Craft Burgers at Carl OG3 Won’t Break Your Wallet

Photo: Stacy Lee

Carl OG3 Burger Shop has the feel of a food truck that decided to park inside a yakiniku restaurant. It shares a space with a yakiniku shop that takes over at night, so you can spread out your burger lunch on tables with built-in grills. Its compact menu has five or six burgers, crinkle-cut fries and canned drinks. There’s the quirky name, a riff on the owner’s nickname: 3 is san in Japanese, so Carl OG3 is Carl Ojisan or Uncle Carl. And there’s the location, hidden from street view at the top of a flight of stairs (look for the sandwich-board sign on your left).

Kaheka Smash. Photo: Stacy Lee

The small menu swaps up occasionally with specials. Of the regular items, the wagyu burger might be the draw, but the meatier and more flavorful Kaheka Smash will be the one that you want to bite into. Its tantalizing patty of grass-fed beef and slightly spicy Portuguese sausage comes topped with a light sprinkle of onions and a slather of yellow mustard. The touch of Portuguese sausage in the burger blend adds a slight, spicy zing to the beefy flavor and that needed essence of fat. Just juicy enough that you can feel the meat separate in your mouth, it holds together nicely. The bun is butter-grilled, which adds a satisfying crisp.

Note the bun-to-beef ratio—it’s fine, but why settle? For $3 more, why not double up and get a second patty? The single-patty craft burger is $9.99, but $12.99 for a double-patty burger is still a deal, especially these days.

The One. Photo: Stacy Lee

At $14.49, The One is Carl OG3’s take on the wagyu burger. Made from Snake River Farms American wagyu, it’s capped off with blue cheese, onions, jalapeños and bacon jam and a sauce that combine to form a Kansas City barbecue sauce flavor minus the vinegar punch. If you like sweet barbecue sauce in a sandwich, this might be for you. But be warned that the flavors of the blue cheese and fairly thin wagyu patty can be overwhelmed.

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Carl OG3’s current special is a “ground in-house chuck/brisket blend cheeseburger with caramelized onions and umami mayo.” This last one has a lean patty that’s thicker than the wagyu, and you can definitely taste the umami mayo with its delicious dashi base. If you love onions, it’s a winner at $13.99, a good mix of savory and sweet with a nice slather of caramelized onions.

The menu also offers a wagyu cheeseburger, a classic cheeseburger (grass-fed) and a bacon egg burger. Add-on choices that can be ordered for an upcharge are American cheese, pickles, blue cheese, The One jam (tomato bacon jam) and special sauce. And there’s dessert: chocolate or green tea gelato and lychee or ume-guava sorbet.

Photo: Stacy Lee

Fries are a la carte. An individual order is $2.99; a basket is $6.99. The crinkle-cut fries have a delightful, crispy texture even after sitting for a few minutes. Although you can order them with the Carl OG3’s special sauce,  or even tomato bacon jam, it’s best to get sauce on the side for dipping rather than having either drizzled over the fries.

Service is friendly and usually quick and efficient, but if the restaurant gets crowded, be prepared to wait. Better yet, order ahead online. If you’re in the Kaheka area, Carl OG3 can satisfy your midday burger craving without emptying your wallet.

Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., 747 Amana St., carlog3burger.square.site, @carl_og3_ojisan

Hana yori dango—translated from Japanese, it means “dumplings over flowers.” East Asian history teacher, writing tutor, Japanophile and avid foodie Stacy Lee will always choose dumplings over flowers.