Pricing:
$12-15 for the burger depending on what you add. French fries are sold separately. So if you get fries and including drinks, you're going to be spending a little over $20 per person here.
Distance:
In The Forum strip mall which is right by the Calle Barcelona/El Camino Real intersection. About 10 minutes away for Encinitas residents.
Thoughts:
I feel like The Counter is neither bad nor great. The location in Carlsbad is a convenient one. If you're out shopping it's a decent dining option because there's hardly ever a long wait to get seated (even on weekends).
The food is okay. I like the flavor but it's not the juiciest burger I've ever had. The fact that you have to order fries separately also kind of goes against the grain. I could name a dozen other gourmet burger places that serve equal if not better food and the fries are always included. Their salad bowl option is also iffy. Sometimes the salad is fresh other times it tastes like it's been sitting in the bag too long.
I just feel like the pros and cons balance each other out to make an average dining experience. This is a chain restaurant. I know that concrete is hard to keep looking clean but many times I have walked inside and the whole place feels like no one has been through with a broom all day.
So not a bad option if you just want something quick and painless and there's a location right by you. Would I go here for a special night out or really craving a good burger? Probably not.
We've dined at The Counter at least 4-5 times, mostly because our young teen son likes going there. Note that between low carbing and eating gluten-free, we all order burgers without buns. Our son gets fries (which we sample) and my husband and I order salads with our burgers. We also don't drink soda any more, so we order water (which aside from being a more healthful beverage, saves quite a bit on the bill, too).
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm rather neutral about The Counter, but for different reasons. I would probably go more often if their beef was grass-fed instead of grain-fed (Rimel's Rotisserie in Cardiff serves grass-fed burgers that are locally sourced to boot).
Additionally, The Counter is LOUD! Granted, two out of our family of three are over the 50 yoa mark, and probably have some high-frequency hearing loss from standing in front of concert speakers earlier in life, but we aren't dead, I mean deaf yet. But the overall din we've encountered (pun intended) every time makes it impossible to have a conversation with our dinner without feeling like we are shouting. The Counter isn't the only restaurant that is too loud, but it has one of the worst acoustics that I have experienced locally.
Agreed. The tragic result of an all concrete and metal table decorating motif.
DeleteThey had the edge for awhile being the only type of burger place to offer custom built burgers, but this type of dining is now becoming popular. Like in Fashion Valley mall they just opened up a Stacked which is way better.