Burger Photo Gallery (click pictures to enlarge)

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THE JOINT

Ford’s Real Hamburgers is a local burger joint that you can only find here in Sacramento, CA. It has been named Sacramento’s best burger several times over the years I’ve lived in the area.

Located down the street from the Sacramento Zoo and across the street from William Land Park, this small restaurant has been serving some great burgers for over 19 years.

THE BURGER

Ford’s serves its freshly cooked to order burger in several sizes including: the 3oz “kids burger”, a 1/3 pound burger, a 2/3 pound double burger, a 1/2 burger and a monster 1 pound burger creation they call the “Football”.

This is one of the few local burger places that will cook your burger rare, but on this burgertrip I ordered my half pound hamburger to be cooked medium. I opted to top my burger with bacon and a combination of pepper jack and american cheeses. Each burger comes with lettuce, tomato, onions, and Ford’s special “real good sauce” which is described as a 1000 island type dressing without the mustard. It took about 10 minutes for them to cook up my burger and I snapped a few photos of the restaurant as I waited for my sandwich to arrive.

The buns for all of Ford’s burgers are baked fresh daily from the local Bennett’s Bakery. Once when I was here, they stopped serving a bit early because they ran out of fresh buns. The quality of the bun is evident. You get the smell of fresh baked bread as you go to take a bite of the burger. They have tiny chopped red onions and relish available on a table outside of the order pick-up window for those red onion junkies like me. I always like to add a scoop or two to my cheeseburger to add a little something something to that first bite.

Although I ordered my burger medium, this time it seemed to come more medium well or even well done. The burger wasn’t its normal juiciness that I expect from Ford’s, but it had that unique burger flavor that I’ve come to crave when I haven’t had one of their burgers for awhile. I’m not sure what combination of spices they add to their beef, but it is soooo good. It could be the “real good sauce” that gives the burgers from Ford’s their unique flavor, but I’m pretty sure they add some flavoring to the beef patty as well.

The toppings of lettuce, tomatoes and onion were all fresh, and helped to give the burger a little help in the juiciness department. I normally like my cheeseburger with dripping melted cheese, but the way Ford’s makes their cheeseburgers seems to work just as well. The beef sits on top of the thick cheese slices so you can actually taste the cheese separately from the hamburger.

I paired my burger with a small fries (the size of a large at most fast food burger places) and a large milkshake. They have a wide variety milkshake flavors that you can mix and match. I went for a peanut butter mocha creation that had swirls of real creamy peanut butter throughout its coffee goodness. The shakes always shine at Ford’s and this one in particular was one of the best I’d had anywhere.

THE VERDICT

Even though my burger on this trip seemed a little overcooked, the amazing burger flavor and bakery fresh bun still helped it easily rank as one of the top burgers in Sacramento.

If you’re ever driving down I-5 in Sacramento, you may want to take a quick detour and get off on the Sutterville exit to check out Ford’s Real Hamburgers.

Tags: featured, red onions