A burger at Water Tower Kitchen, a restaurant in Campbell, California.
out of 100 · legendary
Legendary. Every gate clear, the board clean.
Reads as a fully realized roast beef, six of six roles, most layers have a partner.
More acid than 90% of the catalog.
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
brioche bun, toasted: 1/2 lb certified angus beef brisket blend (named producer); cheddar cheese; white onions; lettuce; tomato; pickles; house burger sauce.
Worth a look: named producer: Beef Patty (burger).
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.9 | 85th |
| acid | 1.7 | 90th |
| fat | 2.2 | 52nd |
| sweet | 0.8 | 85th |
| umami | 1.5 | 52nd |
| heat | 0.1 | 48th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 51st |
97 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| brioche bunscored as Brioche | bread | fat 2 soft | the frame |
| 1/2 lb certified angus beef brisket blend (named producer)scored as Beef | protein | fat 3 umami 3 juicy chewy tender | +18 |
| cheddar cheese | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 soft gooey melty | +20 |
| white onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | +4 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +3 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +5 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | +1 |
| house burger saucescored as Burger Sauce | sauce | fat 4 salt 2 acid 2 sweet 2 creamy saucy | −1 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Beef + Cheddar Cheese: the cheeseburger pair: sharp on seared beef
- Beef + Onion: onions sweeten seared beef, philly style
- Beef + Pickle (cucumber): pickle brine against rich beef
- Cheddar Cheese + Onion: cheddar and onion, the ploughman's pair
- Cheddar Cheese + Tomato: grilled cheese and tomato, the lunch pair
All the sandwiches at Water Tower Kitchen · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder