This Sept. 26 Food article incorrectly said the hamburger bun at Palena was derived from a Parker House roll recipe by pastry chef Ann Amernick. The bun recipe was developed by chef Frank Ruta, based on a recipe from former White House sous chef Hans Raffert.
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Seeking Bliss on a Bun
$14
Lunch only
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CLOSE1050 Connecticut Ave. NW (and other locations)
202-955-5997
Score: 3.5
This is as close to a steak as a burger can come. The whopping 15-ounce hunk of prime beef is seasoned with a little salt, pepper and Morton's secret ingredient: a drizzle of tomato juice. The result is an old-school beefy flavor that serious carnivores will crave -- even if it arrives, as it did when we visited, very rare, which made it taste more like steak tartare than a burger. Sadly, the supermarket-style roll and the toppings didn't live up to the beef's promise; the tomato was only passable, and the fries lacked crispness. Still, if the kitchen manages to cook it right, traditionalists won't find a burger they like better.
Black's Bar and Kitchen
$11 (plus $1 for cheese, $2 for bacon)
Lunch, dinner, brunch
7750 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda
301-652-5525
http:/
Score: 3.5
Point totals inch upward when the eight-ounce disk of grilled ground beef arrives, thick, crusty and right where medium-rare should be; points are subtracted for aesthetics, since it hovers well beyond the perimeter of its so-so sesame-seed potato roll. First bite: A drop of juice hits the napkin (yesss!), and it's seasoned but not too salty, a texture that's chewy but not overworked. The iceberg lettuce is shredded (a shame); the crescents of macerated onion provide color and crunch (double nod). The fries seal the deal: as thin as the 99-cent variety, but firm and crisp, plentiful and habit-forming.
RESPECTABLE
Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar
$13 (plus $1.50 for fontina, goat cheese, gorgonzola or scamorza cheese, plus $2 for pancetta or wild mushrooms)
Lunch and dinner
223 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
202-544-8088
Score: 3
Warning: There are no fries at Sonoma. This is a wine bar with a small kitchen, and the chef had to choose between a wood-fired grill and a fryer. It wasn't a bad choice (though on the scale of food heresy, burgers without fries rates pretty high). The fruitwood gives Sonoma's eight ounces of dry-aged Angus a lovely smokiness, though a little salt would have gone a long way to help bring out the natural flavors, too. So would a little less heat; our burger, though juicy, arrived solidly medium. Still, the accompaniments shine: The tomato, from organic co-op Tuscarora, was a taste of high summer, and the grilled onions added just the right bite. It all goes down very nicely with a glass of cabernet. You might not even miss the fries after all.
Ardeo
$12
Dinner and Sunday brunch
3311 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-244-6750
http:/
Score: 3
There's nothing wrong with a creative burger. Bacon, avocado, sauteed onions, cheese and chipotle are all respectable add-ons. But restraint is important. That's the flaw with Ardeo's burger. Each of the five toppings is delicious: the bacon sublimely smoky, the avocado silky and smooth, the chipotle pungent. But the burger, which when tasted separately was meaty and well cooked, disappeared in the riot of flavors. The fries, in contrast, were simplicity perfected: hand-cut potatoes, with some of the skin left on and a salty kick that made us yearn for more.
DC Coast
$13
Lunch only
1401 K Street NW
202-216-5988
Score: 3
This seven-ounce burger has all the hallmarks of cheffy touches: shiny, eggy, soft bun; sharp cheddar; cured tomatoes; and housemade steak sauce on the side. And the effect generally pleases, with a grilled flavor to the meat and above-average fries. It doesn't add up to anything exquisite, though, mostly because the cheese, bun and sauce (which tastes like a particularly fresh and zesty Heinz 57) overwhelm the poor burger, which needs to be half again as thick to even think about competing.
The Capital Grille
$13
Lunch only
601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (also in Tysons Corner)
202-737-6200
http:/
Score: 3
This is a super-juicy burger, the kind that had us wishing for a barside sink or at least a finger bowl. The 10-ounce hunk of meat tastes deliciously like what it is: chopped sirloin. If only the thick, meaty-tasting patty weren't compromised by a yawner of a bun (do onion rolls ever taste fresh?) that had been positively blackened on a grill and by the mismatch of havarti cheese, which melts (or doesn't) in all the wrong ways. To add insult to injury, fries didn't accompany the burger on the plate; salt-free potato chips arrived instead.
FORGETTABLE
Vermilion
$10
Lunch only
1120 King St., Alexandria
703-684-9669
http:/
Score: 2
Somebody's got a Wendy's fixation; Vermilion's burger was the only one we sampled that came in a rectangular shape. Unlike Wendy's, this seven-ouncer may have been hot, but it sure wasn't juicy, even though, as at EatBar (its sister restaurant), Vermilion's chef mixes butter into the beef. One technique was ruined by another, because the beef was overcooked. That left as the best part of the setup the additions: crunchy red cabbage slaw and pickled jalapenos.
Les Halles
$12.50 (lunch), $13.50 (dinner)
Lunch and dinner
1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
202-347-6848
Score: 1
Maybe it's because Les Halles bills itself as a French brasserie that it just doesn't care whether its take on a quintessentially American dish shines. We ordered our 10-ounce patty medium-rare, and it arrived practically petrified, dwarfed by an oversize brioche bun. If the meat had any flavor (the chef says it's "prime Angus"), it had leached out by the time it reached our table. And the mealy tomato that accompanied it, along with grilled onions, lettuce and slightly under-salted fries, didn't make us feel any more forgiving. Indeed, the only memorable thing about this burger was the deliciously fresh, lightly dressed side salad.
