Burger Bench Escondido — Restaurant in Escondido

Latest food adventure: Burger Bench in Escondido.

Cool ambiance, decent food, and prices not too outrageous. Will give it another shot. Deserves a "B."

I had a slider sampler with three burgers. The good, all the burgers were cooked to a perfect, juicy medium. The bad, they were all under seasoned and the buns were somewhat bland. I wouldn't mind coming back to try actual burgers given that the meat to bun ratio is significantly different.

Prioritized from most to least favorite:

1. Smokehouse: this burger had the most garnishes, with the thick salty bacon and the fried onion. These helped with the taste significantly with the under-seasoned burger. A solid B+.
2. Mushroom Swiss: I assume if I had this in full size, this would have been my favorite. The cheese was very nice but there was very little mushroom in the slider. The patty tasted especially juicy and was enjoyable. This gets a B.
3. Fig Jam: really looked forward to try this one given it's the most unique of the bunch. But with few salty condiments added, coupled with the under-seasoned patty, it tasted somewhat bland with the sweet jam almost overpowering the burger. Only gets a C+ for a well cooked patty.

I also took a bite of my wife's Golden Rooster slider and I felt this was definitely the weakest of the bunch. The chicken patty was dry and represented the frozen chicken sandwiches I bought from Costco. I can only give this a C.

Arugula salad was nice - very generous with the arugula, apples and cheese in a sweet, tangy, refreshing vinagrette. And the fried chickpeas definitely highlighted the salad adding interesting texture. This gets a B+.

Fries - tasted fresh. Would prefer a little more frying, and the spicy chili dipping sauce (I'm pretty sure with added garlic flavor) was great! Ultimately, it did satisfy by fries craving, and deserves a solid B.

I'll likely give it another shot, definitely skipping the chicken sandwiches and...

I am shocked this place is highly rated and other reviews dont say anything about their table system because… Worst waiting/ ordering system we have ever experienced. We were told a 30 min wait for the table, but overall wait time was over 1hr and 20 mins to be exact. People were cutting the line to order, and when we asked the hostess about that, we were told they are getting their food to go. NOPE, this family got to the restaurant at least 20 mins after us and cut the line, but they sat at the table and ate their food even before we were able to order. Unacceptable. Someone should be regulating and making sure this doesn’t happen. Extremely disrespectful of other customers time. There is a reason why no other restaurant do this… it simply doesn’t work well. When we finally got the order, tots were missing. When I asked the server, they told us we didn’t order and told us to go back to the line and reorder. We were pretty sure we ordered… went back to the line and told the guy at the register. He said, oh ordering extra tots? He obviously made a mistake with our order. I really didn’t appreciate that I had to go back to the line and waste even more time. Terrible customer service. If you go, make sure you check your receipts at the register. Lastly, the food… We ordered the sliders off the kids menu for our toddler. The buns were so burnt. No one should be feeding their kids super black burnt buns. The burger was so dry that our toddler didn’t want to eat any… she only ate the fries. Our bench burger was also super dry, and the inferno burger had the thinnest chicken piece. I wish someone stopped by our table to ask how we were doing because we would have said something. Basically we received no...

Cheerful service, kid friendly, perfect cook on the burgers.

The place is clean, has outdoor seating with heat lamps, and multiple high chairs and booster seats.

I ordered the SmokeHouse burger and was asked if medium was okay. It was. It SO was. It was a wonderful combination of sweet and Smoky with a perfect all over cook. I think I easily got the best burger out of the whole family.

I let the kids try sliders and mini corndogs in the hopes that they need SOMETHING. That something was mostly my burger. Photos attached of all three.

I ended up trying more of my children's sliders than they did. The Rooster was a close second to my smokehouse Burger. The slaw was exceptional and I wish I would have gotten more of it before my children picked it out. The other one was a smokehouse and the fig burger. The fig jam was great but a distant third to the others.

They had about 12 to 20 beers on tap. Solid selection with fun local names that I could recognize.

Very tolerant and friendly with my kids, although I'd probably pass on taking them here as babies, as it is often busy and crowded and most likely overstimulating.

Still, I am a big fan of this place and their kids menu. They also have a solid shake selection and two gender-neutral bathrooms. The pool place was also handicap accessible.

Explicitly...