Only Burger / Durham

I want to say that I think my very first food truck dining experience in Raleigh was probably Only Burger while they were serving lunch one day on NC State's Centennial Campus. It was a novelty way back then that has since seen an overabundance of overpriced (and not so tasty eats for the cost) food trucks around the City of Oaks and seen Only Burger open a brick-and-mortar establishment in their home base of Durham. It was a fantastic burger back then and it's a fantastic burger now.

Facing a menu board with so many good-looking offerings always throws me into a little panic. I think I'm going to step outside my usual burger box and try something new, but I always wind up going with my tried-and-true, a Carolina burger.

Only Burger describes The Carolina this way: a burger topped with beef chili, house slaw, onion, mustard, and American cheese. Not being a fan of mustard on my burgers, I swapped it for mayo. And, since I had people to meet later, I skipped the onions—opting out of the ensuing probability of pungent breath throughout the evening and the close proximity of others.

This is not a smash burger by any stretch of the imagination, but a thickly dense oversized patty of perfectly grilled ground beef. There was just enough of an outer crunch to the exterior to give it that smash-like caramelization, but the bulkiness of the meat really gave it a robust mouthful of juicy goodness.

The beef chili hit all the right notes for a chili to compliment a burger. It's not a thin hot dog style chili, but more of a thick "bowl of chili" kind of chili, sans beans (as it should for a condiment - I mean, who in the hell wants beans on their burger or hot dog, right?).

The slaw could have been chopped a wee bit finer for me as there were a couple of large pieces that offered more crunch than flavor. It was tasty enough and paired well with the generously sized burger patty.

The bun was substantial and held its own considering how huge the patty was and the wetness of the chili. It kept its shape with every bite and only once did I need to reposition it so all the goodness did not plop out.

On a side note... Only Burger offers some select locally canned beers to accompany your meal. I choose Fullsteam's amber lager "Lucky" and what an appropriate name as I felt lucky in making the correct choice for a beer that went to well with my burger. Quite a nice brew. So nice I picked up a six-pack for the weekend. Yay, me!

There’s a running joke in my family about a cousin of my mother’s who had a penchant for needing an overabundance of paper goods just to maintain some semblance of tidiness while eating. “George Burton needs another napkin,” we’d always laugh whenever we found ourselves dining on something particularly messy.

There’s also an old saying that a burger is only as good as the number of napkins you need to get through it—the more napkins, the better the burger. If that’s the standard, then my Only Burger burger rates a solid nine, because that’s how many napkins it took to keep myself tidy.

Are there less messy burgers out there in the world? Of course. But chances are they aren’t nearly as tasty—or nearly as much fun to eat.

So do yourself a favor the next time you’re in Durham and head over to Only Burger for one of the best burgers you’ll ever have.

And don’t forget to pass the napkins.

Lots and lots of napkins.

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Only Burger 

3710 Shannon Road

Durham, NC 27707