I found the fries to be soggy, dark brown and unimpressive. Highly doubt they are using the traditional double fry method.

bobby z wrote:I found the fries to be soggy, dark brown and unimpressive. Highly doubt they are using the traditional double fry method.

If they used the double fry method on my visit last week, the second fry was at too low a temperature . . . that's the only way I can explain the somewhat limp fries (again, assuming a second fry) . . . although I enjoyed the flavor.

I have been twice now and the food is pretty good. The first time I went, we split the fried cheese curds which was really good, but hell who doesn't love fried cheese. I ordered the steak frites b/c I am a bernaise addict and it was good, just boring as somoeone stated before it's a 1/3 pound burger with only a "beer-naise" sauce on top, nothing else. Now, the second time I went, I decided to order the pork sandwich that is served on a pretzel bun and has a nice beer cheese sauce on it made out of Dortmunder (I believe...) and it was really good. I would recommend this sandwich to anyone, a healthy amount of pork was pilled high on this sandwich and the sauce is ample as well.

All in all, if you want decent food and don't want to wait, go. The beer list is better than the usual.

GAF wrote:I ordered the Black and Blue Burger and was disappointed on many counts. Let me first emphasize that it was not a bad burger. It was OK (although not cheap at $9). I ordered my burger "rare," and the server repeated "rare" so I know that she heard it. The burger that was served was medium-rare/medium. Not rare in any imagining. Add to this, there was not a lot of blackening or blue cheese, and a white-bread bun that was pretty tasteless (although it did hold up). But this was far from an outstanding burger, although the meat itself was clearly of high quality.

I had this burger last night. I agree that there's not a lot of blackening, but I loved the blue cheese sauce. I ordered the sauce on the side so I had quite a bit of sauce but I think a little goes a long way so I had plenty of sauce left over (it was a very good dip for my french fries). The sauce was a little chunky and also contained what I believe were diced onions, but it also delivered a nice, strong blue cheese flavor.

Fries were good but again a little too salty. We also ordered the poutine. It was ok, but I was not so impressed (nor was my Canadian friend). The gravy tastes more of the beer-naise which I suppose would be fine, but I really wanted more of a rich (and less tangy) gravy. Also, we were both used to poutine which is more of a smothered dish. Here, it seemed like the gravy and curds were just thrown on at the last minute, and not really mixed thoroughly. All in all, it was ok but it paled in comparison to many a poutine I've enjoyed in Canada.

Service again was excellent. I really like the people that work here. They're upbeat, friendly and very accommodating. Also, what a great beer list. I might not love every aspect of the food here, but I like the place and will continue to return.

I made it to The Bad Apple Last night for my friend's birthday. Started off with a JK Scrumpy's Hard Cider, if only for the irony (a good apple in The Bad Apple?) and got their standard burger, ordered medium. Consensus with the burgers around the table is that they were cooked a tad under what was order - my medium, for example, was quite pink and dripped a bit of blood. Nevertheless, it was supported with a significant char that gave it a nice textural balance between the loose, cool grain in the center and the crispy exterior. Meat quality was definitely a noticeable step above the norm, and I was also really happy with the soft bun. Fries were cooked to near perfect by my standards; I'd compare them to Wendy's, but clearly more fresh. Some crispy (that could be snapped in two), some a little softer (more bendable), with light seasoning. All in all, a pretty substantial plate of food that, contrary to what others have suggested, left me more than full (and I'm a lifetime member of the Clean Plate Club). The beer range was expansive, with a couple of really thoughtful, small-batch or seasonal selections, like a bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Brown Goose, and my old standby, Left Hand Milk Stout (thankfully nitrogenated).
Another guest proposed comparing The Bad Apple to Kuma's, which hadn't really crossed my mind, but I do think I would compare the two in the future. The Bad Apple is so much closer to me, and although the ambiance will never reach the heights that Kuma's cultivates so well, in every other regard it is 8 or 9/10's of the way there. When the latter proves too ambitious for a beer-and-burger night, I'll gladly return to The Bad Apple.

grahamhh wrote: Consensus with the burgers around the table is that they were cooked a tad under what was order - my medium, for example, was quite pink and dripped a bit of blood.

graham,

Glad you liked the Bad Apple. I do too. The above highlights a common challenge restaurants face when trying to please customers with burger doneness. Your description ("quite pink and dripped a little blood") sounds exacly like medium to me.

Kenny

I know where you're coming from, Kenny. I think what I did was hedge a bit when ordering "medium", expecting "bar medium", when the result was cooked more "steakhouse medium." In any case, I'm not picky about my burgers - in fact, I'm a recently reformed medium-weller. I was pleased.

Their beer list is fantastic! And our server was so nice and timely.

The fries, though, were way too salty! The veggie burger tasted like it had tablespoon of sugar mixed in. The feta and red pepper on top of my 'Dracula's Revenge' burger also tasted salty and oily in a cheap way, rather than fresh like I was hoping. The inside of my burger was nicely pink, but the outside somehow had a lot of char on it, which, although it provided some crunch, got in the way of the meat taste.

I'd gladly go back for a drink (three drinks!), but not as gladly for the food. Although it's probably unfair to make that decision just based on one visit.

i<3pizza wrote:Their beer list is fantastic! And our server was so nice and timely.

The fries, though, were way too salty! ... The inside of my burger was nicely pink, but the outside somehow had a lot of char on it, which, although it provided some crunch, got in the way of the meat taste.
...

Agreed. I've now been to The Bad Apple 3 or 4 times, and the way-oversalted fries are a consistent problem. I like a lot of salt on my fries, but these border on inedible. Re. the crunchy, supercharred burger, that's a consistent thing at the Bad Apple too, but I like it a lot.

Re. the crunchy, supercharred burger, that's a consistent thing at the Bad Apple too

Except the one time I went, apparently. I liked the beer list, they were friendly as heck, it was even kid-friendly at early hours, but I was just soso on the burger and fries, very high quality beef but at best a work in progress as a finished dish (and that bearnaise really needs more punch if it's going to be paired with beef as opposed to, say, eggs benedict; I hardly knew it was there). Even a classy burger needs a certain broad-shouldered robustness to fit the genre, and this seemed kind of tentative, somehow.

I want to like it, hopefully in a month or two I'll have more reason to.

Mike G wrote:

Re. the crunchy, supercharred burger, that's a consistent thing at the Bad Apple too

Except the one time I went, apparently. I liked the beer list, they were friendly as heck, it was even kid-friendly at early hours, but I was just soso on the burger and fries, very high quality beef but at best a work in progress as a finished dish (and that bearnaise really needs more punch if it's going to be paired with beef as opposed to, say, eggs benedict; I hardly knew it was there).

I want to like it, hopefully in a month or two I'll have more reason to.

I had the beer-naise this past weekend, and it had a mere fraction of the tarragon that was in the first version I tried a few weeks ago. There have been lots of inconsistencies in the early stages of the Bad Apple, and I'm with you, hoping that a month or two more allows them to settle into a groove.

I ate here on Friday for the first time and I agree with the comments that the beer list is excellent (I had a Goose Island Matilda on tap), the cheese curds are outstanding, and that the fries are waaaaay too salty - and I like me some salt! I had the standard Bad Apple burger done med. well. Doneness was as ordered and the burger was steaming hot, but the bun was fridge cold! I should have popped for the extra buck and gotten the pretzel bun. For me, it was sort of a 'meh' experience - I'll give it another try and order either a toastd bun or the pretzel option.

I was there again this past weekend and tried the Slow Burn (black jack porter sauteed spicy chilies & onions, bacon, white cheddar). It was very good, but what really impresses me so far with the Bad Apple is that every single burger I've tried has been cooked perfectly medium rare as requested. And with this burger, the juice was running down my hand (a big plus for me).

Yes, the over-salting of the fries is constantly an issue. My fries with this burger were only slightly over-salted which I consider a victory. But Toons serves the same style fries and I think they do a better job with them.

But the quality beef, great beer list and excellent staff will keep me going here.

BR wrote:...what really impresses me so far with the Bad Apple is that every single burger I've tried has been cooked perfectly medium rare as requested. And with this burger, the juice was running down my hand (a big plus for me).

I was there late Saturday night and two out of the three burgers at my table were overcooked. I ordered medium, as did my girlfriend, and we both got what all three of us agreed was well done. Hungry and not wanting to bother, I ate it as-is and it was a really good burger - but it definitely wasn't cooked as-ordered.

-Dan

Ate here last week with a friend.

I had a a Slow Burn and my friend the Pat LaFrieda. He subbed his fries for a salad but we got a side of poutine. I had my fries naked.

I though the burger was good. Both burgers were red inside - cooked to an honest medium rare. I noticed nothing particularly slow nor burning about my burger. The combination of toppings didn't do much for me - as in they didn't bring a lot of complimentary flavors. I thought it was a little underseasoned or underflavored. But know this - the regular bun is an absolute joke. Pillow soft, flavorless, textureless air. Maybe that's why I couldn't taste anything. The $1 pretzel bun was the dumbest upgrade-not-taken I've had in a while. The Bad Apple, these comments are very consistent: fix that bun!

The poutine was really something I could get behind. Excellent fries, rich gravy and cheese curds. A velvety, salty, creamy bath over excellent fries. I am a fry purist and tend to prefer them unadulterated (or at least not besodden or soggified with excess toppings), but I really liked this.

To that end, I preferred my naked fries which were, in a word, excellent. I will definitely return here to eat more fries and try another burger (and another bun). Despite the not-cooked-to-order reports above, my experience with our server and the ruby-red meat-proof told me I can count on them again to cook to my liking.

Nice array of beers on tap as well. All in all, a very likable place putting out some pretty good food (and great fries).

The Bad Apple is one of the few burger bars in the city that produces a solid veggie burger. My vegetarian friends love the "Strange Famous". I noticed that they recently added a second option called "Pesto Strange".

What I've noticed on my more recent visits to the Bad Apple is that they have definitely found a groove when it comes to their burgers - when I ask for medium rare, I get a juicy medium rare. They also have added a couple of new burgers to their menu, but for the most part, I still prefer my burger as simple as can be. I'll let the crowds wait forever at Kuma's - I'll take the burgers, lack of waits and normally easy street parking at Bad Apple (and I actually prefer their burgers to those at Kuma's).

The over-salting of the fries seems to be solved too, but I can't say they've perfected the double fry method . . . still not as crisp on the outside as I'd like. Probably a little hotter second fry would solve the problem. Note that for $.75, you can add a seasoning to the fries (truffle, old bay, curry, garlic, hop ‘n honey and creole). The truffle seasoning was nice (and maybe the only one which could really justify an up-charge), but there wasn't enough curry seasoning for my liking on another order.

And as for their beer list, although a bit confusing in its organization, it's still about as good as it gets.

I didn't see the menu posted in this thread, so here's a link to their website, menu and beer list.

I share similar views. I went to Kuma's a lot when it first opened, but now I find myself going to Bad Apple instead for the convenience and quality of their burgers.

Mrs. Kman and I made our maiden voyage to The Bad Apple last week for a very late lunch/early dinner. As the first ones in we chose to sit at the bar - I enjoyed the Founders Centennial on draft while wife had chocolate martini. Fru-fru drinks aren't my thing but the choco-tini looked terrific and it was certainly enjoyed.

I ordered the "Slow Burn" (Left Hand Milk Stout sautéed spicy chilies & onions, bacon, white cheddar) while my wife opted for "Dracula's Revenge" (roasted garlic, roasted red pepper, black olive and feta). We each requested our burgers to be on the rarer side of medium rare and the kitchen delivered perfectly on that. The flavor combo on my burger worked very well; I didn't try my wife's but she was definitely loving the garlic rush.

Good food, great beer list, very friendly staff and a comfortable space just over a mile from my house - now that it's warming up I see myself heading this way fairly often. I see an order of poutine in my future, too.

Fairly late to the party, Ronna and I joined a couple of friends for our first visit to the Bad Apple yesterday. On the whole, I was pleased. With a few tweaks and corrections here and there, it would have been a great bar food meal.

I'll start by echoing some of the commentary above about the draft list. It is truly first rate, and up there with the best in town. I tried the Ommegang Zuur and the New Belgium Lips of Faith Belgian Style Blond. Both beers are quite hard to find on tap, so that was a nice treat.

Started with a shared poutine, which I did not enjoy nearly as much as some prior posters. I enjoyed the goopy curds, but thought the portion stingy and the gravy bland apart from a strong herbaceous note. Would not order again.


I ordered the Slow Burn (sautéed spicy chilies & onions, bacon, white cheddar), medium rare, which came medium, and would have been better titled the No Burn. Apart from those two failed promises, it was a very good burger. In particular, the beef was well-seasoned and had excellent flavor. I ordered a small side of the chili that appears on the menu only as a topping for the Fire Alarm, another burger. This was an excellent, coney dog style, no bean chili, and had the kick of heat I was looking for in the pretty, but mostly tasteless sautéed peppers.


Ronna ordered the Pat LaFrieda (tomato, spring greens, Danish blue cheese, mayo), rare, and received medium. She was not as forgiving as I was of the overcooking, and was not impressed at all with her burger.

A friend ordered the Mahalo (Ebel’s weiss ham, grilled pineapple, honey cilantro vinaigrette, provolone cheese), medium-well. It probably came well done, but what's the difference anyway with a medium-well order and all of those toppings? I didn't get to try it, but our friend was pleased with this Kuma-esque, over-topped beast.


On the whole, the fries were quite good, but I have a bone to pick about Bad Apple's housemade ketchup (and for that matter, housemade ketchup in general). It was less acidic than real ketchup and had a slightly lumpy texture. Ketchup has already been perfected. Bad Apple's version is not awful, but what a waste of effort. I've yet to come across a successful effort to do it better in house and it just seems ill-advised to bother trying.

Service was pleasant, but s l o w. Were we not there for a leisurely, Sunday afternoon, chat-with-friends meal, we might have been slightly irked.

I liked the place, and will be happy to give them another chance if I can talk Ronna into going back.

--Rich

RAB wrote:Ketchup has already been perfected.

Aren't you from Pittsburgh?

I have to say, I think I enjoy Trader Joe's real sugar version of ketchup more than standard Heinz. As a default, I do organic Heinz to combat the cloying one-note sweetness of corn syrup (which is quickly followed by vinegar).

Thanks for the writeup.

Rich,

I know one of the owners from non-food circles. Tell Ronna to come back with me, and I'll let them know we're coming. I'm a fan of the Bad Apple burgers, but have sent more than one back due to overcooking. The replacement has always been better.

My wife and I also enjoyed the warm, gooey PB&J on multi-grain at the bar once, and confirmed with the owner that we were the first-ever pair of grown adults (debatable) sitting at the bar to order the PB&J. It paired really well with some sort of mildly smoked porter they had on tap at the time.

KZ

Kenny "just call me steve plotnicki" Z, amirite?

Yes you are, Ed "Kenny has to use urban dictionary to know what I'm talking about" Fisher.

I grabbed a quick burger last night at The Bad Apple and was quite impressed. This is one of the better burgers in the city, imo.

The meat is clearly very high quality and very fresh. That just hits you immediately and continues to be what you notice about the burger when you eat it. It tastes strongly beefy, plus they put a good amount of char on the burger, so it really packs a wallop of flavor.

I ordered a Pat LaFrieda (danish blue cheese) and then added bacon to it and asked for the $1 upgrade for the pretzel bun. I ordered it medium, it was probably a bit over, but not by much. Still a good amount of pink inside, and certainly quite juicy. I got the regular bun, rather than the upgrade, but the guy was very apologetic about it and took it off my bill. Not a big deal.

The blue cheese on my burger was a big honkin' slab of melty, clearly very high quality and stinky, blue cheese. No comparison to the crumbles out of a bag. Seriously good. Bacon was also obviously a step up quality-wise, from the average, and was nice and crisp. I really appreciate these choices, which, for a burger at this price point ($9-$12), contribute to the sense that this is actually an excellent value. You can spend the same or more at other bars for a burger and fries and not get anything near this level of quality.

The fries were pretty good, I'll be interested to try one of the upgraded flavors next time I'm in. And I have to say I agree with RAB about the ketchup. I actually didn't know it was house-made before tasting it and immediately thought it lacked acidity, wondered what kind it was, and then, later, I saw on the menu that they make it themselves. Gotta appreciate the effort, though.

I stuck with diet coke, but the beer list looks amazing and I'd love to go there, have dinner, and then hang out and drink a few beers sometime. All in all, I was pretty impressed with the food and the general feel of this place.

Bad Apple has become my weeknight go-to dinner option lately. It's the only place I know of in the city that I can take my 5 year old with me for dinner and still get a great burger and an excellent beer selection. They haven't batted an eye at all at bringing her (although we've only been on weeknights), and in fact we were surprised on our first visit to find they have a kids menu. I like that I can bring my daughter, but it's a bonus, not the reason I like them.

Let's get the negatives out of the way first: We tried the beet salad (radish, pickled red onion, fresh mozzarella, sweet corn & thyme dressing) on our first visit in an attempt to somewhat redeem the nutritional quality of the meal. Based on that experience we've stuck to just the burgers on subsequent visits. It was pretty terrible. Everything except the lettuce had clearly been mixed together at least several hours and maybe a day in advance, so it resulted in a really limp, soggy, bland and uniformly pink (from the beets) pile of stuff mixed with fresh lettuce.

We've also noticed that the burgers are consistently overcooked by about one level. Once we started ordering medium rare to get medium, they've come out just as we wanted. Not an ideal situation, but an easy enough fix.

Between my wife and I we've tried more than half the burgers on the menu. With a few exceptions, they're all quite good. So far our favorites have been the Fire Alarm (topped with spicy chili, smoked gouda and sour cream), Ole Imperial (Gonzo Imperial porter glazed mushroom and onion, white cheddar on an English muffin) and Dracula's Revenge (roasted garlic, roasted red pepper, black olive and feta) - this one's good as is, but even better with blue cheese subbed for the feta.

The two I haven't really cared for were the Big Texan (topped with house pulled pork, fried onion rings, BBQ sauce on Texas toast) - the Texas toast in place of a bun didn't really work and the pulled pork was only so-so. And the Hangover (house glazed ham, over-easy egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mayo, mustard, provolone & fries on a pretzel bun) - I really thought I'd love this one, but it was just too much. It was one of those comically large, impossible to fit in your mouth type burgers. It just had too much going on.

Most of the fry upgrades are ok, but not really worth an upcharge; they're just some powdered seasoning mix sprinkled on the fried. But the garlic fries are amazing if you're a garlic person. They come out with sautéed minced garlic on the fries, and enough of it that you get a bit in pretty much every bite. Even the bites that don't have actual garlic pieces have a pronounced garlic flavor. We'll definitely be getting these every time from now on.

Second time at Bad Apple first time, mismanaged service, overcooked burger, limp fries. Year later, smooth professional service, crisp fries and a rare as ordered burger. A very good bar burger at that, bit of grill char, loosely formed, quality ground beef, $8 including fries, reasonable for size, quality, atmosphere and neighborhood.

Busy, but not crowded mid week, convivial conversation with fellow patrons at the bar, certainly won't take me another year to return.

Had a great burger and fries last night. I ordered the Belly Burger. Perfectly cooked medium rare. Nice char on the outside, juicy beefy flavor exploding from it. Topped with crispy, unctuous slabs of pork belly and a nice herbed horseradish cream. Fries were cooked perfectly. Not at all limp or oversalted, issues that I've had in past visits.

Great beer list for excellent value. $4.50 Daisy Cutter pint and $6 for 16 oz of New Belgium Le Terroir are both among the lowest for most any place in the Chicago area.

I ate there for the first time mid-afternoon on a Saturday in February and was very underwhelmed. As has been mentioned, great beer selection, but everything about the food and service was mediocre. I opted not to upgrade my fries, and they were barely edible. They seemed to have been cooked well at some time, but they were quite soggy...as if they had been sitting in a covered container of some sort. They were barely salted and, obviously a personal preference but, I was not a fan of their house ketchup. After being delivered our food, our server was no where to be found for at least 10 minutes. So by the time I got some mayo to dip them in, they were not only soggy, but cold. I didn't come close to finishing them. Luckily, my girlfriend got the truffle fries which had much of the same problems that my fries had, but were certainly edible.

Also, my burger was cooked well past the requested medium rare, to the point that I thought maybe our server mistook me for saying medium well. But again, she was nowhere to be found for quite some time so I was almost done with it by the time she came around. We also had issues with our waters not being filled up...at all...our entire meal until requested after that 10+ minute gap in service.

I'm certainly in no rush to get back, and would only return if I was in the immediate area and was seriously craving a burger. And inebriated.

Kennyz wrote:

grahamhh wrote: Consensus with the burgers around the table is that they were cooked a tad under what was order - my medium, for example, was quite pink and dripped a bit of blood.

graham,

Glad you liked the Bad Apple. I do too. The above highlights a common challenge restaurants face when trying to please customers with burger doneness. Your description ("quite pink and dripped a little blood") sounds exacly like medium to me.

Kenny

This is exactly why I seem to get my burgers overcooked in Chicago consistently. When I order medium-rare they better understand what that means. But they always overcook it. This isn't a challenge in NYC, LA or London.

For reference get on the same page people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature_(meat)


As for Bad Apple, I think the pretzel bun killed it for me. A medium-rare burger by definition has a fairly soft but warm center (Bad Apple did get it right - which why I respect them). A pretzel bun is more firm than the patty itself, so it feels like I'm eating a pretzel bun with ground beef spread. Good meat blend though, but could use more char while not overcooking. Not an easy thing to do, and this where even an excellent meat blend won't make up for lack of skill in the kitchen. I had a much better burger today at Burger Bar (It too was overcooked but not overly. I suppose I need to take the USDA guidelines to places here to explain).

As for fries, I couldn't care less. Not a big deal. They are over-served anyway and basically used to meet the portion expectations of diners with cheap fried carbohydrates. I realize the burger-fries thing is a paradigm that is deeply ingrained into us, but it is that paradigm that is one of the root causes of obesity in Americans (along with milkshakes/soda). And in Chicago only: hot dog + fries, again to make a measly hot dog into a massive meal with the addition of a pound of fried potatoes. I'd rather spend my calorie allowance on the meat. Just my opinion, no need to hate.