Louis Lunch Review

This post is a painful one for me to write - as an avid watcher of hamburger documentaries and having spent many hours dreaming of me & Op's cheeseburger road trip as soon as one of us wins the lottery, I really really really wanted to LOVE the burger at Louis Lunch in New Haven, CT. Supposedly home of the first hamburger ever and also the longest running burger joint in the country, I've been hearing about it for years and was kicking at the damn stall to go try one.

Result? Thumbs sideway. Not down, not up. It's a GOOD burger, but not GREAT. If you're in New Haven you should go if only for the history. But unlike the Shake Shack, I wouldn't push you to walk through broken glass and stand in line for an hour to get one either. It's just okay.

The first red flag was when, after standing in the place for about 10 minutes, I noticed something strange: there was no smell of meat in the air. I mean, the place is TINY. And the grills had been used for over 100 years; certainly the odor of decades of grilled meat should've been wafting, no? But nothing. I was told it's cause the meat was SO fresh that it emits no such delectable smell. I'm all for fresh meat. But when I walk into a tiny burger joint, I like to smell burger. So I thought that was strange.

I also thought it strange that they don't mind if you order your burger well-done. I mean, they make such a big deal about "no ketchup" (a policy which of course gets my approval) and claiming they know what's good for you burger-wise...but don't mind if you want your meat burned to a crisp with no juiciness to it. Which I've never come across in the better, albeit snootier, steak/burger places. Odd.

Also, the cheese. I couldn't taste any. They use a cheez-wizesque spread, and I was up front at the counter watching the guy, and he went about 40 burgers in a row where he was really scraping the bucket to get the cheese. Wtf, I was thinking...I hope before he gets to ours, he gets a new bucket so he can just lop the shit on. But no. Scrape, scrape, scrape. No cheese tasted.

The texture was good. And I actually liked the toast instead of bun, which surprised me. But it was kinda flavorless (obviously the paucity of cheese didn't help.) Salt could've been helpful. A good burger, but highly overrated. And I went in WANTING to love it. This makes me sad :(