough. We ordered our burgers and quickly scrambled to secure a table before someone else did. With four of us there, the beautiful and lovely K and I got to share a small table while J-Train and C-Monster sat at the window barstools, of which were also in pairs, two on either side of the door.
The food came relatively quickly and looked quite delicious. I had ordered the double cheeseburger with bacon and slaw along with the normal lettuce/pickles/ketchup/mustard. The rest of my clan ordered normal human size cheeseburgers with bacon and the usual condiments on top. Looking at the photo now, I wish I would have gotten just a normal cheeseburger because that just looks disturbingly big for one meal. Camera puts on a few pounds, right? Nope, but this burger does. The taste was definitely there though, and we thoroughly enjoyed these burgers. The meat was fresh and obviously not a pre-purchased patty, it was like it was straight out of a backyard cookout minus the charcoal flavor. And I mean a good backyard cookout where your friend actually put some effort into making the burgers. Oh man, there I go again, even burger snobbing my friends' burgers. Sorry guys, I see it now. Everything was cooked well though, the toppings and buns were fresh and the slaw was delicious. Their fries were equally good, which were thin fries with lots of salt and cooked fresh. So how does this stack up against other burgers we have eaten? Seeing as this is clearly a lunch burger, it doesn't get close to an Angus Barn Burger, but it does fare well against other burgers in the lunch burger genre. It is impossible to eat here and not draw a Five Guys comparison though, the similarities are eerie. K even commented that it was like a Five Guys employee quit and started this place, the menu looks similar, the presentation is similar, they even serve their fries in an overflowing drink cup. With so many similarities, we had to evaluate the burger against a Five Guys as we ate. While we agreed that the burger was great, it was just not quite as great as a Five Guys burger. So what rating do we impart on this local burger dive? All things considered, it is a good burger, but not quite as good as a Five Guys burger. As such, we will have to give it one step below that and bestow upon this burger a two Angus Barn Burger rating. Definitely glad we tried it, but we may be more inclined to go across the street to Shorty's for a quick burger.
The Burger Shop
203 Wait Ave.
Wake Forest, NC 27587
919.562.2333
http://www.wakeforestburgershop.com/
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