Brave Horse Tavern – Seattle, Washington

I was back in Seattle on a business trip, and met up with a friend for dinner. We initially tried to go to a couple different pizza places, but they both were packed so we ended up at Brave Horse Tavern. I have never heard of it before, but it is owned by Tom Douglas, who owns a ton of great restaurants all over Seattle, in every style of food. Sounded like a good sign.

Their food menu is pretty simple. They have homemade pretzels with some interesting dipping sauces – peanut butter and bacon being my favorite. They also have an apple mustard, which I hadn’t heard of before. When I asked about that, the waitress said, “Why, do you think it’s strange? Well your face is strange.” It was odd, and I was wondering if they had a thing where they talk like that to customers, but they don’t. It was just strange, more so than my face.

Anyway, their burger menu is basic; you can pick from beef, veggie or chicken.

Beef is $6, cheese is $1 more, and bacon, a fried egg, or avocado are an additional $2 each. I went with cheddar and bacon

for a total of $9. The burger is not that big, and was interestingly served only with lettuce and pickles (the pickles were quickly removed).

First bite in and I knew it was a winner. The buns are nice and buttery, with the perfect amount of crisp skin to them. But the real star here was cheese treatment. As you can see, they really melt the cheese down over the meat, but what you cant see is the crunchy cheese that melted off the burger and was scraped off the grill along with the meat, just hanging off the side. This definitely was a high quality gourmet burger made like a true fast food burger. The bacon broke apart easily, but the only real difficulties with this burger was the lettuce. The giant leaves of lettuce went awry on my first bite and never fully recovered for the rest of the burger.

The only issue I really had was it seemed a bit small. I also ate a pretzel and the fries (which were separate and $3) and was pretty full, but putting away two of these burgers would be doable, save for the $18 that would cost.

Brave Horse Tavern is a pretty cool place, and if you drink beer it’s probably even cooler as they had a ton of beers to choose from. I got a root beer that was on tap and it was decent, but nothing all that special. They also have a shuffleboard table, so there’s another plus. But it was very nice looking inside, albeit dark, if I have led you to believe otherwise. Definitely the best burger I have had in Seattle so far, and would consider eating there again next time I’m in town.

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More info at bravehorsetavern.com

Uneeda Burger – Seattle, Washington

I recently took a long weekend in Seattle for a graduation, and after getting a lot of good recommendations, we were only able to squeeze in one burger place. The consensus from the locals was that Red Mill had the best burgers. It also happened to be close to where we were staying, so we gathered up everyone and headed over, only to find out they are closed Mondays. Panic set in; we had a flight to catch and to make it easy on everyone we may just end up at the closest restaurant. But a quick search showed Uneeda Burger was close enough, so away we went.

Uneeda burger is a nice casual place; the building opens right out onto a large patio, and the covered portion was actually necessary for the surprisingly warm weather. The inside had a lot of dark wood, and made it classier feeling than just a burger shack. Now I had no recommendations for any specific burgers here, I was just told this was one of the better places in Seattle. Their choices here are not very traditional, with Gruyere being the most common burger topper. Uneeda Burger’s menu was created by a chef with two other restaurants to his name, and although I know nothing about them I am sure they are higher end dining experiences, as a burger with Crimini mushrooms, porcini & black truffle salt, shallots & Gruyere cheese would lead you to believe.

I went with the BBQ Smash burger, and held off on the onions. 1/3lb local beef, cheddar, bacon, and barbecue sauce for $8.50. I added a side of waffle fries and an Oreo shake for $2.50 and $5 respectively. Waffle fries are not offered often, so I felt like I had to go for it. The food was ready pretty quickly, and it looked real good. Huge bonus points go to giving you the extra milkshake in the mixing cup, even if the serving glass is on the smaller side. Milkshakes have gone up lately, and if anything they are getting even smaller in size, so getting the additional cup is always appreciated. Small touches like this can really make a burger place stand out.

Now for the burger–this thing looked really good. Too good in fact, as I was a bit disappointed. Now this was tricky for me, as right away I was just not liking the barbecue sauce, and there is no way around that when your burger is covered in it. I need to bone up on the complexities of barbecue sauces to be clearer, but this was bbq sauce was a red sauce, where I favor a more brown sauce. It wasn’t a bad bbq sauce altogether; I am sure many prefer this type, I am just not one of them. So that puts me in a bit of a hard position, but I can’t recall another burger I’ve had in the past few years where I’ve disagreed with the sauce as much. I’ve had plenty of bland sauces, which this was not, but it just was not for me.

The patty itself felt… soft. It wasn’t that it was undercooked, it just wasn’t very firm. The bacon was nice and crispy throughout, and the cheddar took a backseat to the bacon and bbq sauce. I just didn’t feel like a cowboy biting into this burger. The size was substantial enough, but the patty just didn’t have a great texture. The waffle fries were also pretty standard fare, as they tasted more like a blanched potato. I was hoping they would have a little seasoning to them, but they seemed to just be french fries served up a bit differently.

My girlfriend got the veggie burger and onion rings. The onion rings were rather good, but her veggie burger was nothing out of the ordinary. Everything we all ordered looked amazing, but just didn’t quite hold up. I’d be willing to give this place another shot if I were in the area again, but I can only think of what could have been at Red Mill instead.

If you are looking for a more gourmet-styled burger, this could definitely be your place. But if you want a typical cheeseburger and fries, you should look elsewhere.

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http://www.uneedaburger.com
4302 Fremont Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98103