Good for Something

Many of Goodburger's best items aren't burgers at all.

by Elisa Ludwig

At the Center City outpost of the NYC mini-chain Goodburger, you can get some better-than-average fast food — it's just a shame that the burger in question is, in actuality, just fair to middling.

Yes, it's true burgers are cooked to order, and chances are you'll get the proper degree of rareness you request at the counter. Yes, the beef is a nice quality Hereford meat, hand-ground to GB's specifications. It's also true that the burger comes layered with "the works": a crisp piece of Iceberg, a mealy slice of tomato, a judicious amount of red onion and mustard, ketchup and mayo, plus three slices of pickle.

But the roll is soft and uninteresting — it may be toasted, but it tastes suspiciously supermarket-sweet. And the burger itself is thin and juiceless, nicely charred but lacking the most basic seasoning to enhance that natural beef flavor. And maybe the fries here are cooked with trans-fat-free oil, but who cares when the skinny, pale yellow shoestrings are dull and greasy?

Fast food could use a lot of fresh ideas, but Goodburger is only a few steps removed from McDonald's — think cleaner tables, wood-paneled walls, cheerier (and, one can only hope, better-paid) employees, a Eurodisco soundtrack and signage describing why the burgers and fries are far more conscionable than the big goofy clown's.

Yet there are some items to recommend here: Better-than-decent onion rings of the thick, heavy-battered variety are simultaneously moist and flaky. A very crispy Bell and Evans natural chicken breast comes flattened to the size of a salad plate, sandwiched between halves of a roll and subjected to "the works" unless you specify otherwise.

The house salad is a fine choice: mixed organic lettuces tossed with cucumber wedges, black olives, grape tomatoes, thin slices of Cabot cheddar, warm grilled pita triangles and — just because this is fast food — some thin fried onion rings. And while potables like the real ice-cream black cow milkshakes and the syrupy lime rickey are cloyingly sugary, the homemade root beer is memorably lip-tingling, spicy and not too sweet.

Goodburger should be commended for its efforts to provide options, even if the portobello mushroom sandwich and a bland gray puck of a turkey burger studded with mixed peppers actually taste like concession. In the meantime, what about renaming the place — something like Goodrootbeer or GoodTexaschili?

(e_ludwig@citypaper.net)

Goodburger | 1725 Chestnut St.215-569-4777, goodburgerpa.com | Hours: Sun.-Thu., 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 10 a.m.-11 p.m. | Sides, $1.95-$6.50; Sandwiches, $4.75-$9.95 | Delivery available | Online ordering available