“Step into The Counter and you’re greeted with a clipboard and an extensive list of fresh mouth-watering ingredients that allow you to build your own gourmet burger” – that’s taken straight out of The Counter’s web site and is true to their words. It is rare that we encounter a burger joint that’s deserving of a 5-patty rating, which makes The Counter in Torrance truly a diamond in the rough. The Counter is neatly tucked within the Village Del Amo plaza along Hawthorne Blvd. While there are limited parking spaces right in front of The Counter’s share of the real estate, I recommend avoiding parking there especially since there are plenty of parking spaces in and around the plaza. Unless, and that’s a big unless – unless you can readily see a spot available. The reason is the parking is an inlet peninsula from the rest of the plaza with a dead-end. If you enter The Counter’s partition of the parking spaces and all the parking spaces are occupied, you’ll need to make a 3-point-turn at the dead-end to get out. Not fun if your ride is a full size sedan, or if you drive a pickup.
Parking situation aside, The Counter is a sit-in full service burger restaurant that also serves beer, wine and mixed drinks. Seating options include tables, booths and counters. For first timers like us at The Counter, a waiter will provide you with a menu and an ordering sheet and then go through the entire ordering process with you. This is perhaps the most involved cheeseburger ordering process we’ve experienced, but efficiently executed.
Ordering menu at The Counter – Torrance, CA
There are six steps to effortlessly placing an order at The Counter:
- Choose a burger. Here, you choose the amount of beef you’d like on your patty, 1/3 lb., 1/2 lb or a whopping 1 lb. Your choice of meat (hormone & antibiotic free, 100% natural ground turkey, homemade vegan veggie, 100% natural chicken breast, ahi tuna, organic bison or ), and whether you’d like your package in a bun or in a bowl.
- Choose a cheese. Plenty of cheese to choose from, from regulars such as yellow American, sharp Provolone, spicy jalapeño jack, savory swiss, Greek feta, Tillamook cheddar to premium cheese such as Gruyere at a premium.
- Choose a sauce.
- Choose unlimited toppings. The regular toppings are free, while the premium toppings are $1 each.
- Choose a bun.
- Choose a side.
Of course if you do not like making choices, The Counter’s menu offers a wide selection of popular pre-assembled burgers and bowls that you can order without laying a hand on the clipboard.
The Counter prides itself in sourcing locally sourced and sustainable protein, cheese, topping, sauce and bun choices from their local network of chefs. This decision is transferred to the top shelf taste quality of the ingredients in their burgers.
The Counter’s interior setup
Abi’s Take
Before I stepped into The Counter, the only things I really knew about it was that it was in the neighborhood and that it was a build-your-own type of burger joint. Although the interior is relatively plain, the place was surprisingly spacious. What’s unique about this joint is that they actually have a bar that serves a variety of adult (read: alcoholic) drinks, which allows customers to enjoy a burger from their imagination with an equally creative and tasty drink. The menu looks like a binder/clipboard which gives each customer a form to fill out: a form where you can check away options for your patty, bun, basic toppings and premium toppings. You can even have the burger salad style if you’re one of those health-conscious eaters who’s afraid of bread! Deciding between a The Counter pre-constructed menu item or a burger that relegates me to the role of executive chef, I decided to take the plunge and be adventurous. I built my own burger! Boy, I am glad I did.
My burger options:
- 1/3 lb hormone and antibiotic free beef
- Brioche Style Bun
- Sauteed Mushrooms
- Savory Swiss Cheese
- Roasted Garlic Aioli
- Ripened Red Tomatoes
- Roasted Red Peppers
- Baby Spinach
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes
I was excited as to what my creation would actually look and taste like (and maybe a tad bit anxious!) What if it all tastes funny put together? I guess that’s the fun in eating a burger at The Counter: you get to decide what goes into your burger and you get to eagerly anticipate how your creation turns out. Once I bit into my burger, I immediately gave it a 5-star rating. There was simply no way they can fail with a well-seasoned, juicy and scrumptious beef patty. Although it seems like I put way too much toppings (I was half-expecting a meter-stack of food), they portioned the ingredients out well which made for a well put-together burger. The mushrooms were also well seasoned, and everything went well with the garlic aioli. The swiss cheese went perfectly with the mushrooms, and was melted just right. The addition of the spinach brought a different twist to the burger. I intentionally left out the lettuce, which you can get anywhere, and opted for a greener green on my burger. The Bun was also the right combination of crispiness and softness. All-in-all, I was very satisfied with how my burger turned out.
Another point for The Counter: the drinks are as much fun as the burgers are! I ordered an adult Bananas Foster Shake, which satisfied two cravings: something sweet and something adventurous (that’s euphemizing alcoholic, wink wink). Although on the pricey side – my shake was 9 dollars – it completed an already exceptional meal.
I would come back to The Counter in a heartbeat. Phenomenal burgers, spectacular drinks, and stellar service. What more can a burger connoisseur ask for?
Custom built mushroom swiss burger with baby spinach
Steve’s Take
For my burger, I ordered a traditional burger on buns that consists of 1/3 lb. Hormone and antibiotic-free beef patty, lettuce mix, Bermuda red onion, dill pickle chips, Thousand Island sauce and a slice of American cheese all stacked between a brioche bun. I also ordered a side of sweet potato fries to share with Abi.
Our burgers took about 12 minutes to arrive. And when it did, it gloriously arrived in a white rectangular dish that you’d expect to find at sit-in restaurants and diners, not at your typical burger joint. The burgers were presented with the top bun down (nicely toasted, might I add), exposing the neat stack of unlimited fresh toppings, followed by your choice of cheese, followed by fresh veggies. At first, it was hard to discern the size of my beef patty, since the slice of good ol’ American cheese melted nicely all over it. I even thought at 1/3 lb. of Angus beef may not be adequate. Well, boy was I wrong…
The blanket of cheese conceals the true girth of this bad boy
I had to rotate the burger to see the beef patty eclipsing everything else on the stack. As the beef reflects the filtered light, speckles of ground pepper dotting the beefy patty made themselves visible – a tell-tale sign of a well seasoned patty. I kid you not when I say that the 1/3 lb. Angus beef patty is about the same thickness as the top brioche bun. It is packed neat and tightly with a slightly concaved surface, making it hard to keep the patty from sliding around while I held it between the buns with my hands. The thickness of the burger package also prompted me to perform gymnastic maneuvers with my hands to get a bite out of it. All this work with a relatively minimalist burger – just your traditional cheeseburger with lettuce, pickles, onion, patty and sauce.
My minimalist traditional cheeseburger
So how does it taste? Words can only describe an experience so far. Eating this burger is not just pleasurable, it is an experience. The beef patty was seasoned and cooked to perfection with spot-on meat to fat ratio, seared brown on the crust but nice and juicy pink at the center. You can actually taste the seasoning on this bad boy, right down to the salt and the pepper. It is seasoned just enough to enhance the beefy flavor of the patty, but not overpower it. The burger patty was so juicy that it took 4 napkins to help holster this delectable bad boy without making a mess out of myself. The ingredients were spot on and as fresh as they can be. I judge the quality of a burger’s ingredients by first looking at the lettuce used followed by the tomato. Is the lettuce green and crisp (none of that iceberg lettuce crap)? Is the tomato red, juicy (but not soggy) and bolsters a bold heirloom flavor? Both ingredients were in check.
The Counter’s 1/3 lb. of 100% hormone and antibiotic free Angus beef patties
The brioche bun is the only ingredient I find that needed improvement, but it doesn’t bring down the overall satisfaction of this delightful, saliva inducing, taste bud exploding burger experience of euphoric proportion. Not at all. It’s just stiffer than a typical brioche bun should be. A good brioche bun should be fluffy and airy, moist and pushes back like an accordion when you push down on it but also cradles the patty firmly like a memory foam mattress. The Counter’s brioche buns were kind of the opposite; it is stiff, it does not push back and it cradled the patty like a wooden cot than a memory foam mattress. The buns actually feels kind of like a soften bagel. It was one of the reason my patty was sliding back and forth as I try to bite into it. Overall, still a memorable burger eating experience.
Step aside In-n-Out, The Counter is truly what a hamburger’s all about!
The Counter
http://www.thecounterburger.com/
21209-B Hawthorne Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 406-3300
Hours
Mon-Thurs: 11:00 AM – 9:30 PM
Fri-Sat: 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Sun: 11:30 AM – 9:00 PM