Fully Stocked (Condiment) Bar

13 October 2006-
Slider's Diner: 1204 Sutter Street in San Francisco
Cost: $6.25 (bacon cheeseburger, onion rings extra)

Image Source: blogger's own

The condiment bar at Slider's is comparable to many salad bars in the financial district. It's really got everything you could imagine dressing a burger with, such as olives, sprouts, eggs, carrots, radishes and beets. Maybe it is a salad bar, and the ingredients aren't meant to be added to the burger. Regardless, you can literally get your money's worth by coming here and loading up on the condiments.

The burger is not meager by any means. I ordered their bacon cheeseburger with provolone and chose "rare" as the grilling preference and a side of onion rings. The burger (as photographed above) did not have the pile of fixings I loaded on afterwards. The mound of bacon was also tremendous, and I had a little difficulty at first, grappling the burger and attempting to fit it in my mouth.

Verdict: The burger was definitely "rare" and oozed plenty of burger juices. I noticed that the bun wasn't really properly toasted, but I presumed that a lot of water inherent in the vegetables contributed as much to the overly soggy bun as the burger juices. It's times like this, that I wish I had properly assembled the burger (given the fact that there was a condiment bar and I chose the toppings and their placement).

For future reference, I would highly recommend that burgers highly susceptible to overflowing burger juices are properly sheathed with two layers of a semi-impermeable vapor barrier. I would suggest that one sheaths the immediate inside layers of the bun with a continuous lettuce leaf. In theory, any moisture from the patty will be redirected outside without ever penetrating the lettuce membrane to the bun. Another suggestion would be to cook the patty drier or to actually properly toast the bun. I can't stress this enough guys, bun toasting not only makes the burger taste better, it also decreases the susceptibility of soggy burger buns.

Anyway, the condiment bar at Slider's is definitely an added incentive to the burger experience. However a decent burger, I wish the patty itself had a little more flavor.