California Burger — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

I had a chance to visit California Burger for lunch with a group of people and I thought it was a fairly usual fast food burger place vibe. Our group thought all of the food was very good. The bacon when placed on a burger or a sandwich really needs to be more on the crispy side. I normally like my bacon on a plate more chewy but on a sandwich you need to be able to just bite right through it. This is confirmation on what I had heard about the bacon on the sandwiches here. The bacon is super chewy so be prepared to have to bite through it really hard or to be pulling the bacon out of the sandwich with your teeth and just eating the slice by itself.

I really like the sauce that's on just about all of the burgers. It really went well with the bacon, avocado, and lettuce on my sandwich.

Our party ordered the California melt, the avocado bacon with lettuce wrap, and the fish sandwich. We thought everything was very flavorful.

The fries are thick cut crinkle cut fries. I thought the seasoning on the fries was good and they were a nice crispy texture on the outside. I'm just not a huge fan of the thick fries because the inside is more mushy potato. But overall I thought the fries were good.

A word about the low atmosphere rating. There were very few workers seemingly like every place these days so the cleanliness of the place was suffering. It didn't help that some numbskull decided to walk through the place with boots covered in mud. It's too bad that the staff wasn't able to keep up with the cleaning that day but idiots dragging dirt and mud around the restaurant doesn't help.

Overall I would say everything was great and it will be making a trip back to try some...

Wanted to try this place out due to many recommendations from friends and co workers. The food itself was pretty good although a bit overpriced in my opinion but anyways now to the bad.

Ordered a western burger combo with an extra onion ring on the sandwich: got up-charged a whole $1 for a single onion ring which they didn’t even disclose that there would be an up-charge; which when I got home they didn’t even ADD it onto the sandwich LOL I mean if you’re gonna charge me a $1 for one onion ring at least put the damn thing on there. Second didn’t even get my fries with the combo. Third I asked if I can substitute the drink for a bottle of water which they said was fine again only to find out on the receipt this was an extra 40 cent charge… I mean WHAT??? Who charges extra when substituting a bottle of water in a combo; and if anything at least DISCLOSE it. Oh also fun part there isn’t even a working phone number listed on google to call and explain so A+ customer care there.

Like I said food was alright; don’t know if I’d have gone back due to the pricing either way when the food really isn’t anything special; I think they’re getting by on the “California” theme justifying their higher prices. Definitely won’t...

After waiting an inordinate amount of time for the dining room to open, I finally got a chance to sit down and try this place out.

Two things really stood out to me; the quality of the meat, and the fries.

First, the fries: Crinkle Cut, firm, freshly fried, and perfectly cooked to that crunchy outside with the wonderful soft inside. Easily earned a spot in the top 5 fries in Fort Wayne. The seasoning is tasty, a mix of seasoned salt and a bit of Cajun, with some sweet element to it that I want to say is maybe brown sugar. Worth going for a basket of fries alone.

The burger: Hot Dang, that was a great burger. The meat quality was immediately apparent, as was the preparation. It wasn't just meat put on a hot griddle, there was care and forethought put into this, dare I say, a prepared recipe. Just the right amount of seasoning for the meat, and a wonderful umami throughout.

The atmosphere is really the only thing that drags this place down even a little bit: it's very plain, but not obnoxiously so. It has two TVs tuned to sports and some generic pop music playing over some speakers. It very much says, "you can eat here, but we'd much prefer if you used the drive thru."

But still, easily a top burger joint...