square burger

outstanding. visited square burger on a friday night and was blown away.
in general, this joint in historic downtown mckinney attempts to standout by offering a modern approach in a very old looking downtown. after our dinner we spent 10 minutes talking with the co-owner and manager chris and he is what we learned.

so, 10 years ago the only place to eat in downtown mckinney was goodhueys and chris (i think) worked there with his friend (now the head chef. so, the chef went to cal for culinary school, was amazingly successful and ended up being a head chef working with wolf-gang puck in la. after years of notoriety, chris convinced his friend to come to mckinney to open square burger. in building the menu for this place, they tested the top 5 beef you can buy with mixed success before running across a local supplier who only use organic/no hormones, ect...in the area. the beef supplier brings his meat and processes it in downtown mckinney at the old hams shop and literally hand carries the meat across the square 3 times a day to square burger (never once is it ever frozen or even put on a truck). the meat is about 78% lean and you can taste the difference. it is a totally different beef taste than what you would even find at a twister root type place and it's for the better....but be aware, it's different and lean.
so, the service is top notch all around.
drinks: tons of local and texas brews are on tap with franconia leading the pack (brewed in mckinney).
food: everything, i mean everything is made from scratch at this place from the burgers, bread and deserts. what was particularly good was the tomato soup and grilled cheese (small and handmade bread that was great).
it's not on the menu, but you can order "small" burgers of any kind which come in at 5.5 oz vs. 7.5 oz. it sounds small but it is perfect if you plan on having anything else so go this route.
the burgers....the meat is great and they combination of other ingredient are all organic and you can really taste the quality.
side - sweet patato fries...top notch. they also give you fried pickle and chopped pickles for the burger. if you ask, they will give you a special sauce that is mixed by the chef himself.
desert - go with ice cream sandwiches...all homemade and they wait till you order to put it together and it shows.
price - a little high but you are getting what you pay for with the quality presented.

overall, this place is top notch and is deserving of the reviews it gets. it must have something on the competition when the dallas reviewers will drive 30 minutes to get a burger. so, take a gamble and try this place out.
it is different but is mckinney opened and operated...a welcome change to the run of the mill, fancy, burgers in dfw.

lamb burger was perfect! mild lamb flavor, feta cheese and tziki sauce on the side. highly recommend this burger. light tasting burger with flat pita bread. satisfying without stuffing you.
sweet potato fries actually retained taste of fresh sweet potatoes. dipped a few in the garlic aoili, too. very good lunch.

...juicy and delicious, the small size of it was not worth the $5 we paid (it was smaller than the size of my palm!).

by far the best burger, if you understand and appreciate the time and effort they put into the making of these burgers, then this is the place for you. as many local products as possible, the meat is processed and delivered from within the downtown square, the bread is from a bakery in dallas (at least the ones they are not making), as much produce is local as possible and if you have not have the cream cheese ice cream smashed inbetween to homemade carrot cake cookies, you should. the ice cream has a slight yellow tint because of the freshness of the local farm eggs they are using. oh and who could even forget about the amazing beer selection. job well done, will return again and again and again.

the bar was lined with at least 30 taps and they had a modest wine list on the chalkboards on the back wall. floor to ceiling windows lined the streets.

wanted to see what the rage was about, but never got service... waited 15 mins for server. finally someone said they'd be right with us. never happened. we left. will never be back.

not sure what people like about this place. to us, the burgers tasted funny. they were way too tall and thick to even fit in your mouth. service was also slow. we won't be back by choice.

the mushroom burger was good. the caesar salad was fresh, but very bland (tasted like nothing). the service was ok. we had to ask for ketchup and wait for it. this was a little disappointing, since the ratings were so high. i think the ratings are because of their large selection of beers, but this is a restaurant not a bar.

had to downgrade my previous rating of 5 to a 3 based on two recent visits. the meat had a strange taste both times. the service was still good and the sweet potato fries and onion rings are great.

burger was super juicy and perfectly cooked. my friend who never has a strong opinion about food repeatedly stated it was really good and that he has to come back again.

the burgers were tasty but the flavor of few sauces were not that much good as i was expecting to be....it is a good place to go for once...i am not really impressed.... with the sauce flavors..

squareburger is one of our favorite restaurants! grassfed burgers, sunny, bright atmosphere and friendly staff/management are some of the main attractions here. burgers are obviously their main item but they have other good selections as well including salmon salad, pan-fried chicken etc. excellent desserts as well...especially the mini apple pie dessert. just a fun place to go with good service and great food!

have given this place several opportunities. service is horrible. food is below average. pick another spot. our last visit before this one we found a hair in our burger. waited a year and gave it another try. had to ask a waiter who could wait on us. won't return.

the burgers are ok.  am not a fan of the burger. the buns are too dry for me. on one occasion, it broke into dry pieces. the meat was over cooked for my preference. the staff was nice enough on both occasions.  but the overall point is burger. i won't be back for that.

we headed down to “the square” on a rainy day to take in some “scare on the square” activity…but before that we ate at the much lauded square burger!

om: we’ve been meaning to try this place for a while – seems to get good reviews and there is some hype around the restaurant. we had no problem getting seats in the mid-afternoon, but normally the place is pretty busy around lunch and dinner. sb was nicely decorated for halloween, with a huge spider web w/spider on the ceiling. i ordered a burger with bacon, cheese, fried onions, and bbq sauce, with fries and onion rings to split between nom and myself. here’s the thing; i had high expectations walking in. between the hype, reviews, and cost of their menu items, i was thinking this might be the best burger experience to date. the fries were above average, nicely salted, but definitely did not stand out from other burger joints. the onion rings were legitimately good, loved the thick batter. the burger was just “ok”, but i was really hoping that it would stand out from most others that i have tried, and it just didn’t. it was a decent size, decent taste, but nothing stood out about it. there are plenty of other burger placed in mckinney that can do a similar – or better – burger for cheaper. i don’t know if this was just because i had higher expectations, or the burger was truly just average. the service was fine, and two burgers, an order of fries, and onion rings cost over $37. so i don’t know. because of the good fries and even better onion rings, plus the location, i’ll go 4/5.

nom: we had been meaning to take a short trip downtown to try square burger! last time we were down there it was crazy busy just trying to get downtown! this time it was easy to get there and find parking and the place was not busy at all. probably because it was raining… needless to say it was super cute inside and very nicely decorated for halloween! i loved the huge spider and web that took up the entire ceiling! we started with the fries and onion rings! both were super awesome! the fries were nice and crisp and the sea salt was pretty cool, usually i think it’s a bit pretentious but it was tasty! the onion rings were the tempura batter with sweet onions! they were crispy and delicious and so flavorful! i almost ruined my appetite just to plow thru the rings! i had a cheddar bacon burger and it was good…i thought it might rival haystack because of the hype but alas no. don’t get me wrong, it was one tasty burger! but there are a lot of tasty burgers in mckinney! i’m glad we went but for a tab of $37 for two people…eh. i would go and have an order of rings any day of the week!