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The Counter - CLOSED
Categories: Restaurants Burgers Restaurants American (New) Burgers, American (New) [Edit]
188 S Rio Grande StSalt Lake City, UT 84101
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
11 reviews for The Counter
11 reviews in English
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Review from Jason F.
Holladay, UT
6/27/2009
Expert knob twiddlers and food lovers who like to tweak their orders in every imaginable way will enjoy ordering a burger from The Counter. You can create a highly customized burger in just about any way conceivable. Burger nirvana is here.
The Counter is part of a larger chain that is growing quickly with good reason. The burgers are very tasty. The fries are good as well, and make sure you get the "Sweet Fries." You might want to avoid the turkey burger and all my experiences indicate it is best to stick with beef here.
This location is at the very bottom (South) of the Gateway. The service has always been good and the prices are reasonable. Good burgers. -
Review from David R.
3/13/2009
Too many flavors!
Notice that I didn't say "too many choices" because that's not true. It was my fault, not theirs. Well, a bit of both. Anyway, between all of the condiments, toppings, and other accoutrements, I felt like I would have been better off with something simpler. First off, the fries are seasoned AND come with THREE dipping sauces--ranch, barbecue, and something called "fry sauce" which is the color of a melted creamsicle. Plus there's ketchup on the table (Heinz, natch). Note: the barbecue sauce is very good, smoky and slightly tangy. I got a "fifty-fifty" of fries and onion strings--B+ on both.
For the record, the burger was excellent; one can tell that it's fresh and that all ingredients are quality. It comes with choices of four toppings PLUS a cheese PLUS a sauce. I should have skipped the sauce (which comes on the side) and limited myself to 2-3 toppings. That said, I enjoyed the combination; I simply felt like I was dealing with too many flavors throughout the meal. (And besides everything else, when they bring the burger, they ask if you want any mustard or hot sauce. Heaven forbid!)
One criticism of the burger: two of my ingredients were roasted red peppers and corn/black-bean salsa, both of which had obviously been refrigerated. Upon arrival at the table, the burger had already cooled considerably and within a few minutes was at room temperature. I'm not sure if there's a good solution to this problem, but it definitely sabotaged my enjoyment of the overall package.
Good service. These were all youngish, cool-looking types that I would normally expect to disdain customer service, but they were nothing but friendly. Bonus for the shift change which was first noticeable by the abandonment of the previous steady diet of awful turn-of-the-century pop-metal for a much more pleasing melange of Wilco, Death Cab For Cutie, Foo Fighters, The Decemberists et alia. Double bonus--they were showing the Doral Open on the Golf Channel.
I came here because my top three choices for lunch within walking distance were all closed (either for the day or permanently), but I don't regret it.Listed in: Utah Travelogue, March 2009
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Review from Scott H.
Honolulu, HI
5/5/2009
After loving this places counter-part in Honolulu Hawaii, my wife convinced some of us to head here for dinner after shopping at teh Gateway mall.
1) the burger meat just wasn't as good as the meat in Hawaii. Not as flavorful.
2) Ordered ham...and got a couple thin slices of burned ham on my burger.
3) service sucked! Dinner rush and only one server/waitress. Manager seemed more interested in schmoozing and being proud of being a manager than servicing his customers.
4) Just as expensive as the Honolulu (Kahala) joint! -
Review from Roland C.
San Francisco, CA
2/4/2009
Burger lovers and control freaks, this is the place for you. The Counter is a recent addition to Salt Lake City, but in a city where one of the main pieces of food that it's famous for is burgers, how could this new upstart stand out?
Simple, with great burgers, of a great size, and complete customization ability. I would familiarize yourself with the menu before you come in to order (or save yourself the hassle and call-in during busy times), it's a bit to digest. But it's worth the hassle, because you'll be able to get a burger made just the way you like it. Customization done right is what this place is all about. And they've got a great selection of sides and desserts, it's a great spot for a good burger plus whatever else hits your fancy.
The service has always been friendly, although they've managed to mess up my take out orders several times, nothing major usually, like when I got a malt when I wanted a shake (I can't tell the difference), but there was one time I didn't get my shake at all but didn't realize until I was on the train back to the office (they didn't charge me for it though). I'll count that up to post-opening jitters and figure that they've cleared up most of the order issues by now. -
Review from mike j.
Cheviot Hills, CA
10/27/2008
I
love
counter.
I've been to the original in LA and this place matched/exceeded it, easily.
I won't get into the details- you probably already know, or have seen it on their website, but the possible combinations of burger are freakin amazing. And more than that, the quality of the ingredients is AWESOME.
Service: since this place just opened, the service is awesome. hopefully it stays that way haha
Food: Seriously. Try it. I double dare you. That's right, I just double dared you. The 50/50 (sweet potato or reg fries & onion strings) is seriously, money in the bank. Oh and the shakes are AWESOME too. I just love spreading the counter love.
Do it. -
Review from Tom K.
Park City, UT
12/27/2008
There seems to be a real trend towards exotic burger joints. Salt Lake City is a big burger town with standard burger fare such as Hire's, Crown Burger, Astro, Apollo, Arctic Circle and more. The new Acme Burgers behind P.F. Chang and now The Counter in the Gateway Center are creating quite a burger stir.
We saw the trendy The Counter while riding Trax the other day and decided to stop in. We were preparing ourselves for another typical fast food burger joint. It was anything but that!
We were there mid-afternoon on a busy post-Christmas Saturday. We were immediately seated and had a menu clipboard instantly from a very friendly waitress. While we were there, the place became packed. Everyone seemed to be taken care of quickly.
At first we were taken aback by the prices. Custom burgers start at $8.50. But once you get down to it, the price isn't that unreasonable for what you get. We ordered third-pounders (smallest) and the serving was super generous.
We also ordered a regular order of fries that was humongous. In hindsight, I wish we had ordered sweet potato fries.
The custom ordering possibilities are endless. I'm a bit old school, so I only experimented a bit (I did love the roasted garlic aioli). I did like the sound of the burger of the month: an ahi tuna burger for $13.50.
The Counter does serve beer. Soft drinks are $2.50 with free refills (without asking).
Burgers are served "medium" but, as our waitress explained, medium to The Counter means red all the way through.
The restaurant itself is really cool. I loved the garage door windows. The place has huge windows on three sides, so it gets a lot of light but also a bit chilly.
My wife has been to Acme (I have not) and rated Acme higher. But we both did like it and we'll be back. -
Review from Doc D.
Salt Lake City, UT
7/2/2009
Terrible SERVICE!!! Have gone on multiple occasions get seated immediately but then either never get the food or never get to order. There are better burgers in town without the poor service.
Try Cottontail for Garlic Burgers, or Acme for fancy burgers. -
Review from Michael W.
Austin, TX
4/4/2009
b u r g e r r i f i c .
b u r g e r l i c i o u s .
b u r g e r a g e o u s .
b u r g e r t a s t i c .
b u r g e r m a n i a .
b u r g e r a m a . -
Review from Potatoes OBrian O.
Salt Lake City, UT
6/28/2009
If you're a picky eater, this place is for you. They have everything. Breads, cheeses, toppings, sauces, you can even make your burger into a salad. It was great. I enjoyed mine. The sweet potato fries are awesome. They give you a really generous portion for the fries. I have ordered them ten times since in other places and these are still one of my favorites. Decent beer selection too. I'd go back.
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Review from Dylan's Aunt E.
San Francisco, CA
1/7/2009
My first time creating my own burger. Pretty cool that we can create our own burger using a paper and pencil to mark our selections. My burger turned out delicious - medium rare, jalapenos, cheddar cheese, grilled onions, bacon and other stuff. The sweet potato fries were awesome too. Would love to come back here, but I don't know when I'll be back in Utah.
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Review from Jason K.
Collierville, TN
5/21/2009
Wow, so many burger joints in Utah (and more on the way with In-N-Out set to build in Draper soon)! In contrast to the recent invader from the East Coast, Five Guys, this newcomer hails from the Left Coast, Santa Monica to be exact. In concept and atmosphere, however, this place is more like ACME Burgers...it is a sit-down place with waiters and an industrial feel. The oversized windows open like garage doors, there are flat-screen TVs on the walls, and rock blares over the speakers. Nevertheless, the Counter trumps ACME when it comes to burger choices...they claim to have over 312,120 different burger combinations. I believe it. We started off with the "Fifty-fifty" fries, a generous order of regular and sweet-potato fries. They were nicely crisp and seasoned well. But we only got the Horseradish Mayo and Fry Sauce...where were the other sauces? In any case, I had the 2/3 lb burger with field greens, tomato, jalapenos, grilled onions, and for an extra dollar, a fried egg! If you've never added a fried egg to your burger, you've got to try it! The added richness of the golden yolk oozing its way over the burger is almost a religious experience. It almost made me overlook the somewhat dry and tough burger itself. I suspect they squeeze and compact the meat too much. The burger was quite tasty, but more as a result of the egg. The meat was nothing special and not as good as ACME or Five Guys. My wife had the veggie burger which I had no interest in tasting and therefore have nothing to say about. She did say she liked it. Lunch was not cheap. We paid nearly $40 with tax and tip, and we didn't even get to try the shakes! Service was friendly and attentive, and overall we enjoyed our meal. We just enjoy Five Guys and ACME better.
