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Restaurant Info
Tommy J’s Grill & Catering
726 2nd St
Davis, Ca 95616
See for Yourself
Burger Breakdown
The Visit
With 15 burger options to choose from, you definitely can call Tommy J’s a “burger joint.” There are some amazing flavor combinations ranging from your traditional bacon cheeseburger all the way to their Firehouse burger. If you are a burger or cheeseburger lover, you can definitely find something on the menu to sate that burger craving.
So...tell me about your burgers.
On my last visit to Tommy J’s, I tried the Vietnamese inspired Bành Mì Turkey Burger.
This hamburger is made with a hoison-glazed ground turky patty, topped with Vietnamese slaw (carrot, daikon, jalapeno, cilantro, cucumber), along with a tangy mayonaise spread all on a toasted hamburger bun.
The nice thing about Tommy J’s is that the sandwiches and burgers all come with your choice of side. Your choices for side arefries, tots, house salad, or Caesar salad. I have enjoyed a cheeseburger or two at Tommy J’s and I highly recommend the tots for the side dish.
The Bành Mì Turkey Burger at Tommy J’s will cost you $16.99.
Let's See What We Have Here
Dine-in is a perfect option at Tommy J’s. You can either sit inside and enjoy the local pub vibe or sit outside and enjoy the view of Downtown Davis.
The Bành Mì Turkey Burger arrived a the table open-faced and came with a heaping order of tots. It definitely looks appetizing and I couldn’t wait to dive in.
Have you tried the bread?
The burger buns at Tommy J’s are amazing. Tommy J’s sources their buns from a local bakery which is literally located across the street. You can frequently see Tommy himself carting the buns from the bakery to his restaurant. I am guessing that the buns are fresh every day.
The burger buns are nice, big, firm yet tender, and have an amazing flavor. The bun comes to the table toasted on the inside only.
These buns are the best. If you are ever at Tommy J’s, ask for the directions to the bakery and pick up a pack of buns for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
Let's look under the hood of this baby.
This sandwich come to the table open-faced with some assembly required. Essentially, you need to place the top bun, along with the Vietnames slaw, onto the bottom bun and patty. Not much work at all.
The sauce on the Bành Mì Turkey Burger is a spicy mayo creation. I would venture to guess that it is Siriacha and mayonnaise blend.
The produce on this sandwich come in the form of a spicy mayonnaise-based slaw. The slaw includes carrot, daikon, jalapeno, cilantro, cucumber.
There is no cheese on this sandwich. In fact, this is a basic ground turkey sandwich with spicy slaw and spicy may.
The ground turky patty was cooked through. Since it is turkey, I doubt you would want this cooked to medium-rare. Tommy J’s cooks their burgers on a flat top. This sandwich certainly smelled good the aroma of the hoisin glaze and the slaw were the prominent aromas.
The turkey patty was nice and tender. The hoisin sauce was a nice flavor profile to go with the turkey. The patty itself was in need of a bit of salt. Perhaps a touch of MSG would be a benefit.
So, who are your your friends here?
The tots at Tommy J’s are to die for. With each sandwich or burger, you get a decent portion of the tots. These come to the table nice, hot, and super crispy. With such a large portion of tots, you could easily split the sandwich and tots between two people and have a nice and filling lunch.
It's a Wrap
Both the Vietnamese slaw and the mayo were spicy components on the sandwich. There was nothing on the sandwich to cut the heat which caused the spice level to be distracting. I enjoy spicy food. However, I don’t enjoy powering through a sandwich and all I get is spicy. Plus, both of the sauce and the slaw were mayo-based. This made the toppings very rich. A little bit of acid would help cut through all of the fat and brighten the sandwich up a bit
Texturally, I found the sandwich dull. The bread, ground turkey patty, macerated slaw, and spicy mayo were all soft elements in the sandwich. There was no crisp or cruch that one would find in a traditional Bành Mì sandwich (crispy French roll, crunchy carrots, daikon, and fresh jalapeños). Some fresh shredded cabbage would have given it a nice little crunch. A good idea would have been to go with a traditional cabbage slaw and then garnished some pickled carrot and daikon to give it some crunch.
Turkey may be a healthy option to red meats. However, in this sandwich the the turkey was lost in all the other elements of the sandwich. It was lost both texturally and flavor-wise. As I mentioned before, there was no textural contrast between the elements. A better choice would have been a ground pork patty or a nice and juicky ground beef short rib burger patty. Either would make the meat the star of the sandwich. But there would definitely need to be some acidic element to cut through the fat.
Final words
Well, I would have to give the Bành Mì Turkey Burger a hard pass.
Although each of the ingredients tasted good on their own, together it was a bit of a let down.
There are a number of delicious burgers on the Tommy J’s menu. It would be easy to find a much better option than the Bành Mì Turkey Burger.