I think expectations often dictate how a burger will be. While I’m still on the search for the best burger in Boston, I’m also realistic, I don’t think each new burger will be the best one and I can end my search, but I have to get to them all. I never expected the Corrib Pub to have Boston’s best burger, and it doesn’t, really I expected it to be somewhat of a train wreck, so in that respect I was slightly surprised that was relatively tasty. Conversely, I’ve been to numerous places that were supposed to be the greatest (Radius, O’Sullivan’s, 5 Guys) but couldn’t live up to the hype, it’s not that I disliked those places just to be different, but when the majority of burger enthusiasts are saying it’s the best, and it falls short, then it’s a serious downgrade. The Corrib Pub has three locations in the Greater Boston area, in a bit of a rush, we hit up the Brighton spot for a quick lunch on Friday. They have a few burgers to choose from, I went with the Corrib Burger, sort of a kitchen sink type-sandwich, with mushrooms, onions, bacon, ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato. Bacon and ham? Indeed, not really overkill, just not all that necessary in my mind. The mushrooms are poor, and probably why mushrooms get a bad reputation, and the onions, a half-assed attempt at caramelizing, add nothing. But it’s not all bad, the beef is cooked a perfect medium-rare, is juicy and has good charred flavor, not terrible for the char-grilled variety which I usually don’t prefer. But the meat is too compacted, resulting in a bit too dense of a burger, not the light and fluffy kind I dream of. The American cheese is however, fully melted, and the bun, while fresh, needs a bit of a toasting to soak up the juices, nothing worse than a soggy bun, But there is too much bun, once again, as I’m left with a bit of a toppings and condiments only sandwich for the last several bites, no beef left in this party. To reiterate, this isn’t a great burger, it’s the perfect example of the lowest expectations, but at least knowing it’s own identity. If you’re in the mood to hang out with a bunch of booze-hounds on a mid-Friday afternoon, eat as typical a pub burger as you’ll find, then maybe this is the place for you. And it’s not terrible, it’s just not inspiring, but for $7.25 and an okay tasting burger with zero expectations, you could do a lot worse.

Overall Score: 73