Lunch #17: Herfy's Burgers, #9, Seattle International District

Another big group today: 8 lunchers strong. We fought a small battle against the Uwajimaya Food Court; the remainder of the war will be bravely completed later. Burgers aren't the normal fare on our magical journey, so we were looking forward to this departure from the norm.

Herfy's Burgers, #9, Seattle
Address: 604 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: American: Burgers
Average rating: 2 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/8/2008 @ 12:25:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 5 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 24 minutes
Chopstix quality: N/A
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Unknown
Number of tables: 0
Number of occupied tables: 0
Number of business lunch tables: 0
Number of "local" tables: 0
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Spicy Chicken Breast Meal - $7.85
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Adam's Review

This is another one of those unfortunate restaurants that we're required to go to. Its a hamburger joint in a sea of delicious asian food. I'm going to be brief with this.

Since it's the new year, I decided that it might be a good idea to order something at least a little bit more healthy than normal, so I ordered the chicken sandwich. This was the least flavorful food I've ever had. AND it was way more expensive than it should be.

Bad food. High prices. Don't feel guilty to walk by this place

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Spicy Chicken Breast Meal - $7.80
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Emmett's Review

After the artery clogging of Samurai Noodle, I decided to go for something a little healthy - chicken. Herfy's is an interesting chain since they sell more than just burgers. They have this gnarly looking Kielbasa on their menu, fried Oysters, and their Fremont branch says they have Teriyaki. As much as I wanted a burger (there aren't many in Chinatown) I settled on the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Fries, and a Diet Pepsi.

The spicy chicken sandwich was pretty basic, but tasty. It had a spicy sauce on it like Tabasco that had a little zip to it. The fries were fresh and hot, and reminded me of High School. The most horrendous aspect of it was the price - practically eight dollars for what I could get at McD's for $5-6.

If I'm craving a burger or chicken sandwich in the ID, I'd probably head up to Collins Pub instead. For a few bucks more, you get a real burger, and a nice beer selection. But in a hurry, I'd do Herfy's again.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Cheeseburger Meal - $4.99
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Geary's Review

The menu is large for a small hamburger stand with everything from the standards to Salmon Burgers and Kielbasa Sausage Sandwiches. I figured I'd throw them a low ball and go with the classic Cheeseburger Meal.

On the first bite I was not entirely dissatisfied, but it went downhill from there. After the initial mouthsplosion of soft bun, tangy mustard, and crispy lettuce the reality of the chewy, bland Costco burger patty sunk in pretty quickly. If I were buying a burger from the stand next to the little league field to support the equipment fund, I'd tolerate a crappy burger, primarily because the only other option would be a crappier hot dog. But that's not the case here. There are lots of better options.

Luncher: Doug

Lunch: Bacon Sour Dough - $5.99 + $1.97
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Doug's Review

Sourdough bacon chzburger + paper thin Costco-style burger patty was disappointing. Medium vanilla shake was average, similar to a McDonalds’ shake.

Luncher: Erica

Lunch: Grilled Chicken Sandwich + Criss-Cut Fries - $8.60
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Erica's Review

When I heard that Herfy’s was today’s lunch destination, I hesitated. I had made a prior visit, during which I consumed about one-eighth of a banana milkshake before discarding of it. Given my enormous love of milkshakes coupled with my inability to stop consuming any partially eaten food, this fact is notable. However, I didn’t recall any other objectionable selections, and there was a large crowd, so I opted for the social interaction. Besides, it is pretty hard to get a Banana milkshake right (if you aren’t actually using bananas).

While on the line, I contemplated my order. I was excited about the wide variety of French Fry selections features on the menu, even if I didn’t really know how to distinguish one option from the other. I took a wild shot that “Criss-cut” might refer to a waffle fry. I attempted to confirm this with the cashier, but she looked at me in total confusion and gave me some sort of reflexive answer that the “criss-cut” fry was “criss-cut.”

I wanted to eat something that I wouldn’t cause me to immediately gain an entire pound, but that also wasn’t completely devoid of fast-food fun. To this end, my meal was a good choice. I removed half of my bun as well as the cheese – which always created a delightful sight for your coworkers to enjoy. Was the chicken on my sandwich processed and reconstituted with food additives? Perhaps. Did my fountain soda have a slight funny flavor to it? Most certainly. But the “Criss-cut” fries were delicious, and the rest of my meal felt like it met Erica’s healthiness criteria (which are not in conjunction with any real health criteria, mind you, and which is rarely met by myself) of a high protein count with a low calorie count.

Hence, I am torn. Most of the food was just okay, and it was expensive. Herfy’s doesn’t really offer any charm to offset the high price. However, I do feel like the passable chicken sandwich sans half the bun and cheese is a sort of fun option for someone like me who is 5’1” and wants to avoid consumer her daily caloric intake at lunch every day.

Luncher: Erin

Lunch: Mushroom Burger + Root Beer Float - $4.29 + $2.19
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Erin's Review

I had a mushroom burger ($4.29) and a root beer float ($2.19). The burger was a mediocre frozen patty, with some canned mushrooms and a slice of over-processed white cheese. All condiments, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard were included. The burger was below average quality and overcooked, especially for the price. I’ve had better burgers for half that. The root beer float had a little bit of mushy ice cream in it, again, hardly enough to justify the price. I like Dick’s root beer floats better because the ice cream is generous and frozen hard. I’ll avoid this place in the future, unless I was desperate for a burger and happened to be shopping at Uwajimya. Overall the quality of the food did not justify the prices charged.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Salmon Burger + Fries - $4.99 + $1.49
Rating: 1 Chopsticks

Rob's Review

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh with the 1 chopstick rating (I was debating 1 v. 2 for a while), but, frankly, anyone who likes Herfy's won't bother with reviews, and anyone who enjoys reviews won't be eating at Herfy's. So I went with the 1. Upon perusing their menu, at first I was a bit optimistic -- plenty of options for me: garden burger, boca burger, four different fish burgers, various fish 'n chips. I decided to try and avoid the big bowl of grease and ordered the salmon burger. Garden and boca burgers are pretty much the same everywhere, unless the garden burger is made in-house, which I highly doubted was the case here. So, the salmon burger basically ended up being a salmon 'n chips but without the chips. Two relatively small deep-fried pieces of salmon stuck between a bun and slathered with mayo, boring lettuce, filler tomato slice, and a slice of melted american cheese. It didn't taste horrible, I'll admit, but I felt kind of queasy for an hour or so afterwards. In fact, writing this little review a day later is making my stomach feel funny. The fries were sub-par, as well. I would've thought the least they could do would be produce good fries, but they weren't nearly as crisp as I like and had no attempt at flavor. Maybe their fancier curly and criss-cut fries are better, but I'll never know because I'll never go back.