While our recent post on Phyllis' Giant Burgers gave a good overall impression of the place (its Novato location, at least), I was a little troubled by the fact that nobody over the age of 4 actually ordered and consumed a burger. Turkey burgers are not burgers, which is why they're called turkey burgers. Burgers, or hamburgers for the more traditional among us, are made of ground up pieces of cow. I don't eat a lot of burgers, but I do think that the burger is one of those bellwether dishes at most restaurants. That is, you can find out a lot about the place by ordering one. Did they care enough to make it outside the ordinary, or did they just go through the motions? If they made an effort then, in my opinion, this speaks well for other things on the menu. Now, in places that specialize in burgers and diner type stuff, the patty melt is the item to measure all burgers by, but that's a subject for another blog post.

So anyhow, I took one for the team and went back to Phyllis' for a follow up of sorts. I've eaten at their San Rafael location a couple of times over maybe the past 10 years, and remember it being pretty good. Actually, the quality was kind of overshadowed by the fact that their burgers really are giant burgers. We're talking a half-pound of ground, shaped and griddled bovine on a bun, and that's not even counting the cheese (a must) and other accoutrements. After consuming a giant burger, one rolls rather than walks away from Phyllis'. It's good to go when you're really hungry.

The Novato location is housed in a spot that seems to be kind of hard luck on restaurants. There have been two others there—neither for what qualifies as a long time—in the past 5 or so years, a chain burrito place, which was sort of OK, and something called Taxi's Hamburgers, which I never tried. Unlike the San Rafael location, this one is big, with tables and plenty of spacious booths. There are the previously mentioned big-screen TVs, which play a mix of sports and other stuff. On our visit there were a couple of college football games (neither of them Cal... bleh), the Disney Channel showing Freaky Friday, and a PBS station with poor old dead Bob Ross painting a happy little mountains from the afterlife. In the booths, there are speakers with volume control, and a button allowing you to cycle through the different TVs, which was pretty cool.

I wasn't really in the mood for the real Giant Burger Experience, so I ordered the 1/4-pound "Junior Burger," with pepper jack. Their choice of cheeses includes that, plus the usual suspects, and blue cheese, which is a good sign. How was it? It was good. Not super great, but good, and definitely better than that fast food slop offered up by you-know-who. Before I went there I checked Yelp for reviews, and one reviewer dissed Phyllis's as having pre-made SYSCO food service patties. I have to say that my junior burger had the light texture and irregular shape of a properly hand-formed burger patty, so I don't know where that guy is coming from.

That's one thing I dislike about Yelp and other user-review sites: many reviewers write with the self-assured tone of an expert, but are factually wrong and often totally off-base, passing ill-formed opinion off as fact. In fact, I think some of the negative reviews are so inaccurate that you've got to wonder if the reviewer has ever actually dined at that particular establishment. Just sayin'…