Burger at Comme Ca

It's no secret that French brasserie Comme Ça's $16 cheeseburger, now served for lunch and dinner, is considered one of the best in town. No mix-and-match toppings. No extreme sauces. No customization. Just rich, high-quality aged beef, juicy enough to marinate every bite in your mouth but not the least bit greasy. The patty is just the size it should be: only slightly larger than propriety demands but not enough to exhaust the eater. Covered in cheddar, topped with a scoop of rudimentary slaw (cabbage, mayo, a pinch of salt) and perched on the mother of all brioches, it's L.A.'s gourmet burger par excellence. (A gourmet burger ought to be accompanied by perfect fries, but let's not dwell on the disappointing frites here.) Now it can be told: This is not simply a burger, this is the burger.

The New York Times isn’t far off when they say this burger is ‘perfection’, and if burgers were just the patty itself they may be right - a better bunch of burger beef is not to be had in this city. You may not be in love with the cole-slaw like topping (no tomato) or the unwieldy height of the damn thing, but you have to love how it goes down.