Finding Chicago’s Best Pub Burger

I posted a question to the r/chicagofood thread asking for the best Chicago pub burgers and I’m going to try to find the best one

Today’s stop: Rootstock

General Stuff
– Ambience – 8/10
It’s a small restaurant with a 8-10 seat bar that serves good wine and beer with local artists paintings on the wall for purchase.

• Other dishes – 8/10
  I was solo dolo but tried both the clams casino and fries

• Clams Casino – 8/10 – clams and sausage stuffed in braised fennel with breadcrumb, lemon and herb. Really delicious dish and I probably could have eaten two orders by myself. The herbs and acid really put this dish over the top

• Fries – 8/10 – well seasoned and incredibly crunchy. Trust tree: I hate ketchup. It is too sweet and synthetic and most homemade ketchups don’t taste like ketchup at all, it’s a completely different experience. This homemade ketchup was A++. It was sweet but not too sweet and had a little bit of date flavor. Im an aioli guy (also delish) but kept going back to the ketchup well.

MAIN EVENT: Pub Burger – 9.1/10.0
– This burger was incredible. I ordered if medium, it came out a perfect pink outside to red inside. The bacon aioli on the burger gave it a nice richness and DO ADD the jalapeño. Their pickled cucumbers and jalapeño balanced this burger out perfectly. Not too acidic, not too sweet just cut the fattiness of the burger and aioli while adding some nuance

Great stop! Would recommend.

Pub Burger List:
1. 9.1 – Rootstock