The Counter

How I heard of this place: I heard of The Counter through my friend Chris, who informed me of the make-​it-​your-​way burger joint that opened up in the Ballard Blocks. When he received a voucher in the mail for something free, we had to make a trip out there!
Type of cuisine: Burgers, pure and simple. Though, not so simple when you have over 300,000 burger creations from which to choose!
Ambiance: Casual, family friendly. Large, open space, with high ceilings. Bar area seating available, as well as space outdoors on the patio.
What I ordered: On my first trip, I ordered the ¹⁄₃ pound beef patty ($ 8.25) on a hamburger bun with soft ripened brie cheese. For some strange reason, despite having carefully selected my four toppings and sauce, I was given a completely different burger which was topped with lettuce, tomato, Bermuda red onion and dill pickle chips with a roasted garlic aioli. My dining companion ordered a ¹⁄₃ pound beef burger ($ 8.25) with gruyère cheese in a bowl ($ 1 extra) over The Counter’s lettuce blend, black olives, hard boiled egg, sliced cucumbers and roasted corn & black bean salsa. We shared the family style Parmesan French fries to start ($ 6); a large helping of shoestring fries topped with Parmesan cheese, rosemary, parsley and garlic aioli.
On a return trip, Wednesday, September 1, 2010: I ordered the ¹⁄₃ pound grilled chicken breast in a bowl ($ 8.25) over a bed of mixed greens ($ 1 additional). Atop the chicken, I ordered a slice of the horseradish cheddar, grilled onions, roasted green chiles, roasted red bell peppers and spicy pepperoncinis with a spicy sour cream sauce. One of my dining companions ordered the ²⁄₃ pound ($ 10.25) beef burger patty over a bed of lettuce blend (Romaine, $ 1) with soft ripened brie cheese, jalapenos, roasted red bell peppers, spicy pepperoncinis and grilled pineapple. My second dining companion, a vegetarian, ordered the ¹⁄₃ pound veggie burger ($ 8.25) on a hamburger bun, topped with jalapeño Jack cheese, Bermuda red onion, dill pickle chips, lettuce blend and a side of coleslaw. Two of us shared the Parmesan French fries and one ordered a single portion of the regular shoestring fries.
What I loved: The Parmesan fries beat everything else on the table hands down! My low-​carb burger in a bowl on the second trip, having received exactly what I had ordered, was delicious, full of flavor and slightly spicy.
Why I loved it: You can have anything you want, made in any way your heart desires! It’s a great place for picky eaters, and a little confusing for those of us who have too many options from which to choose. But the food is good, the service quick and the the amount of food filling.
Cost: Average to high ($ 8-​$ 13 for a burger with no sides)

Have you ever wanted a burger with a little of this or that? Or a combination of two? The Counter is just that place, build your own burger with every topping under the sun. This all starts with the patty, 4 choices — 3 sizes, 12 choices of cheese, 21 choices of toppings that are free and 9 that are an added prices as well as 22 choices of sauces. Is that enough? Try 5 different bun choices! Once you have made you ultimate burger go with the fifty-​fifty fries (half sweet potato or onion strings — half regular,) and you will be in a food coma when you are finished. Great place!
FYI– My burger, 1/​3lb beef on mulitgrain bun with pepper jack, grilled onions, roasted green chillies, bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato with chipotle aioli.

²⁄₃ pound custom burger with smoked bacon, horseradish cheddar, egg, and chipotle aoli cooked medium. Wow. Everything was executed perfectly. Meat was tender and juicy. The flavors played nicely together. It is true, the prices are no joke. 2 burgers, 2 drinks (1 alcoholic), 1 parmesan aeoli fry = $ 48 after tip… At least the parking is covered, free, and plentiful.
Blood Mary with bacon vodka was excellent.
*You do get a free fry if you check in on Unilocal… I did not notice this until after we ordered.

11÷10÷11 — I enjoyed the experience today but today my perfectly medium rare burgers with brie and another with bluecheese were way too rich and overpowered my burgers. I probably wouldn’t order them this way again.
I’m just glad I have options.
I still love the parmesan cheese fries and the shoe string onion rings!
Service has always been friendly and attentive!
I’ll be BACK! -
OH and I used my Groupon ($ 10 for $ 20) for this deal! I hope the counter comes back again with groupon! — So worth it!

I recently challenged myself to try and follow the Paleolithic diet for 30 days. Short version: no grains, legumes, or anything else fun. Meat, veggies, nuts, and fats.
A friend (who is also challenging herself) and I met up for dinner and we were both STARVING and brainstorming places to hit up. I’d heard things about The Counter before and since they have the «In a Bowl» option, we figured it’d be easy to make Paleo-​friendly.
We got there at around 6:30 on a Thursday night and it was slightly bustling with a good mix of couples and families. We split an order to Sweet Potato Fries and they were gooood! The fries were pretty standard, crunchy and sweet, and came with an addicting horseradish aioli that I thoroughly enjoyed (but my friend didn’t).
I built my own burger with ¹⁄₃ lb of Beef In a Bowl with peppercinis, roasted red peppers, carrot strings, and grilled onions. I added Guacamole (a dollar extra) and with Chipotle Aioli for my sauce. Our burgers came out relatively fast and boy was it a lot of food. Overall though, I found the burger itself a bit under-​seasoned and bland. All the other accoutrements didn’t help much and I found myself dipping the beef in the aioli for more flavor. As a whole the meal was okay but I think The Counter is an example of when the sum is not as good as its parts.
I would come back and give The Counter a few more tries because their selection seems solid and the fries were yummy.

Uhhhh, so not impressed. Heard that they have the best burgers in Seattle. So far from the truth.
The menu is honestly, a little too extensive. Sure it’s nice if you want to try something new but, for a burger joint… naaaaahhhh.
Not to mention the frikkin’ prices. Not only for a burger but for what you get. Just the burger, minimum is 9 bucks. More than one sauce 50 cents. Fries 3 bucks. Guac, a dollar. Fountian soda 2.50. Stupid.
Parmesan fries were pretty good. Other than that and the free fries that I earned for checking in… So not worth it. So many better places to go for burgers. Boooo hissss. =P

There are so many great burger places in Seattle that it is tough to go to a «chain.» That being said, the food at the Counter is delicious, and service is FANTASTIC. I thoroughly enjoyed grubbing down in their shiny silver universe.
I LOVE their skinny fries, thin and super crispy, and not overwhelmed by salt. The sweet potato fries were fab as well, especially if you add a little pepper.
People complain about the expense but The Counter includes cheese and 4 toppings on their burgers which makes it a little more acceptable. If you go to a burger joint that charges $ 6 or 7 then charges $ 1 for each topping, pretty soon you’re at 10 bucks or more.
I went with two meat eaters who frequent other burger joints and collectively we marveled at the flavor and how well it was cooked. The waitress convinced us to have a brownie for dessert (where did we find the room?) and we split one four ways. Great hot melting chocolate love Batman, NOW THAT’S A BROWNIE!

I’m not sure if I am allowed to critique my dinner when it was a build-​your-​own burger place. .. but I will. The build-​your-​own aspect is fun, but it turns out I don’t really know what I am doing. So if I were to go back here, I would probably just order one of their pre-​planned burgers.
However, despite the food being fine, and the service being fine, I doubt I will go back here. I am an adult, and I can go to any of Ballard’s fine eating and drinking establishments just blocks away, all of which have better food and WAY better ambience. The Counter really feels like a fast food place: loud, uncomfortable, lots of kids, busy busy. The food is better than fast food, but if I am going to pay bar and grill prices it needs to be more comfortable for me. And if you want to take your kids somewhere, you can take your kids to the Ram, too, which has better burgers for similar prices.

I really wanted to like this place. I liked the atmosphere, I love the idea of building your burger, I love all the options you’re given and most importantly, I love that they use Meyers Ranch beef which is «humane».
Their onion rings and sweet potato fries were tasty and served on a MASSIVE plate. Between my friend and I, we couldn’t even put a dent in them.
The one reason this place doesn’t get as many stars as I would like to give it is 1) the burger wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be and 2) My friend and I (almost instantly) after leaving felt like we had some sort of food poisoning. Could have been the burger, could have been the onion rings, could have been the sweet potato fries — whatever it was, it makes me a little afraid to return.

I have been here twice and my conclusion isn’t great. While there are indeed a myriad of ways to build one’s burger, the price point is too high. If you’ve never been, you are seated at a table and handed a clipboard listing of ingredients. You may choose from the built burgers with a fixed price or build-​your-​own from the ground up. The latter is what appealed to me so I grabbed the little golf pencil and started marking boxes.
My perfect burger is a ¹⁄₃ burger with Swiss cheese, bacon and sautéed mushrooms. Here the cheese is free but the other ingredients (the GOOD ones) are a buck apiece. If I want to splurge and get avocado? The cost of my burger hovers at $ 11.25. Add a single order of fries and my total is now $ 12.50…
now you can call me crazy. It’s been done before and will be done again but c’mon… TWELVEDOLLARSFIFTY for a single burger and small fries? Without tax? For that price, I had better be luxuriating in my hotel room in my damned pajamas. They simply aren’t that good to warrant the cost especially when you consider all the other burger options here in Seattle.
I know that it’s natural Angus beef without hormones or antibiotics. I realise that the beef was humanely raised and handled. And yes, I know that third of a pound is after cooking. There’s a middle ground between this price point and burgers made with pink slime.
I think that I had bad experiences when I went. I’d be willing to give them another try during lunch or dinner but not in between again. If there’s a repeat of stale buns or slightly soggy fries, then I’m officially done and they can keep their three stars.
Kvetching aside, my usual report on the other things are favourable. There is plentiful garage and street parking, both free. Bathroom was clean and service prompt.

Yum.
I like to order things like this, almost NO chance they’ll come out wrong.
Sweet potato fries? Uh, yes please!
Mixed so I can try both? Oh HELL YES.
The meat was high quality, cooked perfectly and I enjoyed all the yummy options.
The service was great, the room was a bit sterile for my tastes but the energy of the server still made it feel comfortable.
I’ll be back fer sure.

Andrew D invited a friend and I to reap the benefits of a soon-​to-​expire Groupon with him tonight. I, of course, was still on the hunt for a burger that would finally satiate my two-​month craving, and did not refuse. So, dropping in on a place that I bus by daily, I was presented with a clipboard menu that featured a multitude of choices for the various components of a burger: the patty (5 choices, 3 sizes, 2 presentations), cheese (12 choices), toppings (21 choices with 9 more premium options), sauce (21 choices), and bun (4 choices), with one option in each category being a market selection special that they list on a separate menu.
After ordering a Fifty-​Fifty sweet potato fries and crispy onion strings to get us started, I pondered my options for a while to ensure I wasn’t creating a disaster in a bun, and ended up opting for a 1/​3lb bison burger (a market selection special patty) with jalapeño jack cheese, grilled onions, mixed greens, tomatoes, spicy pepperoncinis, a fried egg and guacamole, served with a roasted garlic aioli sauce and multigrain bun. And, as complex as that may sound, the resulting burger was a perfectly balanced blend of ingredients and flavors, with the various nuances of each ingredient coming through. Add a perfectly cooked medium-​rare patty and reasonable-​quality bun, and what I had was, in fact, quite a huge and tasty burger.
Why just a 3.5 though? Service was unusually slow (everything we ordered took a while to arrive, including our water), the Fifty-​Fifty was just okay, while the burger was good, but nothing amazing, and the prices are on the high end (my burger would have come out to about $ 15 after tax, without the Groupon). However, each receipt does comes with a $ 4 off coupon for the next burger you get there before 3pm on weekdays, so price is somewhat offset after your first visit. And while The Counter is by no means groundbreaking, it succeeded where several other burger joints have failed in the last two months — it finally satisfied my burger craving.

I have been here twice so far and each time I have had difficulty in limiting the amount of awesome toppings I try to add to my burger. The sheer variety of choices is both fun and overwhelming (in a good way) but once you lock in your selections, you will not be disappointed. The burger comes out exactly as you wanted it to be except probably bigger than you may have expected… and that is a wonderful thing.
The appetizer selection is pretty solid with a good variety of inexpensive items. My favorite so far is the chili cheese fries which are a meal all by themselves and a great value, too! They give you a big pile of fries coated in chili and cheese, but not to the point where it becomes a big, goopy mess. So good.
Looking forward to returning soon, especially on a Wednesday evening when Happy Hour goes all night until closing!

Months ago my coworkers went to The Counter for lunch, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go – besides, burgers aren’t really my thing. They came back with vivid descriptions of each «made to order» burger and how amazing the quality was. And apparently, one of the waiters reminded my coworker of my boyfriend.
So now, at least 6 months later, I had my chance at The Counter’s greatness and it wasn’t what I expected at all. I imagined a large menu on the wall with signs to «Take Order» and «Pick up» your food. NOTHING LIKE THIS! When we walked in, my boyfriend asked, «This is a burger joint?» as if it was too classy-​looking.
PROS:
— 4 Flat screens
— Spread out seating so you’re not sitting on one another
— Alcohol
— Patio seating for warmer days
— Free parking (covered)
Building your own burger is great. You can choose from 1/​3, ²⁄₃ or 1lb burger of beef, turkey, chicken, and veggie. They have SO many choices in cheese, toppings, buns and you can also choose to not have a bun, but have your burger laid on a bed of greens.
Also on their menu are their own specialty burgers, sides (parmesan/​garlic french fries were DELICIOUS!), sandwiches, and desserts.
The great thing about this is that you can literally try a different combination every time you go and the options really never run out!

Had lunch at The Counter. I like all the unique options that are available. They even have a «burger in a bowl» which is essentially a salad with a burger patty and the fixings on top rather than on a bun. Great concept. I don’t like the lay out or atmosphere — TVs on, not quite divey, not quite modern, just… clean. Crayons for the kids to play with. Seems a joint more suited to suburbia rather than Seattle.
I would come again for the company, but not my first pick… Red Mill and Blue Moon are all better in my book!

As far as customizing your burger, this place is AWESOME!
I had a Groupon for $ 30 here and finally decided to try it out. It’s in a building connected to Trader Joe’s, a LA Fitness, and some apartments or condos or something and from the outside, it doesn’t look like much, but the inside is great — big, open, and clean.
You are seated with a clipboard that explains the options, and you check off the things that you want on the burger:
First, the size and type of burger patty: Don’t be fooled, their patty sizes are POST-​cooking, so when they say 1/​3lb. It’s literally ¹⁄₃ of a pound, and it’s definitely filling. Meat options are great too — beef, chicken, and turkey. For the Market Selection, they had Greek Lamb (I just wish I would have seen the sign on the table before making my order). I selected the turkey…
Cheese: omg, so many choices! I went with the jalapeño.
Toppings: You can choose up to four without extra charge on your burger, which I think is plenty. I still want to be able to pick up my burger with my hands! There are some specialty toppings that they charge an extra $ 1 for, but I think that’s reasonable (avocado, bacon, etc…). I ordered the green chili peppers, sauteed onions, lettuce mix, and tomato.
Sauce: again, so many choices! Everything sounded mouth-​watering, but I ordered the chipotle aioli.
Bun: The wheat bun was delicious with its sweet oats on top!
These burgers don’t come with fries, so the boyfriend and I shared the Fifty-​Fifty parmesan and sweet potato.
For dessert, we ordered the apple crisp. Although, dessert can be skipped — I didn’t think that the dessert was anything special, and it’s an extra $ 1.95 just to make it a la mode.
Our bill came out to around $ 31, which only meant that I had to pay an extra $ 1.
Overall, I loved this place — I much prefer it to Lunchbox Laboratory (I didn’t feel sick with grease after I was done with my meal). However, I had to knock down one star because of the service. Our waiter was friendly, but definitely didn’t come to refill our waters without us asking, and checked up on us ONCE while we were there.

The reason why I like this place, is because you can make your burger as healthy as you want it to be! At the same time, with so many options on the menu, you could potentially make this burger the worst artery clogging goodness as you want.
I went with 2 other nursing school friends. As RNs we encouraged our friend to eat a 1 lb burger with sauteed onions, fried onion strings and some parmesan fries (which is probably the best fries I have ever tasted). He’s the reason why all healthcare providers have their jobs. Everyone eats unhealthy, get a heart attack and then hospitals stay in business. I’m joking about that one though, really.
We sat for half an hour trying to decide what to put on burger. 3 scratched up papers later, I had discovered my concoction of a perfect meal. My burger turned out to be amazing. It was actually a salad though. I had a veggie patty over a bed of spring greens, with a bean and corn salsa and it was delish after I brushed off the blue cheese I ordered on top of these burger.
I like how they have the specials on the menu so you can choose something new that is not typically on the menu.
Warning: Its not the Counter’s fault that you chose the wrong condiments on your burger to make it taste awful. Choose wisely!
These burgers are a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for, good quality food.

Do I love the build-​a-​burger? Yes.
Did I find their employees to be cheerful? Yes.
Did they do a good job? Yes. (Refills kept a-​comin’ for the quick Iced Tea drinker!)
Did I like their beer selection? Sure.
Do I like the price? Not so much.
Table Total: We got three 1/​3lb burgers (one had two premium toppings), one beer, one soda, and one Iced Tea. We got NO sides. Our total was about $ 41. (I was quite thankful that I purchased one of the $ 15-​for-​$ 30-​of-​food deals through one of the daily deal sites before checkin’ this place out.)
The food and the overall «dining experience» was good, but $ 9 just feels like a tiny bit much for a medium-​sized veggie burger with 4 regular (non-​premium) toppings and a slice of cheese.
Only issue with food: Their made-​in-​house veggie burger patty was very tasty, but I was a tiny bit frustrated about the corn kernels that kept falling out of the patty and onto my plate…

To be frankly honest, it’s not bad. It is however not great either. It’s also not really worth the $$. The burger I got was very meh. The sides were good, and the portions there were very large.
The big reason I was completely unimpressed with this place is because it took 40 minutes to get my to-​go order that consisted of two burgers and three sides. (2 ¹⁄₃ LB burgers, sweet potato fries, onion strings, and regular fries.) The sad thing is that other people that had come into the place after us had eaten and left by the time we got our order. The member of the staff that we asked why the wait was so long informed us that since we requested our burgers well done (Their standard is apparently medium.) it was taking longer. While I understand that base theory, the difference between a medium and and well done burger is less than ten minutes on the grill.
Overall the burger was okay. The sides were good. The service and wait time make this place not worth going to. If I’m in this area looking for food, I’ll stop at Jack In the Box down the street before coming back to The Counter.

The Counter was great! In Fact, it was better than I’d expected. I kept reading rave reviews online and thought that maybe I needed to make my way down there before I was the last person on the planet to check them out!
Initially I’d heard about all of the toppings and the options and I thought that it would be a mess of a place. Maybe a giant chalkboard, long lines, loud tables, etc. However, it was the total opposite of what I’d imagined! The restaurant is expansive and modern, tables are seated far apart from one another, there’s even a full bar!
The menus do allow for literally thousands of options but it works like this: You get a little clipboard and pencil. Jot down the type of meat, the size of the patty, the type of toppings you’d like, the type of cheese, a side sauce, etc. It’s really well planned out and very organized.
In addition to the burger options they also have fried dill pickles, sweet potato fries, onion rings and regular fries. So much to choose from!
I made a custom burger, tried the chili cheese fries and of course the fried pickles. The experience overall was really pleasant and the burger was awesome! I don’t make it out to Ballard as often as I should, but I’ll be back for sure.