Juicy Lucy (Downtown, LA, CA)

Located at:
735 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Date of Visit: 9/17/13


     

      I've hung around Downtown LA a lot in the past year and found some pretty interesting places in its nooks and crannies. But practically all of them get sent to the "I should try that one day" list without any type of follow-up. This gourmet burger bar was on that list a while back. Heck i even forgot about it if it weren't for my dear friend who reminded me about their "Sriracha Cheese Fries". So I ventured down to "The Taste" located in the "Figat7th" plaza. I'm always here at this area during the weekend when its quite empty. To see it so hustling and bustling is quite interesting. There was a sea of office workers crowding the area. I felt kinda out of place since it felt like i was the only one without a tie. But meh, I pulled opened the doors to "The Taste" and found out... This place is just a food court. I searched for the Juicy Lucy area and there were a smallish crowd which is a good sign right? Plus there is a cow logo on their "store front" so what could go wrong?

     This is the typical food court type of deal. Pay at the cashier and pick up your food when you're called. Nothing that special :P

     I ordered the "Four Horseman Burger" and their "Sriracha Cheese Fries" but told them to leave out the Sriracha since i wasn't in the mood for anything spicy. One thing when we noticed when they were putting the fries together. They were squeezing what looked like A LOT of sour cream on top of fries prior to putting on the Sriracha. Me and my friend gave each other the "OH HELL NO" look. I mean we like sour cream just not to that much. We then learned what the guy was squeezing out was the cheese. We just had to let it settle before it looked like cheese...

     "Sriracha Cheese Fries" (Except without the Sriracha) Not a fan. I maybe should have gotten it as i was meant to have been... with the Sriracha. But if it couldn't hold its own without another of its component then it's just not going to be very impressive since I can't be the only one who will order things without all of its key components. The cheese wasn't very appetizing-looking. Definitely many dirty jokes i could make about how that cheese looked... but I'm not going to go there. And the texture of the cheese was quite unpleasant as well. Whatever kind of cheese they used... I'm not a fan. Should have just scraped it off. The sea-salt fries however were alright. Crispy and thick. Should have just gotten it without the cheese.

     "Four Horsemen" Burger - Gruyere Cheese, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Caramelized Onion, Rosemary Aioli. Granted it may have been a food court burger, it cost 10 bucks and portioned like a gourmet burger (on the smaller size). So I'm going to judge it like i would to other 10 dollar burgers I've had before. Ahem. "It's alright" The cheese, onions, smokiness from the bacon and the aioli worked very nicely together. But the meat patty tasted a bit under seasoned and bland. I thought maybe its purpose there was just for the texture. But if that was the case... oh dear. My meat patty was overdone and kinda dry. So i contributed nothing to the burger as a whole. It's still an alright burger but a 10 dollar burger it ain't. On another note i thought that all their patties would be a Juicy Lucy patty. But they weren't only the original Juicy Lucy burger gets that patty. :(
     I may come back and try their signature Juicy Lucy burger. Which sounds like a cheese grenade in a meat shell. But I won't be back for their cheese fries or pay 10 bucks for this burger again.
     I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the burger, the cheese on the fries or just the overall amount of cheese i had. But i walked away from this meal feeling logy. Luckily nothing else more severe followed later on in the day. During that initial couple of hours though ... my food baby felt funny.