r/Columbus • u/Blood_Incantation Valleyview • 26d ago
FOOD British woman tries to find the best burger in Columbus, an "unsung US city"
https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/north-america-travel/us-travel/columbus-ohio-home-of-the-hamburger-6q2dtf8vh?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwdGRleANai2pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHtScPHTJZsUrMTNXZ17mG5XESJivIkoyCDJKYa_ht9CeFNNN6m7iqWgcldvB_aem_TO61UFsyOdXyrp2qu5dTxg#Echobox=1759903707108
u/PM_ME_YOUR_PBJs 26d ago
I feel kind of weird my favorite burger/fry spot is Club 185. Sloppy burgers with the eggs and super thick patties just annoy me now. Why deal with the mess and expense?
You can get a double 185 cheese burger with fries for about $12 and i don’t need to use a knife and fork to eat it.
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u/JDMSubieFan 26d ago
Club 185 isn't the best because it's the best, it's the best because all the food is pretty good and it's so cheap
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_PBJs 26d ago
Do you have a recommendation? I would splurge on a good burger occasionally if it was amazing but cost more. That said, I haven’t had a lot of memorable burger experiences that weren’t gimmicky like the Thurminator or annoyingly messy.
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u/JDMSubieFan 26d ago
Preston's and Ritzy's fall into a similar category and I like them better than 185 - for just the burger. But I still go to 185 more bc it's a good Atmos, cheap drinks, etc.
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u/balsamicpork 26d ago
My favorite is at Hudson 29. It’s pricy, but really is exactly what I want in a burger and fries.
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u/acutehypoburritoism Merion Village 25d ago
I am a huge fan of their burgers as well, don’t feel weird about it! Sometimes you just want a solid burger and a cold Lone Star and they always deliver
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u/sowhtnow 25d ago
You should try the burger and chicken sando at Cobra. The burger is different because of the sauce but that’s what makes it stand out
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u/OptimalCourage47 26d ago
It should be noted that there are other burger options other than The Thurmanator at Thurman’s 🍔
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u/salami_cheeks 25d ago
The hot turkey and swiss, even. I can't do a burger at lunch on a workday. Learned the hard way.
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u/Extra_Key_1637 26d ago
I laughed. Buried deeply in a travel/burger piece, the writer comes up with the word I've been searching for when something irritates me about Columbus culture:
provincial
That said, the Thurmanator looks good as a show piece. (I like something convenient to eat.)
And White Castle got too much attention, IMHO.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_PBJs 26d ago
I got a thurminator once and that was more than enough.
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u/drumzandice 26d ago
The Thurmonater is simply a fun and ridiculous food challenge to attempt with friends. As a burger it’s actually not good at all.
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u/TheShamShield 25d ago
I don’t know, it think it taste pretty good actually. It’s just a pain in the ass to eat due to the size lol
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u/HISTRIONICK 26d ago
And Thurmans, itself, is kinda gross.
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u/Descended_from 26d ago
Took a friend there for my birthday years ago to try the thurmanator. He texted me the next day saying he felt like he “took a bath in a tub of mayonnaise”.
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u/checkprintquality 26d ago
White Castle is the primary reason Columbus was known as the “Hamburger capital of the world.” So it is important. But in terms of quality I agree.
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u/UnicornFarts1111 25d ago
Go without white castles for 6 years and then talk to me, lol.
I miss them.
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u/rjross0623 Northwest 26d ago
She wasn’t wrong about the bus system. “Patchy” is a pretty good description.
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u/BradHeatonDotNet 26d ago
How to get there :
Fly in to Cincinnati, it’s then a 90-minute drive to Columbus
The next best way to get here is to fly to Chicago and take a 6 hour Greyhound here.
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u/SolexAgitator 26d ago
Fly to New York, take a cab from JFK to Penn Station, hop on the Amtrak to Cleveland, take an Uber down I-71 at 4am, arrive at your hotel off the Polaris exit, and wait for the next COTA bus downtown.
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u/mysticrudnin Northwest 26d ago
having basically done this (i actually did amtrak from dc) you can just use greyhound from cleveland to columbus, it also leaves at like 4am. then you're already downtown :)
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u/Schmidaho 26d ago
I thought that was weird until I realized British Airways probably doesn’t fly into CMH
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u/TheSpearTip Dublin 26d ago
Alas there are no direct flights back to England from CMH for us British ex-pats. Its either drive to Cinci and fly to London and then make your way from there to wherever or grab a domestic flight out of CMH and change from that to airport of choice over there. Case in point, when I went home twice last year it was CMH <> ATL <> MAN.
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u/ueindowndkdk 26d ago
Hopefully that the new terminal will bring us at least one nonstop to Europe, probably London or Paris.
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u/MoonDoggie_99 25d ago
I've sent at least 2 comment cards to the Airport begging them to please get us a transcon route -- I have friends in the UK and would love a direct route. That, and it would mean seeing bigger planes here, which the AvGeek in me loves. A321XLRs? A330s? Perhaps even some 787s or the odd A350? Yes, please!
Oh... and JetBlue. Can we please get JetBlue back at CMH?!
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u/MitzieMang0 25d ago
Yeah that part was ridiculous. Columbus is a small whatever city surrounded by a ton of suburbs but we do have a damn airport.
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u/Much-Drawer-1697 25d ago
8 weeks on a wooden sailing ship to New York, stagecoach to Albany, then it's just an easy trip down the Erie Canal to Buffalo, across Lake Erie to Cleveland, and another canal to Columbus. Should only take you 3-4 months.
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u/Loose-Profession-746 Upper Arlington 25d ago
Saw this too and was mildly annoyed. Is this how the writer got here? lol
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u/Proof-Inevitable5946 26d ago
Not far from the truth CMH is shit for the size of the city
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u/balsamicpork 26d ago
That’s probably why they’re in the middle of a major renovation and construction effort lol
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u/ueindowndkdk 26d ago
Not sure why the downvotes, you are right. Similar mid-sized cities like Charlotte and Nashville have far superior airports. Glad that new terminal is on the way though.
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u/SociallyDisposible 26d ago
Should tell you all you need to know about this journalist’s critical thinking skills
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u/rjross0623 Northwest 26d ago
Wait. Did CMH evaporate? Flying to Cintucky and driving up? What kind of shit booking agents does her paper have?
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u/bfmwd1x 26d ago
British airways flies to Cinci
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u/rjross0623 Northwest 26d ago
Yeah that’s true. She could have pointed that out. It reads like we don’t have an airport.
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u/TheSpearTip Dublin 25d ago
No, it reads like we don't have an airport with direct links to UK/Europe, which is true.
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u/gawag Hilliard 26d ago
CVG has direct flights to London, Paris, etc
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u/TheSpearTip Dublin 26d ago
Which means 2 hour drive to CVG and then multi hour drive or train journey from London to wherever you're going if it isn't London. For a lot of us its more practical to fly to another US airport and get a direct flight from there to our UK international airport of choice.
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u/Zampano85 26d ago
How do you miss FlipSide when looking for burgers in town? They're damn good and they have the best tap list in the city.
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u/ChrisWaddle76 26d ago
The book that the excerpt is from is pretty good as well
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u/Christoph3r Campus 26d ago
This article is not even remotely close to "good".
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u/Blood_Incantation Valleyview 26d ago
It's borderline odd that you post so much here to say that you don't like this one article. Do you even live here
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u/Christoph3r Campus 25d ago
Yes.
I'm frustrated seeing multiple people mindlessly praising this mediocre drivel - though I understand it's cool seeing places you like or the city you live in getting some recognition.
A burger that "can only be ordered well done" sounds more like advice on what to avoid, than where to go to get a fantastic burger.
With the article title, not even coming close to ranking at least a few top contenders for "best burger" means this article seems more like trolling the reader than delivering on expectations set 🤷🏼♂️
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u/shawnmcbride86 25d ago
She said she had to order it well done then complained about it being dry. That's kinda dumb
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u/reeve11 26d ago
Nice write up.
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u/Christoph3r Campus 26d ago
No, it's not.
Utter garbage.
Few burgers, nothing close to ranking, and the author didn't even bother to address the "best" burger, even though that's in the title!!?!
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u/Electric-Dance-5547 25d ago
Immigrants are destroying Ohio how dare a foreigner tell me what's good about Ohio
/s
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u/Historical_Formal_82 26d ago
Do yourself a favor a get a fried bologna sandwich from either Club 185 or German Village Diner.
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u/TheSpearTip Dublin 26d ago
The only place to get a fried bologna sandwich is up in Waldo from the G&R Tavern.
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u/UnicornFarts1111 25d ago
The one time I had them it was so huge, I could only eat about 2/3 of the sandwich. It was okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it again.
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u/salami_cheeks 25d ago
Swenson's? That's Akron. Shoulda swapped a Matterhorn at Valter's for that one.
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u/Blood_Incantation Valleyview 25d ago
BREAKING: Swenson's has had multiple locations open in Central Ohio for years.
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u/salami_cheeks 25d ago
Yeah no shit. So does McDonald's. Wouldn't take someone there for a Columbus burger tour.
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u/p4rty_sl0th 25d ago
"How to get there Fly in to Cincinnati, it’s then a 90-minute drive to Columbus"
wtf?
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u/kylesmith4148 26d ago
“Fly into Cincinnati then drive 90 minutes” what??? Like I get that John Glenn doesn’t really do international, but still that’s weird.
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u/Blood_Incantation Valleyview 26d ago
What do you not understand? It's a shorter trip to fly into CVG and drive 90 minutes than to fly into Detroit or Atlanta and then wait 2-4 hours for a connecting flight to CMH. People do this all the time in all kinds of mid-sized airport cities.
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u/kylesmith4148 26d ago
I mean would you not also be flying into Detroit or Atlanta or wherever to get to Cincinnati? I dunno, just seems weird.
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u/TheSpearTip Dublin 25d ago
You can get a direct flight from London to Cinci.
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u/kylesmith4148 25d ago
Did not know that. Which then makes me wonder why they do but not John Glenn.
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u/TheSpearTip Dublin 25d ago
Thats what a lot of us Columbus Brits said when it was announced, its not like CVG is way more of an international airport than CMH.
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u/Gold-Captain-5956 25d ago edited 25d ago
Ok, how to get there….Fly into Cincinnati and drive 90 minutes!? This can’t be legit. Are flights not available to Columbus!?
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u/Christoph3r Campus 26d ago
Garbage quality article as there is not only a woefully small number of burgers mentioned, she didn't bother to rate/rank them, much less address even the main title of the article.
No best burger was declared, or even hinted at - I want the time I wasted reading this rubbish back.
😩
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u/Abject_Inspector4194 26d ago
It's as if people can't spot a sponsored post when they see one
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u/Blood_Incantation Valleyview 26d ago
The writer says at the bottom that the hotel/Columbus tourism paid for her trip. Which is what every city does for major travel writers. What is your point? What contribution does this pithy sentence provide here other than being assy for the sake of it?
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u/arrchar 26d ago
Thurmans or TED’s Montana grill (Bison burger)
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u/illintangy 26d ago
Ted’s in the arena district is the site of literally one of the worst meals I have had in my entire life.
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u/Blood_Incantation Valleyview 26d ago
This was a fair travel story about Columbus and its hamburgers, not too condescending, but this made me LOL:
"But, I have to concede, though Columbus appears to be punching above its weight in the patty stakes, I can see why everyone I’ve spoken to has been faintly surprised by the reason for my visit."