The Burger Joint

Burger Joint has received more positive press and praise in the online chatter than, perhaps, any other burger-centric restaurant in Buenos Aires. I’ll give the owners credit for being among the first to bring an acceptable burger to Buenos Aires. But with a wave of burger joints opening over the past three or four years, Burger Joint is no longer deserves to be in the conversation about the best burgers in the city.

Ambiance? The decor is best described as messy. I'd overlook the fact that the menu is written on cardboard torn off a grocery box and taped to the walls and front window if they'd have hit a home run with the burger. I might even overlook that mess of aluminum cans sitting in the dining room (photo provided in the slider) if they were churning out some world-class burgers.

But, alas. Such is not the case.

Simply stated, the burgers just aren't that good. Okay … so they have a fancy ketchup. But the fries you squirt it on are cold and soggy (again, plainly evident in the photos). These are, perhaps, the worst French fries I’ve eaten in Buenos Aires. And they’re served in a brown paper sack that’s blotted with spots from the grease on the fries.

In the burgers I’ve had from Burger Joint, the meat was seasoned okay and cooked about right, but the ground-beef mix was sorely lacking in fat and thus, the burger wasn’t juicy and flavorful, like a good burger should be. The ingredients were thrown together in a sloppy manner. The bun was just as unimpressive.

Service? There is no service. You order at the cash register, pay for your burger (at a hefty price for an average burger in a shabby little dive) and then pick it up when they mispronounce your name. On my second visit it was very BUSY. At least a 30-minute wait to pick up my burger.

I thought my first barely average experience must have been a fluke. But my second visit only reaffirmed everything I'd learned on the first visit.

I’m baffled as to how this restaurant can receive so much praise.

After writing a scathing review three years ago, I was forced to conclude that even with all the shortcomings, it was still one of the best burgers in town, likely only trumped by the Pony Line burger and the one Banco Rojo was serving at that time. But with dozens of burger restaurants having opened in that span of time, and with almost every restaurant in the city having added a burger to the menu, Burger Joint has moved from unique to uniquely passé. It’s at best, an average burger in a below-average ambiance. One we’ve been forced to include in our list of the most overrated restaurants in the city.