Charred Burger + Bar — Restaurant in La Vista

WARNING ⚠️ FROZEN BURGERS ⚠️

If you love burgers and quality service, this place is NOT for you!

Me and my family had an unpleasant experience at this place. The prices are high and the burgers don't even come with sides so if you want one add a minimum of $4 to your bottom line. They advertise all their burgers to be wagyu patties. And when you think of wagyu you think tender and juicy. Well that's the opposite of what you'll experience here. Let's get into it...

The Atmosphere: This place has a trendy burger/bar feel to it so they nailed it with the name. It has a restaurant chain feel. The bathrooms are ok. Typical 2 stall restroom and sink. Definitely been in worse. Nothing noteworthy but that's where the praises end.

The Food: Remember the name because that describes how your food will be! They automatically cook your burgers to medium well or well (I guess that's up to their discretion according to our server). The reason for this is because they freeze their burger patties after they make them and then pull them out later to thaw and cook for you. So they basically can't cook a medium burger because all the juices have left that patty along with any flavor. My husband wanted a medium burger and it came out well done, dry and utterly flavorless. We asked the server if it was frozen and she said, "Oh no, we make them here and then freeze them. So they're fresh-frozen." After realizing her mistake in telling us (or after getting chewed out by management) she tried to come back and say it wasn't true and she was wrong. But as foodies ourselves with a long history of kitchen experience, we know the truth. I am a classically trained chef with almost two decades in the business so I know what went wrong. Also, we ordered chicken tenders for the kids and they were too hard for our littles to even chew.

The service: When we walked in the door we were ignored by everyone. Even a guy that looked like a manager who made eye contact and retreated to the kitchen. There was no host or bartender to talk to so we awkwardly stood there waiting for someone to acknowledge our existence. After we were sat things got better. Our server was polite and knowledgeable about the menu. When the food issues came up she tried to justify everything they did and offered no resolution afterwards.

Overall we paid $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids for crappy food and ok service. We will...

I hope this was just an off night for this new location (La Vista), but we were not impressed. We sat at the bar (arrived around 6:15 on Tuesday night) along with the 3 others who were already there. After about 5 minutes, the bar tender (Sadie E) acknowledged us, saying she would be right with us. Over the next 15-20 minutes, we watched her wait on others at the bar, visit multiple tables in the dining room and bar areas, fill multiple drink orders, and visit with numerous servers and the host. Another person arrived and sat next to us at the bar, and he waited, too. Finally, Saddle came to take our order (and that of the person next to us), so we ordered our drinks and food at the same time. Another 15+ minutes went by with similar activities happening. Then our food arrived, but still no drinks. We watched her give my husband's beer to the other customer and walk away. Thankfully, he stopped her after a few minutes to say the drink was not what he ordered, and she finally remembered to get us our drinks. She had to go look up what I ordered, but at least we got them before we finished our food. The food was another issue. Apparently, they now use garlic salt on their fries (not a fan), and that would have been good to know ahead of time. I used to love their fries! My husband chose to add bacon to his burger for the extra $2 (normally not an issue), and there was not even half a piece of bacon on it. Also, it didn't appear that these were fresh, hand pattied burgers anymore. Overall, it was bad enough that we won't be going back, at least to this location. I'm not sure if the Pacific Street location has gone this far downhill, but I'm not sure we'll go there again either,...

First time to Charred at this location, Saturday evening about 8pm (open till 10). The service was okay, no real issues but nothing stood out either, waiter checked in once but our water was never refilled nor were we asked about another round of drinks. Food was average or maybe slightly better, nice selection of burgers, with sides that are separate and available as single or shareable size (double the cost). I had the charred burger and fries, and it was served up in about 10 minutes. We had a couple of cocktails which were good but a tad weak for my taste. Again, typical. The atmosphere however.. Concrete floors and industrial ceilings, so it's loud to begin with, however the biggest issue was staff cleaning and dragging metal chairs across the concrete floor, very loud and distracting. Silverware being dropped, metal serving pans banged around, and staff yelling across the room, made for a less than enjoyable experience. It was obvious they were prepping to close even though it was an hour beforehand. Customer experience and environment should prevail over having everything done at closing time. Had the environment been better, we would have stayed longer and enjoyed a few more drinks. If you're planning on having a conversation, or just don't enjoy the painful screech of metal chairs on concrete by staff, look for another location. Oh, and the wait staff hands you the credit card reader and waits while you select a choice of 20, 22, or 25 percent tip. I selected "other" and provided a more appropriate tip which I still felt...