Having read reviews of this place, I knew that it was new and pretty good, but I didn’t expect a ten minute wait for a table. Once we were seated though, the appeal became obvious.

The Counter is a trendy gourmet burger/grilled sandwich restaurant. The patrons range from coworkers out for a drink at the bar to families out for some good food. The ambience leans toward the younger hip/hop and r&b crowd, but I think every demographic would find it pleasing.

Our waitress was a perky retired flight attendant who did a tremendous job making sure we were happy without being annoying or overbearing. She chatted with us at just the right amount and made sure we knew what we were doing.

This was necessary since the menu is basically just a clipboard with an order sheet. You design your own personal burger by choosing the type of meat you want (beef, chicken, veggie, turkey), the size of the patty, the cheese, toppings, special toppings, sauce, and bun. There a lot of options in each category and that’s what makes this place fun. Extras can be had for a fee. There are premade creations, a variety of fries options, shakes, and desserts.

To start off, we ordered cheddar cheese fries and a “fifty-fifty” that came with fried onion strings and sweet potato fries. I was pleasantly surprised to find three sample sauces included with these ample appetizers.

I had a 1/3 lb beef burger cooked medium with jalapeno jack, on a whole wheat bun. For toppings, I ordered roasted red peppers, black bean and corn salsa, tomatoes, grilled onions, and their garlic aioli sauce. The burger was expertly prepared and decently easy to eat despite its height. All of the wonderful flavors were a bit muddled though since there was so much going on. That’s probably my fault since I wanted to try multiple things.

My friend ordered a chocolate shake that tasted more like vanilla. When we commented on the lack of chocolatiness, our helpful waitress immediately offered to add more chocolate. She stated her flight attendant days instill the mantra of customer satisfaction.

Overall, the experience was great. Burgers/Grilled sandwiches for $8-15 is not bad considering the amount of options you have.

For burger aficionados this place rocks. Think fuddruckers with much higher quality beef, and over 300,000 possible combinations to build-your-own-burger. Even the bun isn’t standard – you can go regular bun, english muffin, or I think even in a lettuce wrap. 10 different cheeses, 18 different toppings (including hard boiled eggs, salsa, sprouts, roasted chiles), 9 premium toppings (onion strings, honey bacon, sun dried tomatoes, chili, etc), 17 different sauces, and more…but don’t worry they’ve got pre-built burgers as well. Live it up and top it off with some Voss still water.

Located on California Ave in Palo Alto, it has a clean and casual atmosphere. You can build your own burgers, or order off the set menu, and the burgers are great. they also have sweet potato fries, and fried pickles (sounds interesting but tastes good). All in all, a great dining experience if you’re in the neighborhood.