Angus McCurdy's - Yucaipa, CA

Some time back one of our employees at work mentioned that they had good hamburgers at Angus McCurdy's in Yucaipa. Then I happened to look at Trip Advisor for Yucaipa restaurants recently and noticed that Angus McCurday's was the no. 2 restaurant (out of 79), so I had to try it. 

Judy and I went there for dinner and each of us got the Dirty McCurdy, a one-third pound burger with tri tip, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, thousand island dressing and a brioche bun. It took a serious squeeze to fit the burger in the mouth and the resultant compression sent beautiful tasty juice and melted cheese cascading into the brown paper wrap under the burger. The burger is not the perfectly formed and proportioned patty you normally get, but a varied  edge and thickness burger of substance and resistance. Truly like a hand-formed patty you make at home. The tri tip is a delicious add-on and the bacon is a serious thick slab. Everything about this burger is first class. One of the better burgers I've ever eaten. 

Dirty McCurdy. Never has dirt been so good.

We also ordered tri tip fries that contain pieces of tri tip, parmesan cheese, au jus and a sauce that includes caesar dressing, per the website, although I would not have guessed that from the taste and thickness. Some of the best fries I've ever eaten. The only complaint we had was that there was not enough tri tip and sauce on the fries. Wow, a home run on two at-bats.  

Tri tip fries. If they'd add more sauce this would be even better than it already is.

Given the above, I was forced to go back several times and try other items on the menu to see if this excellence could be maintained. I ordered a bacon double cheese burger with extra avocado and it resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I don't know that I've ever eaten such a thick burger, except perhaps one of my own at home. Just look at it and it shouts out "destroy me" and "knock me down." More serious squeeze compression, lots of cascading juices, great flavor. Beef with texture. Loved the avocado. A great, great burger, not as good as the Dirty McCurdy, but excellence never-the-less.

Double cheese burger with bacon and avocado. 

I ordered chili cheese fries, thinking I was getting the tri tip fries, and hit a single. The chili was thick and plentiful, and there was melted cheese underneath in addition to shredded cheese on top, but it did not have the flavor of the tri tip fries. Good for chili cheese fries, which I don't often order or particularly enjoy anyway, bad when compared to tri tip fries. 

Chili cheese fries - why, when you have tri tip fries?

On yet another trip I got the avocado bacon swiss burger. Same nice thick patty, but it was missing some of the pizzazz. Part of it was that the Swiss cheese is inferior taste-wise to the American cheese. It is still a double (using a baseball metaphor), perhaps also because it is a single (patty), but still pretty good. 

Avocado bacon swiss burger

It was hard, but in the interest of further menu sampling, I ordered the tri tip sandwich. My initial reaction was muted disappointment. Very plain bun, sliced tri tip and not much else (although thickly stacked), except of course a dipping bowl of au jus and some of the ceasar sauce (same stuff as on the tri tip fries). I was very pleasantly surprised to find the tri tip was flavorful, cooked nicely, and the au jus and caesar sauce jazzed it up plenty. An extra base hit for sure. 

Finally, I tried the onion rings. Very thick, but moist - really excellent. This place is for real.