Classic Burger Cafe is Just OK

Sunday afternoon, President's Day weekend, out at the Park running after a three year old all morning, it's Burger Time. I headed towards Peter's Gourmade in Tustin without really knowing why, but as I pulled up, I noticed that they are closed on Sundays. Realizing that Classic Burger Cafe is literally just around the corner, we made a right hand turn and entered the CBC (#7 apparently).





Upon entering the restaurant, the menu made my head spin with offering ranging from Breakfast served all day to pork chops to burritos to burgers. If it can be grilled, fried, or served with salsa, CBC has it.

I had high hope for the burgers given the name of the place, so I ordered a Cheeseburger for my wife ($3.25), a Western Bacon Cheeseburger (at their recommendation and with trademark infringement belonging to them, not me) for me ($4.85), and my son inexplicably wanted a Carne Asada Taco (inexplicably because he has never ordered a carne asada taco AND because he passed up things like corn dogs and chicken nuggets)($2.25). My wife asked me to get mushrooms on her burger (despite me explaining that it wasn't really a Counter-type "build your own" kind of place).

Due to the language gap, we received her cheeseburger with the standard fixings, lettuce, tomato, diced onions, and thousand island with a SIDE of FRIED MUSHROOMS. Good, but not what we expected.



Here is her burger pictured (white plate is ours, not theirs). For research purposes, I tried a quarter of it. As you can see, the burger patty is very thin and is totally overwhelmed by the condiments. It tasted pretty smoky and charred which I liked, but she didn't like the thousand island dressing.



So how was the Western Bacon Cheeseburger? As you can see, the same small burger was now dressed up with onion rings above and below it, cheese, and a drenching of tangy barbecue sauce. Did it taste good? Yes, but that is because there was a serious amount of non-burger tasty items on the bun. The burger was secondary. Was it worth $4.85? Absolutely, but I would prefer the option to pay more for a hand-formed burger patty made from fresh ground beef.

So, I know what you are wondering...how was the carne asada? Again, for research purposes, I tasted some of the taco (which was accompanied by a really good salsa verde). It was great tasting asada.

Based on all of this, would I go back to Classic Burger Cafe? Yes I would, I wouldn't go out of my way to do so, but if I was hungry and in the area, it would be worth a stop. Would I order a burger again? Probably not since the burger itself was underwhelming and the mexican food seemed to be the better option.


Classic Burger Cafe #7
15712 Tustin Village Way
Tustin, CA
(714) 667-3884