Als Hamburger Shop - CLOSED Green Bay, WI

Restaurant Review of Al's Hamburger in Green Bay, WI

By Patricia Summerfield
March 23, 2011
I went for lunch at one of the oldest diners in Green Bay, Al's Hamburger, which is located on the east side in downtown Green Bay. It was established in 1934 and is still in the same location and run by the same family. They serve breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and are especially known for their great hamburgers. It is a very small restaurant for seating; there are only fifteen stools by the counter and three small booths. The inside looks to still have all of the original interior and is kept clean. The booths are laminated with orange red color tops which match the color of the stool tops. There are condiments on each booth, a large sugar dispenser, a napkin dispenser, salt and pepper shakers, jelly packets, and plastic squirt bottles of ketchup and mustard, but FYI, even though the mustard squirt bottle is yellow they have them filled with spicy brown mustard.

It is a very casual and friendly atmosphere with a mixture of clientele from professionals to blue collar. The server came very quickly to wait on me and told me of their homemade soups of the day and their features of the day. One of the featured sandwiches that day was a summer sausage sandwich for $3.75. I came to lunch to try one of their burgers so I ordered the Al's hamburger which is a half-pound burger for $5.oo with fried onions and a freshly brewed glass of ice tea for $1.25. My hamburger was fried on a griddle out in the open right behind the counter. For background music they had the radio on with the top 40 and adorning the wall were old pictures of customers from many decades ago along with a few Packer players. My hamburger was severed in a plastic basket with a paper liner and with a few dill pickle slices on the side. The hamburger was a hand formed patty placed on a large white bun. The burger was definitely a full half pound of meat no skimping here, the hamburger patty was so large it had a good inch of meat hanging over the sides of the bun. The meat was thick and juicy with a tasty seasoning on it, the hamburger tasted fantastic. There is nothing like a good hamburger on a seasoned griddle and cooked right. There was also a good amount of fried onions covering the burger patty. I definitely needed both my hands and lots of napkins to finish it. The service was friendly and efficient but please take note that Al's does not accept any type of credit or debit cards.

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