The Burger Stand - College Hill

We are on the search for the best burger in Topeka. Here is how we rate the burger joints that we will review. First we put heavy emphasis on where the joint is headquartered, Local (Topeka) will garner an automatic 10 bonus points. Kansas owned chains (headquartered in Lawrence, Wichita, etc) an automatic 5 bonus points and National chains (those headquartered outside the state) will garner an automatic 0 bonus points. The ten categories that we will use in our search for the best burger in Topeka will be 1.Burger Patties Quality, 2. Bun Quality, 3. Customer Service, 4. Garnish Quality, 5. Fries Quality, 6. Atmosphere, 7. Order Accuracy, 8. Cleanliness (Restrooms, Dinning area, Entrance, etc), 9. Building Accessibility and 10. Price. All categories will earn a score between 1 and 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the poorest.

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

 Bonus Points: 5
Headquartered in Lawrence, KS. The Topeka location is their second and newest location.

1. Burger Patties Quality: 9
 The patties were tasty and juicy, although neither were cooked as we ordered them. That aside they did have a fantastic flame broiled taste. Enhanced greatly, by the ice cold Coca-Cola™ we were drinking to was it down with.

photo by Kevin Surbaugh

2. Bun Quality: 10
 What can I say, the bun was nicely toasted and still had that excellent soft, fresh taste. 

3. Customer Service: 10
 Th staff was very friendly from the order taker at the counter/bar to the busboy cleaning the tables around us.

4. Garnish Quality: 10
 The vegetable garnish tomato, lettuce and onion) was very fresh and good. 

5. Fries Quality: 8
 The fries had a great taste with a hint of seasoning salt. Perhaps even a little to much.

6. Atmosphere: 7
 While promoted as a family place, even having a kids menu, the atmosphere is somewhat of a bar atmosphere. Which means some kids may find it to noisy.

7. Order Accuracy: 5
 We both ordered the "Classic", which doesn't come with ketchup or pickles. So the wife ordered hers with lettuce only, and I ordered mine plain (since they don't come with ketchup). Ketchup and mustard is on every table.  When we received our orders, one burger came with lettuce on, as ordered, and the other came with all the vegetables, despite being ordered plain.

8. Cleanliness (Restrooms, Dinning area, Entrance, etc): 10
Dining, entrance area and restrooms were all clean and well maintained, even during a busy lunch rush on a Saturday afternoon.

9. Building Accessibility: 10
 The building has great accessibility with two handicapped accessible stalls in the curbside parking on 15th street.

10. Price: 7
A little pricy. The Burger Stand fancies themselves a gourmet burger joint and their prices reflect that.  We ordered "The Classic" which was the cheapest burger on the adult menu.
Burger $8.50 each
Side order of fries $2 each
Soda $2.50 each

Total: 9.1

Address:
1601 SW Lane Street

Phone:
785-783-8900

Website:
 BurgerStandRestaurants.com