Is it just me, or are most of us on a constant search for a good burger? Whether we recognize, and then acknowledge, our journey to good beef patties, or whether our search is more instinctive than cognitive (that is, you don't really know you're searching, but you are because you can't help yourself), I think the answer is: Yes, most of us are looking for a good burger.

So this is going to sound bold. And final. And to cynics — and hence my own ears — it's going to sound downright excessive.

But I think it has to be said: Look no further.

I'll let that sink in for a minute.

And then I'll explain because nothing is as final as all that. Especially not the good burger hunt.

The Counter, a new gourmet burger joint that, in its first month of business, has already generated so much hype that it's impossible to get a table without an hour's wait, serves the best burgers on the island. Period.

So let the search beyond these shores continue — you knew it wasn't REALLY ending — but here, it's over for now.

Occupying a corner space on the ground floor of Kahala Mall, The Counter is a post-modern diner with industrial flair. The walls are a cool greenish blue, the tables and chairs fashioned from cold aluminum. If there's warmth in the room, it's coming from the person at the next table because here, personal space is at a premium.

A seemingly random collection of decorated skateboard decks hang on one wall. When you know that The Counter is an international franchise that started in Santa Monica, Calif., I guess the decks make more sense, but not really.

Knowing that The Counter is a franchise makes a ton of sense when you consider how ready this very new restaurant was when it opened its doors Feb. 16. On day one of business, everything was in its place, including the staff. That kind of preparedness comes with experience, and with more than a dozen other restaurants just like it already doing good business, it was just a matter of following their lead. And it doesn't hurt that local restaurateur D.K. Kodama is the main man behind The Counter, along with partners Ed Robles, Pablo Buckingham and "Lost" actor Daniel Dae Kim.

The staff at The Counter is well-trained, and perhaps more important to local diners: well-meaning. The servers are attentive, if not somewhat evangelical, hoping for converts with their message of "I like the sweet potato fries, but EVERYthing on the menu is delicious!"

And the menu, which is made up mostly of burgers, fries and shakes, is a loud and proud invitation to the middle class, despite its slightly gourmet overtones. The Counter isn't an exclusive eatery. It can't be, it's in a shopping mall. But even with its populist nature, the restaurant retains its culinary polish by doing what it does really well. And what it does is sell us the very best version of our favorite food.

The menu looks much longer than it is because of its build-your-own-burger element that lets diners customize their burgers ($8.95-$13.95) by choosing their patty size (one-third of a pound, two-thirds of a pound or one pound), their protein (beef, chicken, turkey, veggie), their bread (hamburger bun, honey wheat roll, English muffin or no bread at all) and their toppings (10 kinds of cheese, 29 toppings, 18 sauces).

The statistics are these: There are more than 312,120 custom-built burger combinations possible at The Counter.

Excessive? Only if the staff can't get your particular combo right, which happened. Twice.

But it's hard to hold a missing piece of Black Forest ham against a kitchen that, at any given moment, could be building 75 different sandwiches. Still, with a great number of burger combinations comes great responsibility.

Here's how the cookie crumbled, or rather, how the burger came undone: The burger came sans ham, which was picked to be the perfect partner for the grilled pineapple, which goes really well with Swiss cheese. No ham, no reason for the pineapple, which left a patty topped with melted Swiss cheese. Big deal. And if I wanted a cheeseburger, I would have ordered it with American cheese.

So one thing leads to another, which results in either the best-built burger you've ever made in a diner, or the most uninteresting.

What you can always count on is the quality of the burger itself. The patties are hand-formed and grilled to perfection. The outside is charred, the inside is red and warm, the edges are pink and the whole thing is a big juicy mess of deep beef flavor.

The meat, which is 100 percent fresh ground hormone- and antibiotic-free Angus beef, is allowed to be its own flavor, unhampered by seasoning mixes and additives that are only useful if you're trying to hide the flavor of less than prime meat.

Unless other instructions are given, the patties are cooked to a perfect medium, though asking for a well-done burger doesn't mean it will come dry and overcooked, which is a testament to the kitchen staff's skill.

After three visits to The Counter, there are two things I know. The first, you already know, too: The burgers are delicious. The second is that I would gladly give up eating a burger if it meant that I would be guaranteed a basket of sweet-potato fries ($4.95). Not that there's a shortage, but given a choice, I choose the orange fries.

The twice-cooked sweet-potato fries are fried until the outside is bubbly and crispy, while the inside stays velvet soft. They come with the restaurant's signature horseradish mayonnaise, and the fries with the sauce is a surprising balance of sweet and spicy notes, the texture a trifecta of crunchy, silky and creamy.

I would also settle for a "Fifty-Fifty" ($5.50-$6.50), a combination of any two of the deep-fried add-ons — fries and sweet fries, fries and onion rings, or sweet fries and onion rings.

If you still have room for dessert, I suggest you make a note to order a bigger burger next time because the only fault I found in the food was with the desserts.

When you're using a chocolate malt ($4.95) to cut the sweetness of your apple crumble ($4.95), you're dealing with a seriously sweet dessert. The super-sized caramel and chocolate brownie ($4.95) and the salad- plate-sized chocolate chip cookie suffer from the same sugary heavy-handedness.

A fellow diner, who's open about the severity of her sweet tooth so she won't mind being used as fodder here, took a few bites of her brownie and said, "I've met my match in desserts. This one's taking me down."

The right amount of sugar for a meal at The Counter comes in the form of the restaurant's hand-scooped shakes and malts ($4.95).

For sugar with a kick, The Counter's full bar (yes, a full bar, which means sweet relief for the folks who get dragged to the mall against their will) offers sweet and creamy cocktails, like the Orange Creamsicle ($8) and the Root Beer Fizz ($8), that are the alcoholic equivalent of old-fashioned soda fountain drinks, and are yet further proof that The Counter gets just about everything right.