The Stand - American Classics Redefined — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Family dinner at The Stand tonight. Our first time there. We're a family of 3 vegetarians (2 adults and a picky eater kid) We don't normally seek out burger joints, but occasionally like to check out veggie burger options to have the "all American" experience. The Stand put a lot of thought into their brand...nicely designed restaurants, menus and modern amenities give a nice hybrid feel between classic burger joint and modern establishment. There are lots of salad options, a veggie burger, several different french fry options, and even a vegetable side special (in this case it was a brussels sprouts dish.)

I ordered the "Onion Stack" burger with a veggie burger and without the bacon...comes with BBQ sauce, lettuce, roasted tomatoes and cheddar cheese. I didn't like the veggie burger. This was one of those rice concoctions...they try to excite you with "house made" but falls apart too easily...kind of had an almost falafel texture to it which is great when it's falafel, but doesn't really give you a good veggie burger or faux meat experience. They also got the order wrong and it didn't come with the roasted tomatoes listed in the ingredients for the Onion Stack. Presentation wasn't great either...you shouldn't necessarily expect the same look you get in the "food model" pictures, but this was done right hurried and messy. The fries I ordered with it weren't particularly hot or crispy.

My wife ordered the kale salad (without the bacon). It was way oversaturated with the lemon sesame vinaigrette and it made the whole thing not at all enjoyable to her.

Also the sweet potato fries she ordered were over done, bordering on burnt.

With so many build-to-order hot dog and sausage options, I would have loved to see a veggie sausage and/or veggie dog option on the menu. (so would our kid have...)

The brussels sprouts, which we didn't have looked really good and kudos for having several beers on top as well.

We're definitely not going to rush back to the Stand, though if they changed the veggie burger to give a more classic "burger" like experience and added a veggie burger or vegan sausage option we'd definitely give it...

Any place that can make a burger my kids and wife actually will eat gets an automatic 5 star.

Picky eaters .... well you know.

Service was great, learned a lot about their craft from talking to the head chef that happened to be there. For instance their short rib grilled cheese is so good because it's marinated and cooked slowly for 6 hours before its deboned and ready to serve.

Most of the seating is outdoors. Today, not such a great day for that, as 8t was raining. Inside the ambiance is great, it has a welcoming feeling, and you don't feel like you are being corralled, like a cow waiting to be slaughtered.

I ordered a few things.

Turkey burger version of the Mushroom Havarti, substituting the normal ability with jalapeño, for sweet chili aioli. (The wife's call not mine. I had the normal version of this on a chicken sandwhich version and I'd say it tasted great.) Regardless she loved it.

I ordered a backup of the onion ring with hickory and bacon burger just in case she didn't like what she ordered.... yeah it was wolfed down too.

I ordered the grilled cheese and short rib. By the time I got to it she had eaten a quarter to try... good thing she was full.... absolutely delicious.

The kids got turkey burgers. They thoroughly enjoyed them. A big win here, they don't nor.ally like burgers.

The kids, as a side, got the Mac and cheese... gone in seconds.

This place has been around for a while, but it took me going to Dragonfly Acupuncture behind them, to get me to try it. Good thing too, because I'll be coming back since I'll be having quite a few sessions there.

Hats off to great food and...

Wow. Don't know quite where to start with this review. The location itself is decent. Well maintained and the staff is nice. That's the only reason. I gave it two stars instead of one. My wife and I have driven past this location for two years and told ourselves that we were gonna try it. We finally did today and the food is something else. My wife ordered the cilantro lime chicken sandwich and I ordered the onion stack burger with sweet potato fries. She like hers but didn't feel like it was anything special, saying "I just feel like it's something I could have made myself at home without much effort."

My burger was cold, the "onion rings" on the burger were more like Funion ring chips... And more like onion strands than rings. Those were stale, mushy, and tasteless. The burger wasn't seasoned at all. I made a better burger at the grill of our apartment yesterday, which is super disappointing especially if you go out with an expectation of it being something unique and special. I literally can't believe we just spent $36 on this dinner. My wife and I ALWAYS finish our food and we couldn't get halfway through it before tossing it.

If you're about that Instagram life of things being more surface level than of actual substance, by all means, come to this restaurant... Just make sure you set your expectations to be below average. My wife and I will be keeping out business with The Habit because they make bomb burgers every time. Less flash, but way more delicious. Just...