We'd been hearing good things about a new burger place that opened south of the Woodlands on 2920. Called Jax Burgers, it's not associated with the longtime Houston favorite Jax Grill.
We drove over, and discovered a clean restaurant in a strip center. Parking was easy, and we walked in and ordered.
The look is very polished and slick, the first thing that came to mind was Five Guys. Jax is owned by Melissa and John Recio, and it's a family operation. (The name Jax comes a combination of their sons' names, Jake and Max.) Eric Recio was manning the counter, and keeping things running smoothly.
But the real question - how are the burgers?
The Jax burger is a half pound of USDA Angus chuck beef, handformed and never frozen. It's served on an eggy bun, and dressed with a wide variety of toppings. We took our traditional route, dry with lettuce, onions, and pickles only, so that the flavor of the meat would be front and center.
The burger that came out had a nice, thick, handformed patty, but it was cooked well done and wasn't particularly juicy. It could also use a bit of seasoning; the meat was tasty but somewhat bland. Oddly, the meat had large cuts all the way through the patty - perhaps someone inexperienced was manning the grill? Regardless, the burger was good; similar to what we've had at Five Guys.
The sides were interesting. Jax offers several types of fries; we sampled the garlic fries and the sweet potato fries. Everyone agreed that the sweet potato fries were the winner; the only thing they were lacking was some sort of sauce customized to the sweet potato flavor. Less successful were the garlic fries; while they were topped with what appeared to be fresh chopped garlic, the flavor didn't infuse into the fry itself, which ended up somewhat soggy after a few moments on the plate.
Overall we enjoyed Jax. We do feel that the prices are a bit high for what they offer. The prices are edging into Beck's Prime territory, and the burgers we tried still have a way to go before they can challenge Houston's best home-grown burger chain. But we'll be back to check 'em out again.
(This was our first post with a video segment, shot and edited on the iPhone 4. We think it adds to the review - what do you think?)
UPDATE: We've visted Jax several more times, and it's even better.