O'Sullivan's Pub

Best Burger in Forest Park!!!


Wait, I know for a fact there is a McDonald's down the street.


I am starting to not give pity points for burgers that may be suffering from one bad cook. Sure this burger may be great six out of seven nights a week. Maybe the person on the grill that night, or hell just for my burger had a brain cramp, but some things are just not acceptable.


Lets sidebar about a wonderful evening before I tell you why this is not even the Best Burger on Madison St., let alone all of Forest Park.

We were out for my friend Brooke's 30th birthday celebration. Which was a great night. This place excels in appetizers and has a decent draft beer selection. We sat outside in what was a private patio area until later at night and we were down to a few tables. We were trying to make it to midnight to do shots. A failed mission. But admirable since we had been drinking since 6ish.

So after the family had left and it was just the 30-something set left, we made our push toward midnight and needed to refuel. On to the burger. I took a photo of the menu, but it had too much glare to fix. Nor can I find one online.


This is the Hugh Burger with cheddar for $7.95 and I added bacon for $.95. I also upgraded to O-rings for I don't know how much and they were the best aspect of the meal.

The menu does say it comes with lots of pickles. No lie there.

Funny thing is I took all these photos with Brooke's point and shoot in the dark. Forgive the focus but they hold up pretty well I think.

Good amount of bacon for less than a buck. Cheese suffered from bad placement in the photo, but was weak regardless.

I could rave on the onion rings all day. They were fantastic. Which in a way makes the burger even more disappointing. In theory the same person was responsible for cooking both. It is hard to understand how the rings were executed to perfection (as were the earlier appetizers) but the burger was well...sub par.

This burger was over charred. And tasted like it.

I could not get over the extreme char taste. No catsup or mustard would dull the taste either. That's one that you can't mask easily.

Also this was during Tomato Crisis 08. There was not one for miles to help moisten / flavor this burger. So whether it was the char, lack of cheese or filling up on onion rings, I only finished half. I took the other home hoping for more enjoyment in the morning.

Part II

So now we can inspect this burger in a proper light.

It's a basic frozen patty that was left on the grill too long. This failed to meet my burger expectations and I think it would fail yours as well. The fault of the burger, no. The fault of the cook, yes. The fault of management for not serving it properly...oh yes.

Once I got it in my kitchen I added a big plug of cheese, an onion ring and BBQ sauce.

Doesn't that look better? It does to me. While I have already admitted that the BBQ Bacon Cheddar with onion ring is one of my burgers of choice, there was nothing else to do with this half. It worked out pretty well. This burger never was juicy so that was not lost the morning after. The BBQ sauce helped my taste buds deal with the extreme char. The o-ring and cheese gave it a dimension previously missing.

So we know it is not a destination burger. But can it be salvaged? Maybe. But why. I have been up and down Madison St. and I know I have had better burgers. I am also sure that this burger was an anomaly. I'm sure the one our friend Beckman had earlier that night was better. If I went back the next day it might have been awesome. But again why bother. This burger aside from a poorly cooked patty lacked basic burger understanding. Serve it with more cheese. Serve it with BBQ sauce on the side. Serve it with a few onion rings on top. No specialty burger is offered(I think there is a melt on rye, but I can't read my menu photo). You have the choice of American, Swiss. Provolone, Bleu, Cheddar, and Pepperjack cheeses. Pepperjack and Bleu maybe. But the rest don't seem like they will hold up with the char mishap.

And therein lies the problem.

If you have a sub par patty that is susceptible to a sub par cooking method or personnel, then overcompensate so that the experience is still good. A great burger when poorly executed is still very good or at least acceptable. While a good burger poorly executed is not worth your time.

Also grilled onion and mushroom are offered for $.45 each. They should be free. They would add a needed dimension of taste that should not have to cost extra. Bacon for under a buck though, that's nice.

If you go there, you may not be disappointed. I know I got a bad one. But I doubt you will rave that it is the best burger in Forest Park, or even Madison St. Walk up the block and go to Horan's or Healy's & compare for yourself.

O'Sullivan's Public House

7244 Madison St,

Forest Park, IL 60130