First, not everyone's tastes are the same. You may not like what we like, and someone else may not agree with your taste. Even our group rarely agrees on all aspects of a burger. We go to the reviews with 5 to 7 people, a good number for dining purposes as well as a nice cross-sectional study of the Valley's population. Everyone is armed with a pencil, score-sheet, and an appetite for a good burger.

Each one of us award up to 5 points in 4 different categories; presentation, beef, bun, toppings/sauce. And we also give consideration to 5 other factors that contribute to the overall burger experience; menu, side, service, pricing, and most importantly - would you return for a burger?

We take the average of our group's scores and based on it, we give a star rating.

Example:

The Ice house Inn received scores of 4, 3, 4, 3, and 4 for presentation. That's an average of 3.6. Their beef received scores of 4, 2, 3 , 2, and 3, an average of 2.8. The bun scored 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 - 2.6. And the toppings, 2, 4, 5, 2, 4 - 3.4.

We take the average of all of our scores and factor in the remaining items; menu, side, service, pricing and the bottom line, would you return?

With the final score we choose the star rating.

4.6 to 5.0 = 5 stars

4.2 to 4.5 = 4.5 stars

3.8 to 4.1 = 4 stars

3.4 to 3.7 = 3.5 stars

3.0 to 3.3 = 3 stars

2.6 to 2.9 = 2.5 stars

2.2 to 2.5 = 2 stars

1.8 to 2.1 = YIKES! Don't go here!

Below is a copy of our score-sheet.