Gourmet Burger — Restaurant in Santa Ana

I apologize for the novel! But hear me out! As a regular of that restaurant for 18years, I have a lot to say! It was a rollercoaster ride!

They changed owners many times. Which means the food taste changes as well. The very 1st owners of Gourmet burger were amazing people! Their food were so delicious, fair prices with very good customers services. They worked fast as well! We used to come eat at this place almost every week end for a +10 years. We were regulars! Couple years back they sold their restaurant and new owners came along. The quality of the food dropped drastically! The service was horribly slow and rude, so we didn't order their as much as we used to. Couple months later we tried again, nothing improved. The food were very dry and hard. The sauce didn't taste as great and the service was so slow and unfriendly. It took them a good 45min just to give us 1 order of wings combo, 2chicken tenders and a Double Burger combo. So we stopped ordering there. Few years go by and we heard they changed owners, so we tried again, unfortunately it was as bad as the previous owner. The service was a tad bit faster but the taste of the food was ok. After that we didn't order anymore for a couple years. Then ( the Fire nation attacked!) 😁 After a long tiring hike we decided to try there again , we saw that they changed owners again. They received us with huge smile. The cashier was very patient and helpful with the new menu. She let us taste the different sauces! We ordered 3 wings combo with different sauces 1 double burger combo. Within 10min all the food were on our table piping hot! The food tasted amazing!!! Yes, the taste of Gourmet burger is back baby! The best part is : they are open from 11am to 2am!😱

I recommend this...

This was our first food stop on our drive from LA to San Diego. In addition to our Halal dietary preference, it was difficult to find restaurants that offered dine in options, due to the pandemic. Meeting our strict Halal restaurant criteria of a halal menu and not serving alcohol, we decided to give this spot a go.

The interior was spacious, with outside seating accessible through the restaurant. The employees were friendly, but they could use some more training on their cash register/ordering software. He had to call the manager a few times when customizing our order.

We ordered the Spicy Burger and the Straw Onion Burger, both with cheese fries. There’s an option to make any burger a double for an additional $2, so why not. Unfortunately, there was nothing gourmet about the burgers. The patties were undercooked, and pretty dry. They were nothing like the reviews or pictures we expected. The spicy burger had jalapeños, while the straw onion burger had onion rings. There was barely any cheese in the burger or on the cheese fries. I liked the Sultan Black Seed drink in the fridge. I tried the Dates flavor, and while I expected it to be bitter like black seed, it was fruity.

While the food could use some improvements, the employees and manager were friendly. I did see an employee in the back not handling the lettuce sanitarily (no gloves). They may want to properly train the employees in sanitary food handling, especially during the pandemic. Also, please update the glitchy ordering software, and train the...

I was going to rate this 3 stars because the food is just so-so but the prices make up for it even though it’s halal but they usually mess something up with my order.

However after my experience tonight, I have to leave just 1 star. I called them to place a to go order. Most times I call 1 of 2 things happen. 1 the call goes straight to voicemail, or 2 they answer and put me on hold for so long I need to call again. Tonight both these things happened. Finally when I was able to place the order, I ordered the old fashion burger no cheese because I can’t have it (which is how it is on the menu and they charge extra for the cheese) plus combo.

Well I picked up the food and got home to find out that they not only put cheese on the burger but also charged me for it and never gave me the combo. But this isn’t the reason for the 1 star.

I called them back to find out what happened and see what they can do to fix it. At first they offered to remake it which was nice but I declined because I didn’t want to drive all the way back to get it. So they said they would close the store down for me and deliver the burger. I asked why they were being sarcastic about this and they said they were being serious and then hung up.

Absolutely unprofessional and I will definitely be telling my friends that have been regulars here since they were kids about this.

I don’t know if it helps but the name on the ticket of the server was Ahmed K. It sounded like the guy I talked to...