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| - A while back I came across a blog post ranking the "Best Burgers" in each of the immediate 50 United States. I usually read these types of things with a grain of salt because, when it comes to independent food critics, it's just basically a matter of opinion. I looked at what this critic said was the best in the state of Arizona, and he stated "St Francis Restaurant in Phoenix". Hmm; by coincidence I had a preplanned trip in that area, so I decided to make reservations.
First off, I was not familiar with the area, so it wasn't that easy of a restaurant to find. When I got there, the very first thing that came across my mind was, "Holy crap, I think we're underdressed." Complementary valet and seeing a sleek patio before we came in didn't help matters. Still, I came all this way....
We went in and got seated within a few minutes. For a Thursday night, I was surprised as to how busy the place was. The space wasn't too large, but the owners still made a good use of the space. The front area had a cool bar area that was open behind it to the main street area. Just off the street to the right side of the building was the patio area, behind it the parking/valet lot. We got seated in a spot right in the middle of the space. From my view, to the left the kitchen; to the center the bar, to the right the patio.
The waiter remarked about how the chef and much of the food was highly regarded and featured in a number of media. They were well known for their "chile burger", so I went with that for a standard dinner. The chile burger was a standard burger with pickled fresno chile, sweet and sour onions, shaved romaine, jack cheese, chipotle aioli on a bun. The bread was very good. Usually burgers have more or less a pinch of chiles as a topping; this thing had a sheet of them. Holy moly. However, the balance was the aioli sauce which didn't make the dish too hot.
I liked this place. I came for the burgers, but I was also tempted to come back the next day to try their seafood dishes. Overall a great experience.
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