Side dish: 25˚

25˚
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
7000 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-785-7244

Delicacheena wanted a fancy burger without the Father's Office wait and/or fight for a table. Fortunately, there is no shortage of folks competing for best burger in L.A. We decided to see how 25˚, located in the Roosevelt Hotel, rated.

We deviated from our (or rather INK's) original intentions of a cold beer and tried the "fancy" Dry Sodas. JM had the just-like-Provence lavender and INK had the subtle lemon grass. Both were refreshing and not too sweet. We started with the 1/2 and 1/2, a mix of delicately battered onion rings and skinny fries with salt and parsley.

You can choose toppings and create your own burger or let them do the thinking and opt for #'s 1 to 3. INK ordered the # 1 to compare it to Father's Office. It was a messy meld of caramelized onion, big woods blue cheese, crescenza cheese, bacon, arugula, and thousand island. The large patty was flavorful, the brioche bun buttery, the bacon smoky and the arugula peppery, but the mix of melted cheeses and dressing made the burger hard to handle. The cloth napkin was worse for the wear. It was no Office burger, but still recommended.

JM chose #3, the turkey burger with straus family jack, a slice of a mild green chili pepper, avocado and chipotle sauce. Projecting the Office burger onto the #3, JM almost thought she was biting into a beef patty, but was happy with the flavorful ground turkey. Reading the ingredients, you would expect the burger to offer more of a kick but it was pretty tame.

Despite groaning stomachs, we ordered the 4 layer chocolate cake and were warned of it's size. Hey, we can handle it. . . or at least we thought we could. The slice was the equivalent of two very big wedges. The cake was dense and moist, the frosting had an intense chocolate flavor with a touch of liqueur. Well, at least UE can enjoy the abundant leftovers.