Chicago Tribune Big Chef Burgers

Here’s your standard, two-handed pub burger with no obvious flaws, prepared with good ingredients and intentions. You can throw a rock blind and hit a place like that in Chicago. But because its home is in Schaumburg (much love to the northwest suburbs), where the gourmet burger per capita is less dense than the big city, Big Chef Burger stands out in a relatively barren field. What works about this burger is the hot flat top grill, which sears the half-pound Angus patties — the thickness of a full deck of playing cards — to a firm and peppery crust while retaining the medium-rare as requested. The truffle burger is effective, pushing its richness to code red with a fried egg, a translucent sheath of gooey Swiss cheese and a dash of truffle oil.

1602 E. Algonquin Rd., Schaumburg; 847-221-8539; bigchefburgers.com
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/ct-burger-red-hots-spritz-parts-labor-20140417-20140417,0,7288862.story