As part of our goal to get through the entire list of burgers on The 10 Best Burgers in Los Angeles: 2011 Edition from LAist.com, Allan, BeiBei, and I decided to give Rustic Canyon a visit. Unfortunately, Tony, our other burger buddy, was unavailable to join us for dinner. :[

Rustic Canyon is listed as number one under the “Best Gourmet” burger section of the list.

1. Rustic Canyon, 1119 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. When you name your standard burger the Niman Ranch burger, you have to assume it’s good. When you add a perfect slice of sharp white cheddar, onion fondue, and an exquisite crust on a juicy, medium-rare patty, you know the burger is something special. When they start sponsoring full-on burger nights (where they create unique burger concoctions) while still locally sourcing their produce? You know you’ve found the best burger in LA. – Excerpt from The 10 Best Burgers in Los Angeles: 2011 Edition

We were each extremely excited to indulge ourselves in some overpriced gourmet burgers from what is supposedly the best gourmet burger joint in Los Angeles (in 2011).

I love the minimalistic tree logo and restaurant name sign combined with the contemporary, almost-all-glass facade.  The dim lighting and rustic decor created an ambiance designating of “gourmet.”

Rustic Canyon’s food offerings change daily, as you can see from the dated menu above. Might I add that specialty burgers are only available on Mondays, as Mondays are burgers & beer nights.

I love the look of their wine menu, which has a wooden cover embossed with their tree logo and “wine.”  I must say that Rustic Canyon sure has design down.

Every table is served a small plate of olives as an appetizer. I’m not too keen on olives, but I gave these a shot. To me, they were basically olives, although I still ate a few of them. BeiBei tried a couple too. I don’t believe Allan had any.

For our appetizers, we ordered the Niman Ranch hangar steak and the fried cauliflower.  We chose the latter per a Yelp reviewer’s recommendation, plus it looked delicious in said Yelp reviewer’s photo.

Niman Ranch Hangar Steak

Fried Cauliflower

I very much enjoyed the fried cauliflower. I think that was the favorite at the table. The hangar steak was alright; nothing too spectacular. The serving size is very tiny, but I suppose that is understandable for a hangar steak appetizer. If ordering the hangar steak, keep it mind that it is served pretty rare – definitely very pink and slightly bloody inside.

And finally, we get to our main course – the burgers! Seeing as it was specialty burger night, we opted to order from the specialty burgers menu. Since we both love mushrooms, it was no surprise that BeiBei and I both chose the mushroom burger. Allan decided on the American burger.

Upon first bite into my mushroom burger, I was pretty satisfied. However, as I proceeded to eat this burger, I found the patty to be to salty. The bun was also extremely oily; I suppose that adds some extra nice shine to the bun, but I definitely did not enjoy the oiliness on my fingers as I ate. The flavor of the burger as a whole isn’t anything amazing, simply just “alright.” I probably enjoyed the fries the most off of this plate.

BeiBei’s mushroom burger experience was similar to mine, except quite possibly worse. Her burger was extremely oily. In fact, hers was dripping with oil. Not only were her fingers drenched, but her entire hands were covered in oil by the time she was done eating. Her plate was also swimming in the oil that dripped from her burger as she ate. My burger was oily as well, as I had mentioned earlier, but not quite as oily as hers.

You can read more about BeiBei’s experience and see photos of her oil-drenched hands over at her blog.

Allan’s American burger was exactly what you’d expect from a typical burger. His patty was just as salty as BeiBei’s and mine were. The only aspect that basically saved his burger was the inclusion of fresh vegetables. BeiBei and I each tried a portion of Allan’s burger, and all three of us agreed that the vegetables they used were definitely of high quality and extremely fresh-tasting. If anything, while eating the burger as a whole, the fresh taste of the vegetables helped cut the overly salted patty.

And our general consensus? All three burgers were “alright.” We all thought the patty was way too salty. BeiBei’s oily burger experience prevented her from being able to eat more than half of her burger.

Sure, we didn’t try their standard Niman Ranch burger, but that aside, the experience probably would have been the same, given the fact that all the burgers contain Niman Ranch patties which are all most likely marinated the same way. I’d expect their Niman Ranch burger would have been just as salty as the burgers we had tried.

The three of us didn’t agree with Rustic Canyon’s standing as the number one best gourmet burger in Los Angeles at all. In fact, from our previous experience eating at Father’s Office, we each thought the Father’s Office Burger was better than Rustic Canyon’s burgers by a landslide. Funny thing is, Father’s Office is listed in fifth place on the LAist’s list of best gourmet burgers.

Maybe it just wasn’t a good night for Rustic Canyon. I’m willing to give it another shot some time, perhaps after getting through the entire LAist top 10 list first. One thing is for sure: we definitely walked away unimpressed and with each of our wallets feeling a lot lighter.