Barney's, the burger joint in Berkeley, not the purple dinosaur

Baja Burger
Originally uploaded by jaceman4

So over the weekend I was visiting my brother's family in the East Bay (of Northern California) and he told me that we should go to this place, for the sake of having another entry on the Burger Snob. So here it is, for you 5 readers out there. There seems to be a couple, but I'm hesitant to call it a chain simply because it's only in the Berkeley area. I have no idea why it's called Barney's or any history behind it, just that it's a burger joint and college students kind of like it, or something like that.

Anyways, the burger itself was pretty good, I got the Baja Burger, which, comes with a homemade pico de gallo salsa, bacon, avocado, and I believe swiss cheese. Interesting combination, but hey, it's California, so it makes sense. While the ingredients themselves were good, I found that the construction of the burger itself was actually somewhat lacking. I liked the salsa, but it was a little light on flavor, avocado and swiss cheese in and of themselves are naturally fairly flavorless to begin with. The beef quality was good, it was a nice hearty patty. The bun a typical sesame bun, but it wasn't toasted, so it wasn't anything fancy. Now fixings is where the construction issue comes in. I don't mind the bacon, it's pretty typical of a bacon burger in terms of quality of the bacon, but the fact that all of bacon was clumped into a roll mad it hard to eat with the burger. Frankly, I want to taste the burger, not globs of bacon. I'll give them points for the salsa and avocado since they are nice, but I felt like the mix didn't add a whole lot to the burger as a whole. Unless you count the salsa there wasn't any condiments. They do have Grey Poupon, ketchup, and regular mustard at the table, so it's pretty typical,, nothing out of the ordinary.

I did really like the spicy curly fries, those are good. However, this place serves them more like an appetizer than necessarily a side, so it's recommended that you go and eat with a friend.

Rating of the Burger:
Meat: B+
Bun: B-
Fixings: C+
Condiments: C+
Sides: A
Price: $7-12
Overall Rating: C+
Recommended Burger: Classic Burger