It’s May. And for people like me who enjoys burgers, it’s a special month as May is Burger Month! It’s basically a month when I can indulge in probably my most favorite food out there: burgers! This is precisely why each year I celebrate Burger Month by dedicating my weekly slot to essentially reviewing burgers!

However, it wouldn’t be a celebration of burgers if I just go to McDonalds and eat a cheeseburger there each and every week. No, I use this month to scour the area around me for something a little more special, which is why I do try to find the burger joints that just focus on making good burgers. And I would say I found someplace that does just that, because, not only does it just serve burgers, with or without cheese. But it doesn’t even try to be fancy with their burgers! No choice to add bacon or cream cheese or anything else than just a burger.

This week, I went to The Beef at Century City Mall and ordered a Cheeseburger with a side of French Fries.

First off, I have to talk about the name. The Beef? Love it! It’s a very straightforward name for a burger joint that serves straightforward burgers. Also, The Beef isn’t technically a burger joint in the strictest sense of the word. It’s actually part of Century City Mall’s food court area, Hole in the Wall. Granted, since Century City Mall is a pretty upscale mall, Hole in the Wall doesn’t look like, well, a hole in the wall. It’s a rather swanky looking food court located on the fourth floor of the aforementioned mall. The Beef can be a little difficult to find as it is nestled in the back of the food court.

But when you do find it, you will probably say that The Beef’s menu options are, shall we say, very sparse. The Beef only offers three items: hamburgers, cheeseburgers and french fries. In truth, it’s just two items because a cheeseburger is just a hamburger with cheese, isn’t it? There isn’t an option on the menu for extras, like bacon, which is a little disappointing as I had a hankering for a bacon cheeseburger that time. So I opted to get the Cheeseburger with a side of French Fries at The Beef.

I will say that I was astonished as the Cheeseburger with French Fries was kind of pricey. In terms of “Big Mac” economics, you can order two McDonald’s Big Macs, each with a medium fries and soda. That tells me either two things. Either The Beef’s burgers are extremely good and they use high quality ingredients that command the higher price point. Or I was going to be cheated just because The Beef’s located in a fancy-schmancy mall. I really hope it’s the former and not the latter.

After waiting for around ten minutes, I got my Cheeseburger with French Fries. While it is technically a “no-frills” meal, it did come with a “frill” of sorts: two sauces. Okay, one of the sauces is just plain ketchup. But the other one is a kind of tartar sauce, I guess? Just seems weird to have a side of tartar sauce for a beef burger.

But checking out the condiments can wait. Let’s go focus on the star of the show: The Beef’s Cheeseburger. I will say that the hamburger patty itself is really good. It came off as really tasty and juicy. And when I mean “juicy,” I’m not fooling around! Each bite I took off The Beef’s Cheeseburger, a copious amount of meat juice would ooze out of the burger. I generally correlate how good a burger is by how large of a meat juice puddle I would leave behind. The Beef’s Cheeseburger left a sizable puddle, which should tell you how much I liked the hamburger patty.

Unfortunately, The Beef’s Cheeseburger’s juicy patty did come off as rather subdued. While the hamburger meat is sizable, everything else is! The bun is rather large and thick and there was just a little too much lettuce. I will say that the bun is nicely toasted and held together incredibly well, despite it soaking up a lot of the fat the hamburger patty exuded. The lettuce also was good as it was crisp and tasted fresh. However, because they were comparable to the size of the patty, I got the feeling that either there was too much bun or lettuce or too little of a patty. I generally feel it would’ve been better if the patty was a smidge heftier because of it.

Moving on to The Beef’s French Fries, they were extremely good! They use thick cut fries, which don’t come out good a lot of the time. Thick cut fries usually come out soggy or too crispy in my experience. But The Beef’s French Fries don’t fall into that trap! They all had a crispy exterior but still keep a soft and tender interior. One of the best bunch of french fries I ever had.

I also see why there are two sauces. They’re for the French Fries and they both compliment fries well. The ketchup obviously worked well but the tartar sauce, well, that was something else! It was really good with the fries. Although I do have a caveat: don’t just simply immerse or slather the fries in the tartar sauce. The tartar sauce is very flavorful so a moderate amount will go a long way. I kinda wish there were more fries so I could polish off the tartar sauce!

Overall, I will say that The Beef’s Cheeseburger with French Fries was an excellent way to start off this year’s Burger Month. While I still wish The Beef’s Cheeseburger had, well, more beef in it, the experience as a whole was good. It does come off as just slightly overpriced because of the seemingly lack of beefy goodness because of the bread and lettuce ratio. The French Fries and tartar sauce does an admirable job of trying to make up the difference. It doesn’t quite do it but it’s close.

Have you tried The Beef’s Cheeseburger and French Fries? What did you think of your experience there? Let me know in the comments section below!