Brown Butter

​Restaurant Name: Brown Butter
Neighborhood: Mid City
Ambiance:  Strip Mall Surprise

​Name of the Burger Ordered: Pimento Burger
Price of the Burger(s): $6.25 + $3 for fries (Happy Hour prices)

Size of the Burger:  8 oz
Temperature: Cooked to Order

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In almost any other city, one wouldn't think twice about stopping for a bite at a strip mall restaurant. But in New Orleans, with all of its quirkiness and flare, dining in a strip mall is almost unheard of. Enter Brown Butter. Nestled between an Urgent Care clinic and a Papa John's, you'd never expect the Southern charm and delicious food that await just beyond generic glass doors. We had heard that Brown Butter had a good Happy Hour, but we were BLOWN AWAY by just how good it actually was (the deals AND the food!). Half price burgers, draft beer and glasses of wine, and tons of other specials. Do yourself a favor and check it out: Tues-Fri from 3:30 to 6:30 pm. Note that if you're looking for a lunch spot, they're only open for lunch on Fridays!

Pimento Burger: 8.42

Bun: 8.3
Soft, squishy, and buttery. Just the way we like them. 

Patty: 7.7
Great size and juiciness, but could have used just a TOUCH more seasoning. Almost all of us went the medium-rare route, and Brown Butter cooked 'em up just right.

Bun to Meat Ratio: 8.7
Thin buns and thick meat make for our preferred bun-to-meat ratio. The meat even extended beyond the edges of the bun, which is an added bonus. 

Standard Toppings: 8.0
We love, love, love pimento cheese, and have experienced a couple of killer pimento cheeseburgers along our burger journey - and Brown Butter's offering was no different. So it pains us a little to say we felt that the pimento cheese on this burg was almost a TAD overpowering. It's not that we didn't still LOVE it (and honestly if the ONLY topping was the cheese we would have been perfectly happy), but since there WERE other toppings it would have been nice to taste them a bit more (for the record, the other toppings were pickled onions and garlic aioli).

Sides: 8.7
Excellent garlic fries. If they had been cooked a teeny bit longer (and therefore had come out a teeny bit less soggy) they would have been a perfect 10. Because all the sides were ridiculously cheap, we went ahead and got an order of the brussel sprouts and the crab mac & cheese. Both were delicious, but if you've gotta choose, go with the sprouts.

Taste: 8.3
We struggled with this one. While we all felt the burger was incredibly tasty, we also felt it lacked the elusive "WOW" factor that drives our mission to find New Orleans' best burger. That said, it still dethroned Legacy Kitchen for Burger Meet NOLA's #1 spot, so WOW factor or not, we sure did enjoy this burg!

Accuracy: 9.8
As with almost all of our burger experiences, one person always seems to get a burger that is just slightly overcooked. We're realizing it's probably the price we have to pay for ordering 6-7 burgers at once. So don't hold it against them!

Value: 9.8
We mentioned this in the opener, but Brown Butter's Happy Hour is an INCREDIBLE value. Truly one of the best we've seen in New Orleans. So if you can make it there before 6:30 pm (Wed-Fri), it can't be beat. If we were rating the burger at its regular price, it would get a slightly lower "Value" rating, but for what we paid (and tasted) it's right up there with the best values in the city.

Service: 8.8
The place was pretty empty when we visited, so (as we should have) we got a very attentive waiter. He forgot to refill our water a couple of times, but he DID give us a round of Happy Hour drinks JUST after the cut-off, so Brown Butter gets an extra gold star. 

Returnability: 8.7
Location is really the only thing this place doesn't have going for it. There are so many cute little spots in our city, that it's hard to opt for a generic strip-mall joint. But do yourself a favor and look past that, because Brown Butter has a ton going for it. Delicious food + amazing Happy Hour prices make this a no-brainer. And we'd even come back during regular hours. It was that good, and there was a lot more on the menu that we wanted to try.

P.S. We hear the brunch burger might be even better than the Pimento Burger...so we'll definitely be back!

​​Want to see how Brown Butter ranks? Check out our overall Burger Meet rankings.