Good News/Bad News: Best-O-Burger

Now that the initial frenzy—media and otherwise—surrounding Best-O-Burger has died down a bit, it's time to take a look back on the reactions from the first fortnight of service at the Financial District new gourmet slider joint. Nearly everyone has chimed in, from Yelp nation to the 7x7 gals. Hell, the occasion even prompted SF Weekly's very own Meredith Brody to take the leap to the blogosphere. As with any high-profile debut, the internets are full of diners sharing the good news, and also the bad news.

1) Not Great News: Meredith Brody likes the fare just fine, but highlights one shortcoming: "It seemed cruel that Best-O-Burger is located on the prime outdoor eating spot of table-lined Belden Place, where there is no designated Best-O-Burger seating, but we took our baby cheeseburgers, strings, and Ring-Os across the street to the low wall surrounding the office building on the corner of Pine and Kearny, and had a lovely urban picnic." [SFW]

2) Pretty Good News: The first commenter to weigh in had nothing but good things to say: "In terms of size, it takes about 4 bites to finish one. Definitely one of the better burgers in the city, but would have to go back around to the usual suspects (Darla's, Joe's, Mo's, etc.) to declare it Best-O-SF. The frings (fries + onion rings) were also very good. The super thin onion rings part were amazing, some of the best I've had in the area...the fries were mediocre - seemed to be more of the frozen variety. But it's still a pretty good side." [Eater Comments]

3) Pretty Bad News: Unsurprisingly, Yelp has plenty of negative reports, but the lack of eating area is a recurring theme: "The food is up in a hurry and your off to the races cause you now got your lunch in hand and no where to immediately crush it. Cross back to the office off the list unless you want the entire office to ask you what your eatting as you hopelessly defend Best-O-Burger as being anything close to healthy ... I didnt get the small burger idea since everyone was ordering 2 burger and 3 burger bags thus forming one normal size burger so they can call it a meal. I think Best-O-Burger honestly believes they reinvented the hamburger? While I was chewing I thought, its good, its farely inexpensive, but I did stretch my lunch time kill zone to get here and I am unimpressed with all the hype to product ratio." [Yelp]

4) Still Entertaining Bad Vegetarian News: We hit on that incredibly amusing semi-salad earlier in the week, but it bears repeating. Heavens. [YumSugar]

5) Level-Headed News: On the only Chowhound thread, discussing BoB, someone sums it up pretty by saying the gelato and onion rings are the big winners: "Tasty but I personally wouldn't put it anywhere in the top 5 burgers. The super-thin onion rings (more like onion slivers) are great though. Line looked a bit long (for a lunch place) but moved pretty quick. Bring a magazine or something to read to pass the time in line. Also tried their pomengranate-blueberry gelato in the afternoon and that was very good. I might just go back regularly for the gelato." [CH]
· All Best-O-Burger Coverage [~ESF~]