When this "slow fast food" joint opened a few years ago, my friends and I tore up the menu within months, trying every possible combination of delicious, fresh food as often as three times a week. Then in the last year quality dipped. My roommate even dared to write a lengthy comment to the management complaining about its dip in quality. I think they acted up quickly, adding a decent selection of beers on tap and tightening the overall preparation of the food. We decided to hit up this place again to see if the recent wave of positive Yelp reviews were correct.
Monday through Friday, The Oinkster has an excellent happy hour of $3.99 burger and fries, $1.50 pulled pork tacos, and $2-3 pints of tap beer. That's right, $3 pints of Stone Brewery's Arrogant Bastard. Pitchers are $10. Unreal.
We loaded up on a pitcher of Arrogant Bastard, a burger and fries combo, and a pulled pork taco. The Oinkster is well known for its house-made sauces, including chipotle ketchup, regular ketchup, barbeque sauce, and garlic aioli. The ketchups are definitely more on the watery side, but they're sweet and tangy like none other. The chipotle one is almost exactly the same with perhaps a hint of smokiness. Garlic aioli with fries is a sure-fire winner. Barbeque sauce is more of the Carolina type - vinegary and delicious.
The burger's construction was ideal, a nice sear on the patty with a textbook medium color inside for the preservation of beefy flavor. Lettuce and tomato were as fresh as anything you could expect at In-n-Out. The buns were soft and toasted inside. While overall it wasn't groundbreaking, the burger exuded a solidity and classic preparation that translates to "elevated" fast food. It's a trend I'd like to see more of in LA instead of $15 arugula-smoke gouda burgers (as delicious as they are).
For $3.99 it absolutely smokes any other fast food joint (In-n-Out's #1 costs upwards of $5.50 these days, a Big Mac meal is easily over $5, Tommy's is well above $5 and even Pete's Blue Chip down the road is $6 for a combo). Granted, at regular price the burger and fries will run you $7.00, it's still a great deal for what you get.
The belgian fries were considerably better than in previous months, with the slight crisp and give of an ideal fry, neither too thick nor too thin. We massacred that garlic aioli - sacrificed to this fine fry.
The pulled pork taco was best invaded by sauces since it was still slightly dry. A squirt here, a pour there, and we were in oink-heaven. Welcome back, Oinkster.
The Oinkster
2005 Colorado Blvd
Eagle Rock, CA 90041
(323) 255-6465
3 comments:
Oink-heaven? Sounds like it, especially during happy hour. Sign me up for a burger and pork taco.
$2 beer and $4 burgers? That place must get stampeded every night.
that deal is one of the best in the city, in my opinion. And surprisingly, the places isn't swamped. I think the 3-6 time only allows local residents and jobless college students to make that time.
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