Boomerang's Gourmet Burger Joint (San Diego)

We have now arrived at Burger Spot #2. What an exciting countdown this has been so far =P. I wanted to try something different, if I wanted a plain burger with standard bun and fixing (aka Hodad's and it's brethren) I'd go to In&Out and get food similar in taste but faste rand cheaper. So when I heard about the Coldstone of burgers Boomerang's I had to try it.

The "specialty" of Boomerang's is that you pick your style of meat (turkey/beef for mixing), weight, then you pick your MIXERS. The rest of the meats the mixes are not put inside but a TOPPING.

When I was in High School man moons ago (wow has it been that long...) my mom used to pack an occasional home made burger for us. It'd be chinese toast (YUM) with a slice of cucumber, tomato, some ranch dressing and a home made patty. THe patty would be filled with salt , pepper, diced onions, mushrooms, and garlic. It was AMAZING. I'd say I was the envy of the school yard until my mom went back to giving me ham and cheese sandwiches.. or PB&J with cheese. SO whenever I make my own burgers I usually dice all kinds of vegetables into it.. and was expecting great things from Boomerang's.


You pick 3 mixers that they chop up and put together with your burger so you have a large patty stuffed with beef and ingredients.

There are standard toppings as well as "Gourmet toppings" that cost $1 more each. I figure since the stuff all gets mashed in there, you wouldn't tell much of a difference between grilled mushrooms and the normal mushrooms =).

You then get your order of cheese from a HUGE variety which is an A+, I hate how you're limited to a handful of cheese but Boomerang's has some nicer variety cheeses. You then get a FREE , I REPEAT FREE SIDE. This is the ONLY place so far that has given a free side of anything. They also had sweet potato fries *drooool*. You can then pick a sauce to put on the burger if you'd like =P.

Both Jeff and I ordered the 1/2lb hamburger. The burgers come with large pieces of leafy romaine lettuce, spicy red onions, tomatoes and pickles. The essentials for your every day lunch burger.

I added mixers of BACON (of course!), Onions, Mushrooms and topped with Gouda (how I LOVE Gouda.. so nutty and full of slate and bite!) with a side of Garlic Aioli sauce on the side. Jeff did Pineapple, Bacon, and onions topped with Swiss and Teriyaki Sauce on the side. . Our opinions on the burger are pretty similar so I'm just going to lump the two of them together.

First off, when you look at this burger it doesn't look that large.

It actually looks like a pretty normal size quarter pound burger. It's until you start eating it that you realize the burger gets progressively larger as it gets to the middle. The meat is also densely packed so it gets heavier and heavier as you eat it. Note, that is not a negative, I'm just observing this is a VERY filling burger.

The burger itself is charred heavily on the outside to give it that charbroiled taste with a crisp outer skin while sealing the juices inside. The meatiness permeates through each bite due to being locked in by the "browning" on the outside. But even though I could taste the inherent beef flavors of the burger it seemed to run a bit dry. I'll have to try this burger again at medium rare.. made a mistake ordering it Medium (WHAT CAME OVER ME!?).

The sauce provided is a hearty, rich, mouth coating sauce of heavy garlic and olive oil. It was thick, almost pasty but full of rich deep flavors of fresh chopped garlic and copious olive oil. I think I ate about a quarter of it, my heart rejected the rest.

My negative about this burger is... you really don't taste the mix-ins. When you have a Coldstone ice-cream and you get brownies in it, you taste a whole bunch of brownie. I pretty much tasted charred bacon and that was it. The mushrooms and onions were diced so small that they imparted absolutely no flavor to the burger. The bacon was burnt to a crisp so I didn't get that pork rendered fat flavor that I like in my burgers. Mix in fail?

Jeff said he couldn't taste his pineapple in his burger. PINEAPPLE. A fruit filled with sour acidity could not rise out in a savory dish. MIX IN FAIL!

The fries on the other hand were approved by both parties. I enjoyed my "free" sweet potato fries, hints of garlic and Parmesan with each bite. Wish they were a bit crispier.. but since I didn't have to pay $6.50 extra for them I have Zero/Zilch/No complaints.

I appreciate the creative efforts put behind this restaurant. It's not often you see ingredients diced into a burger. But I'm slightly confused on why the mixings were diced so small you couldn't taste anything. For that being their claim of fame it was rather disappointing.

But now you ask.. "Charlie why did you rate this as your 2nd favorite out of the 3 then?" Well young grasshopper, the burger itself was far superior to Tioli's. It was full of great beef flavor and the meat was packed tightly but not so tightly that you couldn't let it crumble in your mouth bite after bite.

Try it for yourself, maybe the Mix-ins will be better for you than me!

Boomerang's Gourmet Burger Joint
4577 Clairemont Dr
(between Clairemont Mesa Blvd & Joplin Ave)
San Diego, CA 92117