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The Union Kitchen's namesake burger is stacked high with onion rings and impaled by a butcher knife. Photo by Alison
I wasn't sure what to make of The Union Kitchen's namesake burger, a thick brute stacked with three-count-em-three tall onion rings, until I experienced the infantile pleasure of squashing those onion rings down underneath the sweet sourdough wheat bun. It was as much fun as my first (and second, and third) bite into this considerable piece of work. Come along for the ride where Southside Place meets Bellaire, one of two locations of this contemporary American grill launched by Paul Miller, an alumnus of the Pappas empire, Grand Lux and McCormick & Schmick's.
Splat! Squashed down, the Union Burger, medium rare, in cross-section at Union Kitchen. Photo by Alison Cook
*PRICE: $11, including house-made potato chips.
*ORDERING: Table service only. You may have to search for a staffer for guidance, or permission, but find a seat in the boxy main room or on the plastic-sided porch with its burbling fountain.
You can get a glass of Cotes du Rhone to go with your burger at Union Kitchen. Photo by Alison Cook
*ARCHITECTURE: No salad stuff on bottom or top unless you want to add it yourself from the side. On a toasted sweet wheat bun that I would guess came from Sheila Partin's Sourdough empire goes a swipe of mayo followed by an irregularly shaped, grill-striped beef patty ranging from 1/2" to almost 1" high. Bacon slices follow, surmounted by overlapping squares of orange and white cheese. On top ride three mammoth onion rings followed by the top bun.
*QUALITY:This is one of those happy instances in which an upscale burger delivers on its upscale price. Ordered medium rare, that's exactly the way it came, with a little wooden marker stuck in attesting to its medium rareness. The flavor was great: expansive beefiness telegraphed by a spurt of rosy juices at first bite; a sweet-savory dance between bun and patty; a deep porky note of bacon against melty, milky cheeses.
Add the mellowing influence of those big, squashed onion rings with their crisp-against-soft texture, and you have a sandwich which needs no further condimentization save the touch of mayo it comes with. There was a pallid sliced tomato, and a pro forma handful of wilted spring mix on my plate, plus a big old dill pickle spear and a cup of red-peppery mayonnaise sauce. I didn't need them. It was enough to enjoy the sear and the drippage on this grill-striped patty, and the way all the sandwich elements clicked, without too much getting in the way.
House-made potato chips come with the burger at Union Kitchen. Photo by Alison Cook
*GRADE: Solid A.
*OOZE RATING: Good drippage from a medium rare patty.
The hearts of romaine with Caesar dressing at Union Kitchen. Photo by Alison Cook
*BONUS POINTS: There's St. Arnold on tap, or a small slate of red wines by the glass, including a Cotes du Rhone that suits a serious burger well. The comfortable dining room of brick, dark library-style woodwork and ochre-sponged plaster is attractive enough in a corporate, rather anonymous way.
*MINUS POINTS:The thickish house-made potato chips that come with this burger simply didn't hold my interest the way a heap of well-made French fries might have. They had an inert, slightly stodgy quality I couldn't get past, and I ended up just eating a few for science, not for pleasure. Maybe they were better earlier during lunch service, when they were freshly out of the fryer. (I was there about 1 p.m.)
The "Hearts of Romaine" Caesar salad that could and should fall into the Bonus Points category here — thanks to a convincing twang of anchovy in the dressing — instead earned a demerit for some blacked lettuce edges and a mix of leaves that included plenty that weren't from the crisp, paler lettuce hearts. Nothing wrong with the outer leaves per se, but don't bill a salad as hearts of romaine if it's not.
The "Ice Cream Sundae" at Union Kitchen. Photo by Alison Cook
Also in the debit column: a so-called "Ice Cream Sundae" that proved to be a dreary pileup of solid brownie, squiggles of chalky chocolate sauce, maraschino cherries (plural) and sliced strawberries, with one sad little scoop of vanilla ice cream holding down the fort. I will admit that a childlike thrill smote me when I saw the words "Ice Cream Sundae" on the menu, but this modern version left me cold.
LOCAL COLOR: My fellow diners ranged from tables of businessmen to affluent retirees to young Bellaire matrons who lunch, chic in their workout gear and chatting in a mix of Spanish and English. An outdoor porch sided in plastic and fitted out with a fountain drew some al fresco patrons. Service was pleasant and good in spurts, but several management types spent most of the time I was there conversing with each other near the bar (I am sure they would have described it as "a meeting"), while another conducted an audible employment interview at the other end of the room from me. Meanwhile, inexplicable service lags made my meal a bumpy affair.
(The Union Kitchen, 4057 Bellaire Blvd. @Weslayan, 713-661-0025. Open daily. Monday — Thursday 11 a.m. — 10 p.m.; Friday & Saturday 11 a.m. — 11 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. 9 p.m.)
I am surprised to see such an awesome burger from that place. I was there in may of 2011 and had a very poor dinner there with my dining companion. Service was slow and the food very bland and unremarkable, not to mention expensive. Honestly, I'm surprised the place is still open.
I am surprised too! Coworkers & I went to this place for lunch last fall: food was ok and service were aweful!! We had to even pour our our refills of tea...
it always cracks me up how on this site, burgers shown with bites taken out always look like the consumer has a tremendous slobbering problem. It doesn't do much for me wanting to go visit the restaurant.
Dear anonymous #2: in deference to such delicate sensibilities as yours, I made it a point to cut that Union Burger with a serrated knife for the cross-section shot. I guess there's just no pleasing you, sob.
he is so solid in his beliefs that he uses anonymous to post......
Nice one Alison!
That's alright Alison. I for one enjoy your many reviews and pictures...serated knife or not.
You know, picking apart your response to #2..."I made it a point to cut that Union Burger with a serrated knife for the cross-section shot."
The word 'point' goes with the knife as does the word 'cut.' Using a 'serrated' knife at that. I'm thinking 'cross' should go with cross bow.
And the word 'shot'...uh self explanatory.
Happy Burger Friday.
The mind reels. Let me guess that you were an English major.
"Alright" is not a real word, no matter where or how often you see it in print.
Alrighty then.
Hahaha!!
Call me slow, but I don't understand Mr. Thac's critique. The sentence he quoted looks fine, as written.
I think he was teasing me for my choice of imagery in that sentence--all the words he cites are part of a knife/cutting/violence theme. I was amused, because it was done unconsciously. The mind works in mysterious ways.
WAY too rare for ground beef!
Some places there are laws that ground meat must be heated to 160 degrees, well done. The problem is that in the grinding the meat is exposed to possible contamination while inside a solid roast or steak it can't be contaminated. Guess the law isn't the same in Houston Texas, but the reasoning is the same.
Well done? Must not be many good burgers in those states. Two meats that should never be well done - beef and lamb.
And also pork...I think. All pork is previously frozen which kills the trichinosis. I eat all my pork medium and have never gotten sick. Pork just gets way too dry if you cook it all the way.
simply put, you have no idea what you are talking about.
Simply put, you need to get out of Texas more often. I have noticed that in the South and Midwest, there are a lot of places you can get a medium rare hamburger, which I do like. However there are many places in this country that it is illegal to serve a medium rare hamburger. The final cooking temp varies with location, but there are many areas that have passed that law.
How many times have you experienced "stomach flu", suffered, then got better? I'll bet you didn't give it much thought a week later. We tend to forget bad experiences. One may not wash hands before eating with no issues. But an ounce of provention [protection] is worth a pound of cure. Wash hands thoroughly and cook ground meat to 160 degrees.
I have been to several Lebanese restaurants where Kibbe nayyeh is served. This is raw minced beef, or lamb with spices. It looks like the hamburger meat you buy at the store. It is not cooked. This is a common dish in the Middle East. It is what it is. I personally prefer beef carpaccio.
That is your personal preference. I am culinary educated and yes, I was taught that eating ground beef any less than well done may expose you to food borne illnesses. That said, I eat my burgers medium-medium well (steaks rare/medium rare) and I have never gotten sick. Furthermore, it is the customers' choice to eat their burger however they want it. As a waiter I can't order peoples' food for them...everyone has different tastes
No thanks! Too much fat, too much dollar!
The best tasting burger I have ever had was the Umami Burger in Santa Monica Ca. and it did not come with a load of fried garbage. My wife cooks this in an electric skillet.
She uses veal, when the meat is done she cleans the skillet and adds a can of french onion soup.
When the soup boils, she adds the meat back in for a few minutes. It makes for a juicy burger and the soup can be used as a dip.
Looks like a pile of crap.
Ground meat should never - ever - have any red. Yes, contamination and disease..... steaks are fine rare... as long as the outside is cooked.. ground meat.... disaster waiting to happen. Beck's does this too. I always order WELL DONE for any burger....
*OOZE RATING: Good drippage from a medium rare patty.
A medium rare patty.... my best friend owns a meat packing plant here in Texas.... perhaps where that meat even came from..... you need to chat with him. In fact he's in Houston today. He'll let you know how many illnesses come about from eating a "medium rare patty".... maybe not tomorrow or the next day.. but.. can you say "bacteria"?
Yea.... eat a medium rare burger that had some cow feces mixed in.... that didn't get eliminated by cooking.... and 2 weeks later when you can't figure out why your stomach is churning.... TA DA!
You've watched too many 20/20 special reports in the early Nineties. I think it's perfectly fine to order medium-rare or even rare burgers at places that grind their own meat daily. Be smart about it. I wouldn't order a medium-rare burger at Hooters, but if it's a place I trust and I've asked about the quality of the ground beef used in burgers, I consume with peace of mind.
Also, cooking ground beef with cow feces to well-done doesn't eliminate the feces, it just means you're eating well-done cow feces mixed-in with dry, tasteless beef. But I guess that's what you prefer.
Um, have you ever thought that maybe it's freshly ground at the restaurant? From, I dunno, a decent cut of meat?
Most of the danger from "assembly line" pre-packaged ground beef from like Wal-Mart or whatever is that there's so much surface area for bacteria.
Grinding the meat, putting it into a patty, and cooking it right then lets you generally use the same done-ness rules as steaks. Never gotten sick from those.
I remember the last time I ate an undercooked burger. It didn't take two weeks, more like two hours... and I had no doubt as to the cause.
I was lucky. I lived. Not everyone who eats contaminated beef survives.
thats a big pile of pink slime. poor alison is addicted to "burgers."
Onion rings AND chips?? Psst...cook the meat...no red. It doesn't need to be medium rare to be juicy!!
I agree that a burger doesn't need to be medium-rare to be juicy-- if it has a high enough fat content. And mind you, medium-rare is only something that can be properly achieved on thicker-sized patties. Thin patties are great, especially in a double, but not what we're talking about here.
But, I contend that juiciness isn't really what sets a medium-rare burger apart from a well-done one. For me, it's two things: texture and flavor. My ideal burger patty has a nice, crusty sear on the outside but a loose texture inside. Cooking to well-done tightens the protein fibers too much, so even if it's still juicy from fat, the texture is rubbery. On a side note, packing the patties too tight and pre-seasoning contributes to the rubbery texture as well. Please, gently hand pack your patties and season them liberally on the grill, beloved burger joints.
Secondly, for quality beef (which is really the one kind of beef it's worth ordering medium-well), the beef exhibits a slight gaminess that's akin to foie gras or a dry-aged steak when medium-well. It's definitely not something that I was used to growing up, but when I finally tasted a properly cooked, medium-well burger (which wasn't that long ago-- I too grew up with a rare meat phobia), it was an epiphany. Something I'd want all my friends to experience.
I think the burger looks awesome (and I enjoyed the pic of the burger cut in half - thank you). I like my burger medium-rare as well. A dry, over-cooked burger isn't worth the calories for me and I like that is is my choice and if I can't order to my choosing, I go elsewhere (so I don't eat at Five Guys, for example). Most places who serve a burger like this grind their meat in house and that's great. Typically I grind my own meat and use an organic chuck roast. I never buy ground meat at the grocery store anymore once I found out that one package doesn't even mean one cow but I also haven't ever been sick from ground beef in my 46 years that I know of. Life is too short to worry about eating a great burger every now and then. Love the Burger Friday reviews!
A dingo ate my burger.
Bunch of pantywaist fruit of the loom sniffers with weak stomachs posting here. A burger cooked to grey, is a burger wasted.
I don't live in Houston but I'm there on business often. This is my kind of joint. It's going on my must try list. A rare burger is a guilty treat. You want well done go to WHATAGUTBOMB
So you are not a Houstonian, are you also not a Texan? Any good Texan knows dissin' whataburger is like pissin on the Alamo!
It'd be nice if you could actually fit it in your mouth to eat it like a burger.
Rare to medium rare is great for me. Welcome back Burger Friday and thanks, Alison.
Wish they'd have some contest to join for consuming those. I'd be in!
The whole darn thing looks pretty dry to me, medium rare or otherwise. Sweet whole wheat bun, breaded onion rings, salty bacon, double cheese.....the resulting package begs for something more than a "swipe" of mayo.
I guess that's what pink slime looks like.
All right! Enough hating already. Go eat a sandwich or something.
Alison, be nice to A#2. Don't go all Ricky Craig on him. :)
I've never understood why more boutique burger joints don't grind the meat to order and thus avoid the whole issue of "mystery meat." If I want a burger that is 2/3 ground chuck and 1/3 ground pork and weighs .65lb, why can't the restaurant just slice off a piece of chuck, a piece of pork shoulder, add some fat trimmings and grind it up? One should be able to choose between chuck, sirloin, top round, pork shoulder and brisket. Every burger joint is looking for some marketing angle, why not try real meat ground to your preference and cooked to order?
Thank you Alison, that looks so very good. I must try everything that you photographed. Have a good week-end.
I'm with Big Al - transparency for the burger lover!
Sorry folks, a burger is a burger is a burger. I have had the "best" burger over and over again and in the end, it was a burger - bun, ground meat and condiments.
Hello??!!!! If you don't want to eat the burger then please hush and don't go there. Will be wonderful for the rest of us who recognize a good burger!
Some of you people are just plain rude.
The GM Steak House on Guadalupe in Austin served the best burger and fries (thick ones w/skin) inside the orbit of Neptune. All others are impostors.
Ah, GM Steakhouse - no extra charge for abuse! (As they used to say.)
Personally, I preferred Night Hawk Steak House on the north side. Their "chop'd" steaks were da bomb!
Glad to see the return of Burger Friday. I thought it had disappeared.
No, I just needed to take a vacation from it for awhile. Enthusiasm restored.
Dang, after reading all the comments about pink slime, cow feces and bacteria, I really did have to go to the bathroom!
The burger looks good. However, I had a bad experience at the Union Kitchen. My husband and I tried it a couple months ago. We were excited because it is close to our house and it looked pretty cool. He had a chicken dish and I had a shrimp dish and they were both quite good. We even decided to order dessert because we enjoyed our meals so much.
Suddenly, I didn't feel ok and ended up being sick and having to abruptly leave. (My husband and I came in seperate cars, so he stayed to settle the bill.) As I was leaving, the waiter asked if I was ok (I clearly wasn't), but I was too embarassed and just said yes and hurried to my car to get home (yes, it made me that sick and I haven't gotten food poisoning like that ever).
Here's the kicker...when my husband was paying the bill he told the waiter that I had gotten sick, presumably from the shrimp, and the waiter didn't believe him. However, he offered a "free appetizer" coupon for later use. Thanks, but no thanks Union Kitchen.
Isolated incident? Maybe. But, still!
This is my new favorite place! Thankfully I can walk from my house. The lentil pardina soup is lovely. I have been there four times over the past 2 months and each time has been wonderful. They do a nice brunch on the weekends. I find the food very fresh and very tasty! Recommend the Union Burger, the Spinach and Goat Cheese Pizza and the grilled steak salad. I wish I had round this place sooner!
Roh roy! Grad you round it roo!! (with apologies to Astro)
Thanks nice sharing regarding kitchen