The Counter — Restaurant in Ladera Ranch

If your having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 Reviews and McDonald's ain't one. Hit me! Okay maybe my review writing career will last longer than my hiphop career. Time to review some burgers.

After a long time of waiting I finally tried The Counter. I have put off trying because of the menu prices and wanted to save it for a special occasion. My friend decided to take me out so I thought why not. Not to sound cheap, but price and value is very important especially if you are huge burger fan like myself. Of course, if price is not any options then I could easily eat everything on the menu and I would be driving a Ferrari and go home to multi-million dollar mansion in Newport Beach. Until then, we do have to consider is it worth it?

The menu was a bit confusing. I felt like I was applying for a job when I received a clip board with a bunch of different options. I decided to just go with the classic Counter Burger and a shake, because I didn't want to make my friend go broke by treating me. All-Natural Ground Beef, provolone, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, sautéed mushrooms, and sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. It was pretty taste and around 1/3 pound. I easily finished in probably 5 bites or less. It was good better than Ruby's, Red Robin, and Johnny Rocket's (not saying much). My friend also ordered the same item only I got a strawberry shake and my friend got Peanut butter. If you take away the atmosphere and the fancy menu and ate the burger. You probably would not guess it was from The Counter. To me it was just a burger. Next time I will try to customize a burger. Its all about the MEAT!! The toppings are just add-ons. The toppings won't may Yogurtland better. Just like add one's to a scion will not change the fact it's a scion.

Burger lovers you may agree with me. Give me lettuces, tomatoes, onions, a bun, and some quality meat that's all I need. Maybe some ketchup, mustard, or barbecue sauce and bacon, but nothing more and nothing less. My feeling of The Counter is "just okay". If you give me a free gift card for $50 maybe I will change my review. I actually had Fudruckers for dinner after having The Counter for lunch. Crazy? Really? Not that crazy considering how it brought tears to my eyes when I chomp down my 1 Lb burger, onion rings, and shake at Fudruckers that was 3 times cheaper, 3 times the meat, customizable, and 3 times better tasting.

The Counter you are maybe number 2 or 3 in my book. Until we meet again.. I recommend only if you have the cash to throw around, but if you want a Great Burger...

Very VERY disappointed in our dinner tonight. I have not been to this location and I will NOT be back. I never do reviews, so it was SOOO bad I needed to come on here.

Me and my girlfriend got takeout, so I can not speak on the service or atmosphere, but the outside looked nice and well put together, but the inside was pretty bland.

The good: The outside if you dine in looks nice and pleasant. Plenty of things you can add / customize your burger. So very friendly for anyone that likes things a certain way.

Now the bad, and there is a lot of it:

Let me preface by saying I got there early and waited for our food, so our food wasnt sitting for a while (at least not on my end). Every single item we got was BAD! Shoestring onion rings were not crispy and were soggy.

I got a burger with a salad and asked for it to be medium well, which online says slightly pink. It was full on pink throughout (as was my gfs burger, so we had to grill ours more.

I got thousand island dressing on the side, and the dressing tasted like soap! Which ruined my entire meal. On top of it the salad was very plain and without any flavor (as was the burger) even though I asked for cucumbers, pickles, peppers, carrots etc.

My gfs burger was as I said also undercooked and was nothing special at all. No flavor or seasoning.

Im sorry but $45 for 2 burgers and a side of onion rings is RIDICULOUS. My gf threw half her food away, I threw 80% away and we ate maybe half of the onion rings.

Do yourself a favor and go to McDonalds in the same shopping center for a cheaper better burger and I dont even like McDonalds.

Will...

I'm a burger fanatic. I love my all-American beef patties. I like the fact that the Counter uses Angus beef that is not tainted by hormones and antibiotics. It's worth the extra $$ for that piece of mind.

I was a tad disappointed by the lack of seasoning on my beef burger though. I must say that they probably are cooking for low-sodium diets because there was definitely no salt in the patty. They do make up for it by the variety of sauces they offer. I ordered the build-your-own burger with: roasted red peppers, pepperoncinis, grilled onions, pepper jack, baby greens, maple cured bacon and the garlic aioli sauce. I was amazed that they got all 6 ingredients onto the burger without it sliding off. It was a little difficult to eat because everything I ordered slid off the burger. Even so, it was tasty but not the burger of my dreams. The "medium" was more pink than I bargained for but the burger was juicy. The sweet potato fries were very good and we got a healthy serving for two. The spicy horseradish mayo that accompanied the fries was just ok. This place reminded me of a pricier Chipotle for hamburgers, from the build your own style, to the steel-minimalistic look of the furniture. 3 stars for the variety of ingredients, taste, and service. I was not WOW-ed. Maybe a return visit will attain a...