Lunchbox Laboratory - Bellevue

My oh my - I can't believe it but I think that I have a new favorite burger, as the "Smoker Burger" at Lunchbox Laboratory - Bellevue (989 112th Ave NE) has surpassed the Bacon Cheeseburger at Jak's in Issaquah as my favorite local burger.

Brian and I hit Lunchbox Laboratory today at lunch. We had heard really good things about the location in Seattle and just found out that there was now an eastside location.

We got there about 11:50am to beat some of the lunch crowd, but there was already a small wait (about 10 minutes). The decor is interesting - black walls with some old barn type of wood along one wall and lunchboxes of all different shapes, sizes, styles and vintages spread throughout the room. The tables and chairs are basic, aluminum frames with light wood surfaces. The staff were all very friendly and seemed to all work together well. They were pretty swamped, and it took maybe 20 minutes for us to get our order, but given how busy they were, I wasn't bothered by this in the least.

Warning - Their burgers are not cheap!! $11/$12 bucks for the most basic burgers and $14/$15 for deluxe models. The burger I ordered was "The Smoker" Super-beef patty, creamy havarti cheese, bacon, lunchbox onions, smoked pepper mayo. It was unbelievably good. Burger was charred nicely on the outside, but very juicy on the inside. The ingredients blended wonderfully together and no one ingredient overwhelmed another. The buns have the slightest crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Also, good bun to burger ratio. Similar to "The Swinery" (see last blog post for more on this), this is a very messy burger. I counted nine napkins used during the course of the meal. I cut the burger in half to get started and it was still a two-hander with plenty of fixin's trying to sneak out the other side of the burger during each bite!

I opted for the skinny fries with my burger. They were perfectly salted and nicely crispy. After I ordered though I realized they also have tater tots and i really wished that I had gone that direction. Just something to stick in the old memory bank for the next time I hit this joint.

In summary - GREAT BURGER!, but you need to be prepared to shell out significant $$$$s at this place. Still, it is worth a trip AND NOW HOME TO MY FAVORITE BURGER IN SEATTLE.

That said, so many more burger joints to hit and so little time. Oh well, it is a cross that Brian and I are willing to bear in our continuing search for the best burger!

The Swinery - West Seattle

On Monday, February 27th, Brian and I hit "The Swinery" in West Seattle: 3207 California Ave SW Seattle, WA ~ 98116.

We read about The Swinery in the January 2012 edition of Seattle Magazine, as it was mentioned in an article on the best burgers in Seattle. In fact, The Swinery had been selected as having the "Best Bacon Burger" in Seattle.

So we drive out to West Seattle on our lunch break looking for the restaurant. It turns out that this is not really a restaurant at all, at least in terms of a traditional restaurant with tables, chairs, a kitchen, wait staff, etc. The Swinery is really a butcher shop that happens to sell a few sandwiches and burgers as a side business. Inside the shop there are no tables, just a shelf along one wall with some chairs and a stack of napkins. The only other thing in the shop are the traditional meat counters and an icebox with pops and juices of various types. The cooking is done "out back" on a charcoal grill. There are some benches located out back as well, but they are not covered and on a chilly or wet day would not be practical at all.

Brian and I both ordered the Bacon Cheese burger (see picture) and an order of garlic fries (huge, huge order definitely need to share). The burger was delicious, very, very, juicy, served with bacon, arugula, tomato, cheese, sauteed onions and really tasty painted hills beef. This is the type of sandwich, that once you pick it up, you can't really put it down because it will literally fall apart on you.

I would put this burger pretty high on my list, but still trailing the bacon cheeseburger at Jak's in Issaquah. We decided that it is definitely worth a drive to West Seattle to try it. I would recommend going on a nice day though, so that you can take advantage of the outside seats. The shop itself is so small, that it would be very likely that you would either have to take your burger to go or else eat standing up. With this messy of a burger, you definitely want to be sitting down and have something to lean over to catch the ooey gooey goodness that will inevitably slide off of the burger during your meal.

Give it a shot - you won't be sorry!