Burger Quest 2013, the Adventure Begins...

So, instead of a New Year's Resolution (which I wouldn't follow anyway) I decided upon trying to find the best burger in Georgia. This is easier said than done, I mean, how many burgers do I have to try and how many places even have a burger worth trying? Not limiting myself to only the local area, I'll travel near and far to find a great burger and I've already hit 10 places on my list. Each weekend so far I've tried a different place, and I've also included a few mid week stops as well.

Before getting too far though, I performed a little reseach, checked out a few "best of" lists and took some recommendations from friends, and categorized the types of places I'll be trying.

The categories I settled on are as follows:

Fast Food (FFD)

Burger Joints (BJT)

Sit Down Restaurants (SDR)

Diners (DNS)

I try to keep it simple and order nearly the same thing at each place, to make it easier to compare as fairly as possible. For fast food places, I go with either a double burger(ketchup only) or a double cheeseburger(ketchup or plain). For all other places, my go to is a bacon cheeseburger with no other toppings, unless they have avocado slices, a weakness of mine. If the place has onion rings, you can bet that I'll check those out as well, but I've yet to find any I like as much as the ones from the Varsity ;)

My first 5 places are below, in order of my visits, with a short review for each:

1. Zestos on Piedmont (FF) - This is the type of place I could see myself taking a date...if it were 1967. A throwback to the type of place you saw on Happy Days, the burger I tried was the Chubby Decker, a burger quite similar to a Big Mac. Not bad, it was your typical fast food burger, nothing special, but it was worth the trip to check it out. I had onion rings and a vanilla malt on the visit as well. The rings were nothing I'd try again, and the malt would have been better had they mixed the malt powder in after starting to pour the shake, instead the powder ended up at the bottom of the cup in a dry mess.

2. The Counter in Roswell (BJT) - I really like this place, but feel they can do a little better. The service, while not bad, always feels a little too impersonal, and charging so much for some of the toppings makes my visits a little more infrequent than they could be. As for the burger, I've never had a bad one here, they've always been cooked right, have great flavor, and they get a plus for having avocado slices. The toppings add just the right amount of flavor without overwhelming the burger and without underperforming with their own tastes.

3. Five Guys in Milton (BJT) - I debated between calling this and the next place burger joints or fast food places, and decided upon burger joint because they're both a step above places like Dairy Queen. I read all the complaints on Yelp! and Urbanspoon about how greasy their fries are, but I'm not here for the fries, I'm here for the burger and they're consistently good, but lacking the full flavor to take this place to the next level.

4. Cheeseburger Bobby's in Johns Creek (BJT) - Very similar in concept to Five Guys, but I found their burger to be much more flavorful. I try to make it a point to stop by when I'm in the area and also to spread the word to others about this place. I haven't tried their onion rings yet, but plan too soon.

5. Grindhouse Killer Burgers on Piedmont (BJT) - Wow, great burger! Neat little place, I'm sure they do some business at night time. Luckily we chose an early Sunday to check them out. You'll notice it's a little bit of a drive from Milton, but it was certainly worth the trip for the burger. Very flavorful, cooked just right, avocado slices, bacon and cheese, all worked together well. Onion rings were forgettable.

Visits 6-10 will be posted later this week. Until then, feel free to list suggestions of places I should try and their locations as well!