Greek immigrants in Salt Lake City created a cultural phenomenon of burger restaurants with deeply Greek-influenced menus. These chains all feature a pastrami burger as the signature item, and they all have a slightly different take. On a recent road trip through Salt Lake City I set out to try the three biggest chains in the genre (Crown Burgers, Astro Burgers, and Apollo Burger). I reviewed each restaurant’s signature pastrami burger, french fries, fry sauce, onion rings, and baklava. This is the written review, but I also created a video of the adventure.

When you think of Salt Lake City, Utah, Greek culture might not be the first thing that pops to mind. And when you think of Greek culture, pastrami might not be the first thing that pops to mind. Let me connect the dots. Greek immigrants started arriving in Utah in the late 1800’s for jobs in mining and the railroad. The community grew significantly throughout the early 20th century. Greek families from Los Angeles and Chicago moved to the area in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and opened burger restaurants that were inspired by their previous homes but also adapted to the preferences of the Greek community in Salt Lake City. The pastrami burger on their menus comes from that Los Angeles Jewish-deli influence, but the gyros, souvlaki, and baklava come from the homeland.

Keep reading below for my reviews of Crown Burgers, Astro Burgers, and Apollo Burger along with a little history of each. I’ll provide my comparative rankings at the bottom based on my experience, but I’d love to hear which one is your favorite. Please add a comment to the post, find me on social media, or send an email at hello@sodafry.com.

Crown Burgers

History: Crown Burgers was founded in 1978 by John & Rula Katzourakis and Nick Katsanevas (Rula’s brother). John worked at a burger joint in Los Angeles called Minos Burgers with Rula’s other brother, James Katsanevas. They served pastrami burgers at Minos Burgers and they brought that idea over to Salt Lake City when they moved from LA and opened Crown Burgers. It started out as a hot dog stand, but demand quickly outpaced that format so they built something bigger. Nick was bought out along the way and ran his own burger spot, but the Katzourakis grew the concept into a successful chain with 8 current locations. I visited the restaurant in Sandy, Utah.

  • Crown Burger
  • Crown Burger
  • Crown Burger Fries
  • Crown Burger Fry Sauce
  • Crown Burger Fry Sauce
  • Crown Burger Onion Fries
  • Crown Burger Baklava
  • Crown Burger Baklava
  • Crown Burger – Single patty burger with two slices of American cheese, thousand island dressing, shredded lettuce, tomato, and onion. Stacked with about 1/4 pound of medium cut salty pastrami. I barely noticed the tomato and onion, and it was light on the lettuce. Even so, this was a fantastic burger. The pastrami adds so much flavor. I would have liked it to be a little more peppery (it’s almost like corned beef), but still delicious.
  • Fries – 10mm fry, very crispy, but if there’s a batter on them it’s very light. Seasoned pretty well. These were fine.
  • Fry Sauce – A pink/orange hue with flecks of black pepper and paprika. Or something. Big differentiator here is a little bit of relish mixed in. Makes it slightly chunky, but also nice and tangy. Really tasty.
  • Onion Rings – A generous portion of lightly panko battered onion rings with a nice clean bite. Unfortunately, they were not very well seasoned (the onion, the breading, or even after frying). Still enjoyable, but not memorable.
  • Baklava – Outstanding baklava, even if it’s outsourced (through Sheer Ambrosia). Very crispy, very well balanced…delicious stuff.
  • Ambiance – Very crowded, very loud, but interesting interior design with a fireplace, swords, armor, and other miscellaneous “old” looking stuff. I think the story here is that they found lots of random old European decorations when they built out the first one and went with that theme. Not quite Greek, but charming.

I liked Crown Burgers a lot. It was a bit chaotic, and they could have been more generous with the toppings on the burger, but I’d come back for it. And the fry sauce.

Astro Burgers

History: Astro Burgers opened shortly after Crown Burgers, with a very similar history. John and Soula Lyhnakis moved from Los Angeles in 1982 and opened the restaurant with John’s cousin, Angelo Tsoutsounakis. They have three locations around the Salt Lake City area, and I visited their restaurant in Draper, Utah.

  • Astro Burger
  • Astro Burger
  • Astro Fries
  • Astro Fries
  • Astro Fry Sauce
  • Astro Onion Rings
  • Astro Onion Rings
  • Astro Baklava
  • Astro Ambiance
  • Astro Burger – Single patty burger with one slice of American cheese and about 1/4 pound of crispy and peppery pastrami. The pastrami was a bit fatty, but had a lot of flavor. I also saw shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato, and probably onion. I thought I tasted a pickle as well, but I didn’t confirm. This was an amazing burger, especially with that crispy pastrami. It was all very juicy and well proportioned.
  • Fries – 10mm fry, very crispy with a noticeable crusty batter. I really liked the texture that it provided, and adhered to the sauce really well.
  • Fry Sauce – A little boring. It was creamy and tangy, but didn’t wow me on its own. Totally serviceable.
  • Onion Rings – Light panko batter, nicely seasoned/prepared onions. Clean bite. These were great until they sat for about 5 minutes and cooled then, then the batter seized up a bit and they became a little chewy. If you eat them fast, they’re good.
  • Baklava – Super gooey and overflowing with honey. It seems expensive (about $3) for a little slice of baklava, but that’s true with all of them. It was worth it, though.
  • Ambiance – Very tall ceilings with interesting dark iron chandeliers. Lots of Tuscan-like warm yellows and oranges with generic Mediterranean paintings on the walls. The star (astro) theming was repeated throughout the lobby. This was a nice spot and not too crowded when I visited.

Amazing burger, amazing fries, and pretty good everything else. I’m surprised that they only have the 3 locations because I would be here pretty frequently if I lived closer.

Apollo Burger

History: Apollo Burger was founded in 1984 by John Ziouras and his family. John came to Salt Lake City after many years working at family restaurants in Chicago. His first restaurant idea in Utah didn’t succeed, but the founders of Crown and Astro (the Katzourakis and Lyhnakis families) encouraged John to try a burger concept instead. The idea took off and it’s expanded to 14 locations, plus a food truck.

  • Apollo Burger
  • Apollo Burger
  • Apollo Burger
  • Apollo Fry
  • Apollo Fry Sauce
  • Apollo Onion Rings
  • Apollo Onion Rings
  • Apollo Baklava
  • Apollo Ambiance
  • Apollo Burger – Single patty burger with American cheese and a mound of thinly sliced pastrami. This seemed like generic deli pastrami to me and it didn’t add a lot of flavor. It also wasn’t crispy like the other ones. It was served with loose leaf lettuce, onions, tomato, and some sauce. The other big difference was their use of a Kaiser roll instead of a sesame seed bun. The patty was a bit under-seasoned and the pastrami was boring. Overall, a little disappointing for me.
  • Fries – 10mm fry, didn’t notice any sort of batter. Was fried well and served crispy. Maybe a touch under-seasoned.
  • Fry Sauce – Tangy with some flecks of spices. It didn’t wow me, but it was still good.
  • Onion Rings – These knocked my socks off. They must use smaller onions, and they cut them a little thicker. The breading was also much more coarse than the other two chains and it created an extremely crispy and delicious coating to the onions. They were seasoned very well and were some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had. Amazing value for the $4.99 I paid.
  • Baklava – This was rough. It tasted old and dry, and I certainly would not order it again.
  • Ambiance – Generic mid-1990’s fast food vibes with lots of padded pleather booths and a low commercial drop-ceiling. I liked the view into the kitchen and being able to watch them prepare the food, but otherwise it lacked the pizazz and personality of Crown and Astro.

The onion rings alone were worth coming back to Apollo, but I likely wouldn’t order the pastrami burger again. It ate more like a sandwich and less like a burger, and maybe their sandwiches would be more successful for me.

Comparison

As you can tell, there were things I liked about each of the chains, but Crown and Astro were my overall favorites. Take a look at the grid below for my best guess for how to stack-rank the items. The numerical ratings are somewhat arbitrary. I mostly wanted to show the separation between my preferences in case it’s helpful.

Was my experience similar to yours? Anything I missed or got wrong? I’d also love to hear about any other regional fast food cultures that might be lurking out there. What else should I eat?

Links