"World Famous Pastrami". Simple, savory, and oh-so-succulent. The Hat is famous for its pastrami, as it rightfully deserves to be. Pastrami sandwiches, Pastrami dips, and hell yes, Pastrami burgers.
Let me paint you a little word picture with my imagination brush... You are wandering throughout the desert, it's scorching hot, and it's been 4 days now. You've managed to survive on water dispelled from the cacti surrounding you. You've been walking for days and still haven't seen a single soul, nor is there any sign of an oasis near by. Basically you're like Moses, and your load of followers that you need to free from captivity are your taste buds; you haven't had a single bite to eat in over 100 hours, and now you're starting to reflect on every single meal that you have ever eaten in your life. The taste of your favorite meals, the smell of the playful aroma of a home cooked meal, the feeling of being full, they're all becoming more and more faint by the second. Imagine you are still wandering around, looking for anything to sink your teeth into that will stop the growling from your roaring stomach. And then you see it, a sign in the distance, it says "World's Best Pastrami". You don't care that you haven't had a bite to eat in almost a week because at this point you'll eat almost anything. But... your first meal just happens to be a hamburger piled high with all of your favorite toppings: lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, a slice of melted gooey cheese, and one juicy flavor-filled, tender pound of the best pastrami your stomach could dream of. You are finally able to wrap your hands around food, any food, to quiet the roaring belly beast. Now imagine what that first bite is going to taste like. Your mind and your body are going to go into shock therapy with the deliciousness of this palisade of beef topped with the best thing to come out of Romania since Dracula: Pastrami.
Did you imagine what that first bite tasted like? How good did that taste? Okay, get this... EVERY BITE of the Pastrami Burger from The Hat tastes as good as that first bite.
Dominic and I wanted to make the most of our trip up to this place, wasting no morsel of food during our drive. The closest location to San Diego is about 75 minutes up the 5 North, in Lake Forest. So we scaled up there, with Bon Jovi, Van Halen, and other various artists pumping us up on the drive. Somehow Dominic snuck some good old fashioned boy band music into the cavalcade, but that didn't slow us down. We didn't skip a beat. Going from "Panama" to "Backstreet's Back" really didn't break our rhythm. We were focused.
Once we arrived, we decided to order absolutely as much food as we could stuff onto our pallets to make the trip worthwhile. We obviously made the trip for the reputable pastrami burger, but we also heard some rumors about the chili fries, which we couldn't pass up. So we decided to order them both. However, we had way too much on our plate to handle; it was the same feeling the post-Josh Johnson Florida Marlins have every year before they start the season, thinking they can reach .500. Fans, the few and far between fans, just sit there shaking their heads in disbelief as the quest begins, only to fall short mid season and lose hope. That was us with this pile of food staring us in the gut, ready to battle. But we weren't going to go all Dontrelle Willis on this mountain of chow. (If you don't understand that reference, let me know. It's not the best one I could've thought up, but I wanted to stick with the Florida Marlins trail that I already committed to... essentially it means to start strong and finish like shit.) Once we started we didn't stop, just plowed our way through the trail of carbohydrates until we had no more feeling in our bodies, or our arteries.
One onlooker even shouted to test us for steroids (something that the Marlins may want to look into). To this day, no matter how full I was, or how badly I wanted to burst at that moment, it was the happiest I've ever been to not be able to move after a meal. The strategy to overcome this obstacle colossus became something as I could only describe as the "Joey Chestnut technique", which essentially comes down to eating so fast that your stomach doesn't have time to process the fact that it's too full and you're stuffed to the max. But definitely take your time to enjoy the juices from the pastrami to glide down your throat and sit atop your small intestine until your heart is clogged, and your cholesterol-filled valves are content.
Dominic:
Now I know what those brave soldiers that conquer Mount Everest feel like, it would be as if Everest were a mountain made of delicious pastrami and I had to eat my way up it. If I could describe this pastrami burger with one word it would be "pastramitasical"...yea thats right, pastrami mixed with phenomenal and fantastic. This burger was well worth the trip and would do it again any day. The way The Hat makes their pastrami so juicy and flavor filled blows my mind. The best part was the combination of different flavors in every bite.. the pastrami hits you like heaven, with a solid bite of beef to go along with the other treats in between the buns. To make the trip worth every penny we decided to go with the chili cheese fries. Which were also very good, but make you want to fall in to a slight coma for about 6 hours.. but hey, the things we do for some great grub right?! Right.Justin's Rating of the Pastrami Burger (The chili fries were just for fun)
Meat quality: 5, Creativity/Accessories: 4, Bun: 2, Size: 4, Price: 3, Overall: 18 out of 25
My review isn't going to contain too many bad adjectives while revisiting my experience with The Hat. Taste was phenomenal, so was the creativity/presentation. It was different enough from your standard burger to make it worth trying, but didn't deviate too much trying to be something it's not. My only downside with this whole experience is that the bun would fall apart in the middle of your meat meltdown. The price is decent around the $7.50 price range, but you definitely get your money's worth. Did I mention filling?
Long story full: If you are looking for creativity from an ordinary burger, or if you are looking to stuff your face, or even just take a drive with your buddy to get out of the norm, I'd definitely recommend this trip to sink your teeth into some phenomenal pastrami with a side of burger.Dominic's Rating of the Pastrami Burger
Meat quality: 5, Creativity/Accessories: 3, Bun: 2, Size: 4, Price: 3, Overall: 17 out of 25
The meat quality was great as I had said before, I've never tasted such juicy and tasty pastrami in my life, especially on a burger. The creativity of the burger was alright in my opinion, nothing too extravagant, but for us meat eaters it looked mighty fine! You got your average bun which could be better but when you got the size and the flavors that this burger does the lack of bun is ok.
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