Built Custom Burgers

Decent burgers, despite being a bit on the pricier side. This was the first build your own burger joint that I went to a few years back. There are a decent amount of options for your burger ingredients, which is pretty neat. I return maybe once or twice a year since I don’t live in the area and finding parking is annoying.

This place has excellent burgers with a great «build it yourself» concept a la Chipotle. So why does it get one star?
I have never in my life experienced service this bad. I am extremely forgiving of service, always tip 20% kind of guy. I worked as a waiter and in the restaurant business in various positions for 5 years. They do not give a SHIT about serving you. They are slow as fuck, and the girl who served me (some girl with blue hair – FIRE HER) literally had me pay, put my burger on the counter. I waited for her to put fries up there with it, but she just ignored it. I waited for 10 minutes (mind you, there was NO ONE in the store. I was the only customer) while stood there. I gave her the benefit of the doubt – maybe she forgot about the fries, even though she repeated back to me that I had ordered fries when paying. I approached the counter and said, «excuse me, I think I had fries with my order too.» She was like «oh,» and took the bag.
They keep the fries in this metal bowl on a counter between the kitchen and the serving counter, where the cook will put them into a bag. These fries were in plain damn sight. Rather than put them in a bag herself, she waits for the damn cook (who knows where the hell he was) to return and put fries in a bag. Seriously? You can’t do that yourself, so instead I have to wait there like an asshole? Took another 10 minutes. I was thiiiiis close to jumping over the counter, grabbing a handful of fries and throwing them in a bag, and walking out.
I literally will never go there again on principle. Maybe catering is worth it, but the service is ⁰⁄₁₀. Never again.

I used them for catering at work and those burgers flew off the tables! The catering process was easy and very convenient. They showed up on time and made my life simpler. I’ll definitely use them again!
The location is across the street from USC and I’ve only been in store once the burger was juice and they have a good variety of toppings.

The burgers are average… and you can go for a try
But you MUST TRY the garlic fries and chicken wings !!!

Subpar burgers and subpar toppings. Too expensive for what you’re getting. I’ve heard the Counter is really good but I was really disappointed by Built. Some of the toppings look like they’ve been sitting out for a really long time and it’s just not very good.

I ordered Built Custom Burgers for a work lunch and everyone loved it! The burgers and condiments were all packaged in separate containers, making it very easy for me to set up this make-​your-​own-​burger station. The chicken burger was moist and flavorful. I heard rave reviews on the beef and veggie burgers as well. The gluten free bun was impressively fluffy too! Everyone at work loved these burgers and it made for an easy lunch for 22 people.

Good quality burgers for a good price.
Parking is free!
The garlic fries are very good but the size of the order is pretty small. That was my only real complaint. I do love the soda fountain machine where you can mix and match to make your own drink.

This place is pretty good but for it’s price really… isn’t worth it. it’s $ 10 bucks burger and fries. I mean common… the burgers are pretty good and so are the fries but it’s the price that takes it down to 3 stars instead of 4. I come here for lunch when I’m feeling rich (which is not often)
pros: you can customize your burger and they have a ton of toppings and sauces, really like the way the burger tastes, fries are pretty good too
con: price, wait can be a bit long at times

I will start by saying it’s a cool burger concept but the business execution is all wrong. The burgers are very mediocre and the assembly line process is just horrible. They are extremely understaffed and the staff that was there were moving like they really didn’t know what to do. Like they were just trained this morning.
This place needs a visit from Marcus Lemonis from the profit.

Shockingly understaffed during lunch. Between the line waiting and the one poor kid behind the counter trying to keep up I got to watch my burger patty sit and get cold while he tried to keep up. That was followed by another prolonged wait for the register while he burger got soggy. Lukewarm burger and fries, but the brioche bun was good.
FYI to the manager looking person, you may want to help out your team and take care of the customers.

I like the idea of this place… it’s like a Chipotle for burgers. Great concept right? I didn’t understand when you ordered certain things they waited to build the other part. This other couple came in 1^st and ordered and he waited to put the bread in the toaster until my party of 3 was done. Then he started doing everyone’s toppings at once so when the couples burgers were done, they just sat there getting cold until he was done with ours. Then he did them all at once again which meant ours were now getting cold. Then mysteriously, 2 other workers arrived both to ring us up. Why on earth weren’t they helping him at the counter. It doesn’t take 3 people to ring up 2 parties… For an empty place, it sure took a long time and his order of logic behind the counter gave little to be desired. Maybe i’m just a better multi-​tasker???

As you probably can guess there are lots of options… Almost too many for me. When this store first opened here I felt that an issue was that many of their options were extra charges but this has been greatly improved IMO.
I’ve always had quick service here and had nice staff.

The options for the burgers sound amazing on the menu but the patty was super dry.
The garlic fries were soggy and not cooked thoroughly. I love a lot of garlic and oil but cook the damn fries first!
The tater tots were perfect!

Service sucks! Manager sucks even more!
Everyone looks high. They took about 20 minutes to give me my burger the girl couldn’t get the register to open so she had to call the manager in the back he took 10 minutes then she went back to call him again for a second time I waited about 10 more minutes he came out and he couldn’t get the register open either! (WTF)
Customer service should be #1 I don’t know what he was doing back there but he looked lazy. Go next door Pizza Studio is friendly and fast and the manager is actually helping.
The burger was ok but can get a better one somewhere else In & Out is cheaper and taste better.

Plusses:
–Lots of burger/​bun options with unlimited toppings — I always load mine up with tons of veggies
–Delicious sauces: I recommend the BBQ and the chipotle mayo
–Sweet potato fries (yall I love me some sweet potato fries and these do not disappoint!)
–One of those awesome soda machines that basically has every Coke product and flavor known to mankind available
–The daily milkshake/​float — I’ve never actually had the ice cream here but it looks pretty bomb
–Convenient for USC students and visitors
Minuses:
–Price. It is definitely way too expensive for what it is — a burger and fry lunch should not be costing me $ 11
–The veggie burger is tasty, but it falls apart really easily — something about the recipe, I suppose
–Crowded — if you come in during peak hours it can be hard to find a seat
A solid lunch option for when you’re willing to splurge!

Maybe it’s because I made the mistake of ordering a salad instead of a burger?!
I’ve heard this place was supposed to have really good burgers and that they’re salads weren’t so bad either, but I was very disappointed.
I ordered an organic greens salad bowl and it was so tiny… the bowl itself wasn’t but they only put in a small bunch of leaves in the bowl and drenched it in sauce. Then they put a patty slice on top (they also didn’t even ask me how I wanted it cooked… and ended up getting a medium rare patty).
The worst part is that I basically paid $ 9 for a ground beef patty on top of a couple leaves of lettuce… that is illegal.
The only redemption for this place is probably the fries. The plain skinny cut fries were fresh and tasty. But that’s about it.
At Costco, I could’ve gotten a salad 5x the size for only $ 5. At Chipotle, I could’ve gotten a salad 3x the size for the same price.
I won’t be coming back here again unless I need a quick fix of fries.

Meh is right, I’ve definitely experienced better. I came for lunch and ended up paying $ 7.36 for an average burger. Got a beef hamburger with cheddar cheese, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, and thousand island. Truth be told, the burger wasn’t bad but with a $ 7.36 price tag I expected a lot more; it was way too small for the amount of money you fork over. I’d rather go to Fatburger, where I can get fries and a drink as well for the same price. Plus, Fatburger is pretty damn awesome.

I wish I wasn’t writing this.
I have been a long time patron of the Built location at the corner of Exposition and Figueroa. That is until tonight.
After waiting for about 15 minutes for my burger and having four patrons served in front of me (as I was told «Oh we’re making a new one fresh.» I took two bites, only to discover completely raw, uncooked chicken. This is unforgivable.
I have been a patron of Built since I moved into Icon Plaza two years ago, and since then, the quality of product that you all have put out has been great up until about a month or two where wait times took forever and the staff were woefully ill-​equipped to handle normal customer volumes. And now this. While I was given a full refund and the manager was trying her best to make things right, it was too little too late. No one should have to have waited that long for their food – and this has been a constant issue as of late. And no one should ever have to bite into their meal and discover this in their food.
If there was a way to give 0 stars I would.

Terrible customer service.
Cashier had a horrible attitude and would get upset when we would ask questions, the food isn’t good enough to overlook the bad attitude.

I’ve noticed that the new trend in fast few chains (particularly in the USC area) is the assembly line style which if done right are fast, convenient and rather tasty.
Built is the hamburger equivalent to Chipotle, Subway and my most recent discovery Pizza Studio. I first heard about Built through a co-​worker who boasted that they had the best burgers particularly because you get to personalize it.
So, I decided to give it a try and finally dropped in. As with the trend the interior has a industrial loft feel with the exposed AC ducts and pipes. They have large 3×4 boards hanging from the ceiling labeled Step 1 through Step 8 that walk you through the custom build process and options available… very user friendly.
I decided to go with the turnkey burger on wheat with lettuce, tomato, spicy jalapeño cheese, red onions, roasted red peppers, avocado, bacon and last but not least sautéed mushrooms. To accompany my burger I went with their garlic fries with roasted garlic aioli dipping sauce.
I’m sort of a backwards eater and eat my fries before my hamburger. Which in this particular case afforded me the opportunity to enjoy the fries before things went south. Though I do think they could have used a bit more garlic. The garlic sauce was nice and creamy and perfectly complemented my fries.
The 3 bites of the hamburger were not bad, unfortunately I didn’t really get to experience the full taste and feel of my creation because as I went to take the cursed 4^th bite I happened to look at my burger and saw a hair. At first I thought maybe it was a lettuce fiber of sorts but on closer inspection my suspicions were confirmed. I then though well maybe it’s some random hair that was floating around in the air and just happened to land on my food. Well, not so much, when I went to remove it I realized that the hair was nicely tucked and stuck between the lettuce and patty.
Unfortunately, that was the end of my meal. I returned it and was offered a new hamburger but my appetite had been quashed by this point. Though the employees were very nice and I was offered a new meal, I would have liked it if they had offered a refund, which they didn’t nor did I suggest one. I just wanted to leave.
Needless, to say I doubt that I’ll be returning anytime soon. Not to mention that I felt like I had a hair ball in my throat for the rest of the day :(
I think that had it not been for the hair I very much would have liked my meal and probably would have become a fan and return customer… oh well you can’t win them all.