The "Burger Challenge" Trifecta

The time finally came for us to complete the burger challenge.  Milwaukeeans all know about the epic "Food Wars" TV show battle between Sobelman's and AJ Bombers for the best burger in town.  We decided to do some research for ourselves, and throw in another local underdog favorite, Oscar's.  Here are our findings from comparing the burgers, sides, and overall experience at all three restaurants famed for their "best" burgers.

AJ Bombers: The new guys (and Food Wars winner)
+ Cute menus that are dry-erase for ordering
- Peanut shells on the ground

We ordered a burger with cheese and bacon, with the Bomber sauce on the side, and a side of cheese curds since that was the recommendation as a favorite side from a few staff members.  As a side note, we will have to go back and get the burger with peanut butter on it, but for the sake of the integrity of the experiment, we decided to keep our burger choices more "apples to apples."

Sobelman's: The heavy favorite
+ Best sweet potato fries ever
- Bloody Mary was nothing special

 Now, South-siders and Marquette University grads tend to favor Sobelman's, but I have never taken their opinions as gold, so why start now?  We ordered the Sobelman, which has three kinds of cheese, jalapenos, and some other toppings, and sweet potato fries.  I also tried the Bloody Mary because it is supposed to be a big deal.  Lots of good toppings, but the drink is totally average. (Best Bloody Mary in MKE = The Wicked Hop)

Oscar's: The underdog
+ Indiana Jones pinball machine
- Lack of specialty drinks

We ordered the "Big O" and the Aloha burgers, and they came with garlic parmesan fries.  I normally love pinball, but I instead eavesdropped on a bunch of guys complaining about their HR people (is this how people complain about me?)  Jason felt the bun was best, but I felt like the bun ratio was a little too high.  Another plus? Bendy straws.

Overall scoring:
We differed on our scores as to how the burgers ranked.  Our method is very scientific, obviously.  The total score is an average of our two overall scores.  Jason picks Oscar's as the winner, and I prefer AJ Bombers.  Overall, our averages still come out to Oscar's being the winner, but I am still skeptical...

 

So there you have it.  The only thing that we have proven is that the age old argument of the best burger will go on, since we can't even decide amongst us.  If nothing else, we got to see more of our great town.