[Photographs: Damon Gambuto]

One could be forgiven for expecting a lot from Neal Fraser. His training is top notch (The Culinary Institute of America), his restaurants are lauded (Angeleno, Los Angeles Times, et al.), and his cuisine reigned supreme when he took on Iron Chef Cat Cora in Kitchen Stadium (secret ingredient: pork). The last claim to his growing fame might be related to his hands-on approach to being a chef: Fraser is quoted as saying, "I can butcher a hog with my eyes closed."

This is the kind of information that makes your mouth water with anticipation as soon as the valet points you to the front door of his upscale casual restaurant BLD. Yes, it's open breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Of course, all this culinary (and porcine) know-how don't automatically translate to beef burger bona fides.

I've been to Fraser's first, very elegant restaurant Grace and enjoyed my meal. I even remember a burger night there before burger nights were everywhere. But his second and establishment, BLD, carries a burger on its lunch and dinner menus full time. I headed there for a sampling of what I thought could only be a fantastic burger.

I've eaten at BLD more than a couple of times since its opening. It's the kind of place I'd like to call my own: casual, but super stylish in a sleek, modern way. The menu is a collection of accessible items that get a healthy helping of chef know-how.

There are two options for your burger on BLD's menu. The first is the BLD House Beef Burger, which comes with apple chipotle ketchup, smoked cheddar cheese, wild arugula, and caramelized onions atop a hefty eight ounces of beef. The second option is basically just a "build your own." They share the same bun and patty so it seemed that trying the acclaimed chef's choice made the most sense.

The first thing you notice is just how out of proportion the patty and bun seem. The bulbous beef is all but threatening the bun to fisticuffs with its imposing look. The first bite revealed this to be a one sided fight. The bun is both poorly suited to a burger and far too small to match all the beef. The bun, a crusty menace, chews more like a sourdough roll than than the pliant burger-friendly bread I was hoping for. The beef was clearly worked over with the addition of a lot of seasoning (and I suspect too much actual hand mixing). This made the very fine grind even more like a paste than it would have normally been. Adding to this was an unfortunate lack of crust that made the texture less pleasing.

The topping were also a miss. Arugula can work against a beautifully rich burger, but on this one it was too strong and peppery. The onions were caramelized to the point of being a jam that isn't a problem in itself, but they have to be matched with savory. In this case, the apple chipotle ketchup was already cloying so the additional sweet was more than the burger could handle.

The bright spot of my plate were the nicely prepared skinny-cut fries. Crisp on the outside and silky smooth potato exterior, they quickly became the focus of my afternoon hunger. The happy dose of salt and fat saved what would have been a totally reasonable calorie intake, and I was the happier for it.

It's a disappointment to not be telling a story about BLD's fantastic burger. I do like so many things about the restaurant, one of them being that it can feel like a real luxury of a meal without the pain in the purse. Unfortunately, at $16 the BLD House Beef Burger must accept the added expectation of its price tag along with the chef's acclaim. On both counts it comes up short.