Sonoma County Burger Club

The Process

Everyone rates the burger anonymously after a single visit, scoring each of the five PBASO categories: Patty, Bun, Accoutrements, Starch and Overall. First rule of Burger Club: No talking about the burger or fries until the ratings are in. That keeps the scores honest.

Order It How You Like It

Order any burger on the menu (within reason), cooked the way you like it, from pink in the middle to well done, and customize it however you want. That means we don’t all eat the same thing, and a rater might order something different at each stop. Same goes for fries: we order whatever style the kitchen offers.

The Debrief

Once the ratings are in, the gloves come off. We move somewhere a little more private so everyone can speak freely, and each member shares their scores and, when necessary, defends them. It can get saucy. But no score changes after it’s submitted. What’s rated is rated.

The Rating Scale

Everything is scored from 1 to 5. No decimals, no overthinking, just gut feeling. A 1 is a burger you’d pass up for a salad. A 5 is one of the best burgers you’ve ever had.

Burger & Fries Scores

[P+B+A] Three parts, one score. Each restaurant’s Burger Score is the average of its Patty, Bun and Accoutrement scores, on the same 1-to-5 scale. That number decides who lands among the Top Burgers and who just didn’t quite get it right.

[F] Fries get their own separate score, because let’s be real, the fries can make or break the meal.

Consistency Score

Think of it as the “Can I count on this burger?” score. A low score means we mostly agreed. A high score means someone had a life-changing experience while someone else wondered what all the fuss was about. More on how we calculate SD ↓

We Pay Our Own Way

Do restaurants comp our meals? Absolutely not. We pay our own tab every time: no freebies, no paid reviews, no padded ratings. We usually don’t announce ourselves, unless skipping the heads-up that we’ll all be ordering burgers would leave the kitchen in a bind. The burger we rate is the burger you’d get.

One Burger a Month

The group generally visits one restaurant a month, and members nominate where we go next. A restaurant needs ratings from at least four members before it makes our list.

Just Regular Folks

Not everyone makes every outing, so the faces around the table change from month to month. And no, we’re not undercover chefs or professional food critics. We’re regular folks with a shared passion: a love of a great burger!