The Counter Pasadena

Since moving to Pasadena 2.5 years ago, we have been going to The Counter on a regular basis — usually on a Friday night meeting up with friends & family. We have met some great staff there including our favorites Kevin, Garrett and Patrick! The atmosphere is casual, food is fast and tasty, and the staff is super friendly. They have specials every now and then and it never disappoints. The build your own burger is an excellent choice, whether on a bun or in a salad. I’m so glad they brought the «Southern Fried Chicken» back as a regular on the menu. I usually build a salad from that and it’s absolutely delicious! Love this location.

I have come to the Counter previously but was disappointed on this occasion. The staff is fabulous but the time it took to get our food was slow. Also two of the guests received their food five plus minutes before the next two were served. (One of the two guests waiting was a child)
Food was acceptable. We ate a hamburger, a salad and two children’s meals.
Will come back once more but they need to step it up a notch.

SERVICE
+ Fast & Friendly.
AMBIANCE
+ Casual. Was a nice day to sit outside.
FOOD
+ Deviled Eggs /​/​Okay
+ Loaded Tots /​/​Okay
+ Customized Burger /​/​Good
+ Love the Beef Patty, Mushroom, Coleslaw & Avocado
+ Horseradish Dip /​/​Good
+ Garlic Aioli /​/​Good
+ Chipotle Aioli /​/​Good
DRINK
+ Pinot Noir Shake /​/​Skip
+ Nutella Pretzel /​/​Okay
NOTE
+ Dog Friendly on Patio.

We love the Counter. We don’t really love their new menu, but we do enjoy the Counter card. It’s a great place to go at dinner because they are way less busy then at lunch.
I love the salad bowls that I can create on my own. I’ve had the turkey, bison and tuna. Although I don’t believe the fish made it on to the new menu. My daughter loves the shoestring fries and I love that they have sweet potato. Even with all the selection we tend to stick with what we like. (This especially helped last summer in HI)
And since I’m rarely drinking these days, I’m happy that when I get a craving for a cider that they don’t have Angry Orchard. It disappoints me when a place does.

I still haven’t found a burger place that serves Deviled Eggs. Now I have, yeah baby!!! A perfect way to start off your chow down. Customize your perfect burger with there check list of different topping and meats. If you can’t decide they offer already custom built goodies for you. Pick your perfect side to go along with your happiness between two bunds. They also offer shakes and salads. Eat inside or dine alfresco either way the food is great and if not you probably didn’t order right. They have a parking garage on one side or if you don’t want to pay try the residential. My one and only tip would be, when you build your burger keep your eye on your extra toppings or you will come out buying a twenty five dollar burger.

Coming to counter for all these years, I know what I like and I know what I don’t. I made the mistake early on of making my own burger and adding anything and everything. Simplicity is best my friends.
These days when coming here, I’ve become more adventurous with the other parts of the menu and this time was no different.
I ordered the cobb salad with a side of beef chili. Loaded tator tots and garlic parm fries to start. Too much food but oh so good.

I didn’t used to be a fan of The Counter, but I think I’ve converted. The idea of building your own burger sounds like a great concept, but for a sucker like me who doesn’t want to miss out on stuff, I always end up adding everything possible — resulting in a massive poopshow of a burger.
So…to not have that happen again, I started going the safe route of ordering from their pre-​assembled burgers. Since I love breakfast, I went with the Red Eye Burger, which I thought tasted perfect. The combination of a sunny side up egg, sriracha, and an english muffin always makes me weak in the knees. The sriracha was sweet also, so that cut down the spice a little to make it a bit more breakfasty.
Also had some of the awesome Parmesan Fries and Loaded Tots, which came in a gigantic bowl and really hit the spot. My gf had the Bison & Brie salad (?). The combination of the brie, kale, cranberries, and apricot sauce (so good!) was great, but I didn’t like the bison meat that much. It tasted like a beef burger patty that wasn’t cooked too well, but mushier in texture.
For a simple-​minded fellow like myself, I let the Counter assemble my dinner; but come and exercise your creativity with all the options for ingredients to make your very own perfect burger.

Great build your own burger place. Very Slater’s ⁵⁰⁄₅₀.
Started with the Korean wings. Very very good! I made a burger with bacon, egg, blue cheese, onion strings and horseradish aoli. Damn PEOPLE that was good!
Come here… it’s as good as you make it… well worth the trip.

Was walking around with some friends and decided to try this place out.
It’s pretty clean and neat. The decoration was nice I really liked the painting. The service was pretty good and we got seated right away.
We got the parmesan fries (you have an option of going half and half with different fries) and loaded taters. They are a must get! I ordered the melt down sandwich which was pretty good. I’ll definitely be going back to try building my own burger.

My favorite burger joint! I love custom foods and the menu has SUCH a big variety. You choose your meat, cheese, veggies, sauce, bread & then any additional add-​ons. The meat comes in 1/​3, ½ or 1 lb. The thing I love is that veggies are unlimited and you can always ask for them on the side so you get more :) The first sauce is complementary.
I always build my own because it’s fun! I usually get the ¹⁄₃ lb, no cheese (lactose probs), a bunch of veggies (PINEAPPLE is BOMB) and tzatziki sauce on sourdough. The sourdough isn’t a burger bun but slices of bread but it has melted butter slabbed on it after being toasted and it’s sooooOOOo bomb. I’ve gotten the wheat bun before which was pretty good too.
I recommend this place if you’re also more health conscious since you can build your own burger and they have many healthy options to put in a burger. They also have bowls if you don’t want a bun but want a more salad based meal. There’s a large variety of options! There’s also outdoor seating which is dog-​friendly :)

So this was my first time trying customizable burger restaurant and oh my god was I in burger heaven. This Counter seems to be hidden on a small street so it was fairly empty on a Sunday night. I came with a huge group of friends looking to chow down on heavily filled donuts and it did not disapoint! We all opted to create our own burgers because why settle for a pre-​made burger then you have the opportunity to create your own monstrosity.
We all decided to build our own burgers and that was a task in itself due the amount of options we can choose. Personally, I decided to go with the medium rare ½ pound on a brioche with mixed greens, baby spinach, hard boiled egg, grilled red onions, jalapeño jack cheese, tomatoes, grilled pineapple, avacado along with sweet siratcha sauce and a side order of french fries. I’ll be the first to say that it was the tallest burger I have ever eaten and it was nearly impossible to fit into my mouth. I had to actually use a knife to cut it and it was just bursting with flavor! It was probably one of the best burgers I ever had since I created it myself. Everything just tasted fantastic and the beef was gigantic and juicy. It was definitely a messy eat because the juices were getting everywhere but it was so worth it! The french fries were decent but it went along with the burger nicely.
½ beef was $ 13.50 with the premium avacado 1.25 and fries $ 3.25 can put your meal to almost 20 dollars so you might be able to skip out on the fries unless you really want it. Next time, I’ll proably settle for the ¹⁄₃ beef for $ 10.50 as it was way too much meat for me. Service was good and the server answered any questions that we had. Parking is ample as you can park in the lots across the street and walk over so not too bad. Overall, I would come back here again but probably not often due the sheer amount of food you’re getting!

This place has some really really good burgers. I got the original and was not disappointed, the burger came with crispy onions, cheese, lettuce and tomato on a brioche bun. The bun was fresh, crispy outside with a soft tender inside.
The patty was well seasoned and extremely juicy. You will need to wash your hands after this burger!
Crispy onions give it a good texture as well as flavour.
Service was fast and friendly, quite attentive without being too disruptive.

Ordered the ¹⁄₃ lb Korean BBQ burger with lettuce, sliced cucumbers, daikon, and carrots with red onions. They ran out of Korean BBQ sauce so they offered me another sauce instead, I don’t remember what it was called. It was a little too spicy for my liking so I didn’t really end up putting it on my burger. Overall the meat was cooked well — I asked for medium and it was pink in the center and juicy. The burger was dense but it went well with the carrots, daikon, and cucumbers. I wish I had an opportunity to pair it with the right sauce. I might try something else next time.
As for a side, I ordered the shoestring fries, which I thought was the best thing in my meal. They’re thinner than McDonald’s fries and were seasoned really well. Highly recommend the fries.
They weren’t that busy at lunch time but when I got there we had to wait for someone to show up and seat us — about 2 – 3 minutes of awkwardly standing around. Our server was really nice and offered refills very promptly.
It’s a little expensive but for a full sit down type burger experience, it is good.

A decent place to get your burger fix if you’re tired of the Clown or the King and you want to kick it up a notch. The concept is pretty simple: customize your own burger using their template or choose a preset burger from their menu. Be as creative as you want; I do like the fact that they have an array of toppings (many of them complimentary) and sauces (50 cents for one). Depending on your customization, a burger will run you around $ 11-​$ 15 or so, a bit steep for what you get.
They sometimes have BOGO coupons that come in the mail, which makes it worth coming here.
Located right in the Shopper’s Lane Plaza right next to Green Street Restaurant. Parking can be a hassle, especially during the lunch rush. Park on Mentor Ave. Be warned, it’s a one way street; I’ve seen a few idiots drive in the wrong direction looking for parking.

Came in here couple hours ago with friends and family.
This place is in my bookmark for awhile and finally I got a chance to try this place!
The place is not that big but it has a lot of tables and chairs, they even have outside sitting.
For starters we got half fries & half onion rings, and half sweet potato fries & half onion rings. I like it a lot.
My son finished the onion rings. It’s a bit greasy but haller its fried. lol
For the burgers my friend got the Korean burger, the counter burger, BLT, burger with onion rings and bacon (I forgot the name), and my niece and my son got the kids cheeseburger with fries on the side.
We all loved our food.
It’s heavy but delicious!
Great customer service too!
Our server was very nice and patient to us because we keep asking questions and we know he is busy but he stayed with us and answer all of our questions.
:)

We ate here yesterday evening around 7pm (Sunday before a holiday) and it was a great overall experience.
No long line or wait, we were seated almost immediately. They put in the kids order immediately, which was great because their food came out within minutes and we were able to feed both of them before our food came out.
You can pick the burger size, type of meat, toppings, sauce, cheese, and sides with a build your own burger.
I picked a turkey burger with a pretzel bun… a whole bunch of toppings and the Greek feta cheese. If I had to do it over, I wouldn’t order the same cheese. It was a bit too salty.
The fries were delicious. We tried the French fries, sweet potatoe fries, and the onion rings. I would order the French and sweet potatoe fries again.
My kid loved it, my friends infant LOVED it, husband loved it, and my gf & I did. This restaurant was a crowd pleasure for sure!
Great place to take the family or to take some friends!

Upon arrival, my friend and I were seated immediately and given menus. After our server took our order, she was pretty hard to flag down as the other two servers were working behind the counter. I seriously think with a full sized restaurant as this location, there should be more than 1 server. The other girl was only organizing tables and cleaning. I think she should be utilized more for refills and questions.
My overall experience was only okay. Burgers were tasty but quite pricey. All burgers are at least $ 10 and up. But 1 perk is that they have a custumizable option.

Such a great value if you get the pre-​designed burgers rather than build your own, but with a high overall price for burgers, this is a not-​so-​often place to visit for me. We got the Original Counter Burger and the Red Eye. Both were so amazing and with a nice juicy patty, but the Red Eye was my favorite. Probably because of the name, since I order the same thing at Starbucks haha (coffee with extra shot of espresso).
The Original Counter Burger was pretty nice with the mushrooms and brioche bun, and I am happy the tomatoes weren’t overpowering, but it didn’t stand out to me as much as the Red Eye did, because the flavors of the Red Eye complemented one another so well. It had cheddar, a juicy patty, sriracha sauce and bacon, and on top of that, an egg yolk oozing onto each bite, all on an English muffin? WOW! The onion strings were greasy, so I didn’t feel too good after that lol. But we did love the regular fries. It paired so well with the entire meal. We’ll have to come back for those amazing parmesan fries we saw people ordering!
The customer service was really great, AND they halfed our burgers for us very neatly; not only did the original server check in on us twice, the General Manager also checked up on us a few times, and told us about promotions and gave us a card for a free milkshake for next time. Perhaps we will come back for the Tuesday promotion of 4 beers and 4 sliders for $ 14 :D

Wow why haven’t we come here before?! My BF and I always go to green street for brunch and that’s located next to it but we never see it before! Now we know!
We came here with another couple because it was Pasadena cheeseburger week and wanted to try different restaurants. Since we all (minus one) never been here before we thought we give it a try!
We order 2 burgers total for the 4 of us to try. We cut it in half and shared it And we also got regular fries and onion strings. Burgers we order the red eye as our waiter recommended this. The other burger we order was the original counter burger.
Now let’s start off with the red eye! Can I say, WOW, OMG this is so good!!! So good that we were all speechless! We ordered the burger medium pink center meat. It was messy goodness! Burger patty was so juicy, the cheese melted on top of the patty, the sunny egg with the melted yolk dripping down on the burger, with that crispy bacon, sweet sirs ha sauce that gives it a kick of sweet and spicy (don’t taste spicy at all) and the muffin so soft that all the juice from everything just soaks it up. Perfect burger! Great recommendation!
The original counter burger. This was my favorite one outta the red eye. Both were very good and juicy but this was my preference, maybe because I took a bite of this one first? But this was almost as good as the other one. Really juicy burger and the buns were so soft! Maybe I like this one is because it’s more of a regular burger.
Great great customer service! They kept checking in on us to see if we are doing good. Even the GM came out and greeted us and handed us coupons for next time. I don’t see a lot of managers actually coming out to greet their customers like that. He told us about Tuesday night special. 4 slider with 4 beer tasting for $ 14! That’s a great deal if you like to taste a little bit of everything like us! We will for sure Come back to try that and maybe even catch a movie after!

Customization is king at the Counter if you’ve never been. This is mainly what separates them from other burger joints. Upon arrival they give you a checklist for you to create, in meticulous detail, your desired burger. And for the indecisive among us they also offer their own burgers as well. The burgers themselves have always been cooked well but the seasoning has either been spot on or under-​seasoned. Lately I’ve actually been foregoing their burgers and getting their fried chicken sandwich which is quite amazing. Another plus is they offer glutten-​free buns if that’s what your thing.
I can’t say I’ve been to other Counter chains so I can’t compare but this particular locale is quite clean and with stellar service to boot.
Pro Tip: skip the immediately adjacent parking lot and save your money. Park across the street (Cordova) as it’s a free lot with an honor system to pay if you go beyond a few hours.