Louis Burgers IV sits at the corner of S Normandie Avenue and Carson Street in Torrance, CA. They serve up a variety of burgers along with other fast food selection, such as steak, fried chicken and Latin food (i.e. burritos, etc.). The stars are of course their burgers. Louis Burgers IV is a popular lunch destination for folks that not only live around the area but those that work in Torrance and within driving vicinity of this joint. As a matter of fact, this place is filled to the brim at lunch hours during weekdays and finding a parking spot for sit in dining is particularly difficult or non-existent. One of the reason why this place is so popular is because of the value for the food. Certainly, you get your money’s worth. That’s if you don’t have a discerning taste for burgers.
Fried Zucchini, $3.65
Craving for a side of fried zucchini? A $3.65 plate of fried zucchini is a meal in itself. Matter of fact, for two people each enjoying burgers individually, a side of zucchini may prove to be too much, as in with our case. We ended up eating half the fried zucchini and boxing it to go. Since this is a burger blog, let’s focus on the burgers.
Fried zucchini, where you can’t eat just one…but then you end up boxing it to-go!
One last word on the fried zucchini though: they are long and thick cut, fried-to-perfection delicious, served with two side of ranch dip and seasoned with the same seasoning they use on their French fries. I highly recommend it being the fried zucchini fan that I am.
California Burger, $4.75
The California Burger is big, loaded with bacon, American cheese, shredded iceberg lettuce, topped with copious slices of avocado and sandwiched between a sesame seed bun. Can’t go wrong, right? Actually, wrong. Value wise, this thing is well worth the money, especially if you’re hungry and just craving a big burger to satisfy your carnivorous craving. Taste wise, bland doesn’t begin to describe how this burger taste. I say it taste bland because the beef patty itself is pretty thin and cooked well done, so it’s already dry to begin with. As for the taste, it’s as basic as it gets. I can probably achieve the same taste by shaping store bought ground beef into burger patties, sprinkling them with pepper and salt and then toss them into the grill until it’s cooked well done.
The overdoes of shredded lettuce serves no purpose than to pad the burger and to make it more difficult to eat. The bacons didn’t add to the overall taste of the burger either. As a matter of fact, it could’ve been cooked for maybe a minute longer to bring out the crispy-crunchity texture of bacon we’ve all come to love in our burger. Nope, the bacon here were pretty flimsy and limp. The avocado slices are fresh, so that’s good to see – but they were not taken out of their shell properly. I could see sliver of avocado skin on various slices of the avocado on my burger. Not a big deal. The buns were relatively dry, but they held up and did a good job cradling the burger stack ’til the very end.
American cheese, bacon and avocado – your generic California Burger!
Mushroom Burger, $4.25
We went to Louis since I had heard so much about it from Steve, and he had gone here several times on his lunch break from work. When we arrived there was a copious amount of people in the parking lot, so I thought, this place must be that good! When I actually had a taste of the burger however, I realized it might be because a) the servings are ridiculously charge and b) the burgers were good for the price point. However, if you’re a burger connoisseur or a serious burger enthusiast, your rating of the Mushroom burger below might fall below 3.5. The burger patty was quite bland and a bit dry. It needed more seasoning. The burger was watery but not deliciously juicy. There were way too many pickles in this burger — much more than I would have liked. The bun was a textbook burger bun, nothing special to that.
The Mushroom Burger
If you’re just hungry though, and you simply want to eat a lot of food and be painfully full, then this is the place to go. If you want a bucketful of side dishes for only a fraction of the price, then this is the place to go. If you’re looking for gourmet burger with extraordinary taste, unfortunately this is NOT the place to go.
Louis Burgers IV
1311 W Carson St,
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 320-0022
Hours
7:00 AM – 11:59 PM daily