The Best Burger in Sherman Oaks

For those who crave a juicy, tasty burger, there is no shortage of places to find one in Sherman Oaks. The most popular burgers in town—judging by the lines of cars at lunch and dinner time—would appear to be those at on Van Nuys Boulevard.

And of course, the the Hamburger Hamlet has been pleasing burger lovers for decades.

But in my opinion, the area's best-tasting burgers can be found at a small place on the outskirts of the neighborhood, two miles from the center of Sherman Oaks: Talking here about on Van Nuys Boulevard, at the corner of Magnolia Boulevard.

And here's the kicker: The tastiest burgers at Billy's are not traditional beef, but ostrich burgers. Many people have never tried them, but Billy's has been selling them for 25 years at this one location and the place has a large and loyal following.

"I love the ostrich burgers, been eating them for years; that's why I've taken my twins here for lunch," said John B., biting into a burger on a bun, with his twins Sydney and Skyler joining him at one of the small white tables inside Billy's.

"This is great," said Skylar, opening wide and biting into the ostrich burger. The kids were getting a burger treat before starting school the next day.

Now, I'm no expert on meat, but the owner of Billy's, Yong Lim, claims that ostrich meat is the healthiest red meat you can eat.

"It's low on calories, low cholesterol, low fat," said Lim, who is the fourth person to own Billy's since it opened for business 25 years ago.

"Burgers are a very competitive business. This place has survived for so long because we serve best-tasting burgers," added Lim, as he was flattening out a patty and placing it on the grill.

"I come here couple times a week," said Ronin Boushnak, stepping up to the counter and ordering an ostrich burger.

"I like them with everything on it," said Boushnak, who was wearing an oil-stained shirt, as if he had been working on a car before stopping in for lunch.

Everything on it includes tomato, lettuce, onion and pickle.

Personally, I like my ostrich burgers with just raw onion. The lettuce, tomato and pickle just get in the way of the succulent meat flavor.

Since I'd never heard of ostrich burgers before tasting them at Billy's, I checked About.com to see what it would say.

Here's what it said: "Thousands of years ago Egyptians hunted the ostrich for food. Instead of being similar to poultry, ostrich is much more like beef in taste and texture.

"Ostrich has a great versatility and can be bought ground, cut into steaks, as sausage and even hot dogs. As for cooking it, Ostrich can be substituted for most any meat and grills very much like lean beef," the website said.

I think the Egyptians were on to something thousands of years ago, and it's available at Billy's for about $7.

Billy's Grill, 5162 Van Nuys Blvd., Sherman Oaks.