Cracker Barrel - if only it was fried

This weeks edition of "I eat too much red meat" takes us to an old family favorite. My grandfather happened to be in town for the weekend and my dad was out and about on the town with him, so they decided to meet me somewhere that suits both the young and old. Cracker Barrel Restaurant and Old Country Store. Most of you are probably away of Cracker Barrel, it is good homestyle cooking with a country barn atmosphere. They serve both breakfast and lunch all day long, and we've had both. I can honestly say that I have never been disappointed in anything I have eaten here. But what about the burger? Keep reading and you'll find out, can't give up all my secrets in the beginning. We got to the restaurant around noon on a Monday, right around the normal lunch rush. Surpringly enough, they seated us within a few minutes. I guess they realized that we were not going to be buying any of their vintage candy or random trinkets, so might as well seat us. Either that or they figured that Daddyo and I might have been hurting their trinket sales by joking around about the random items they had sitting around by the bucketload. Either way, we got our seat quickly.

They sat us in the way back corner, probably another byproduct of our previous country store shenanigans, but it was nice because it was quieter. At least until the three of us sat down. We went ahead and ordered our drinks and meals at the same time. Daddyo got the vegetarian platter with a whole bunch of actual vegetables. Not mac and cheese like I normally get as my Cracker Barrel "vegetable". Pop-Pop ordered the chicken salad, which was a lot more difficult that you might imagine. He had a hard time explaining to the server that he wanted a chicken salad, not chicken salad. You know, a salad with chicken on it, not something that you call a salad but bears no semblance of healthiness outside of the added protein. I, for the first time ever, bypassed the chicken fried chicken, chicken fried steak, or anything fried at all and went with the Bacon Cheeseburger. They even asked me how I wanted it cooked, which was unexpected. I ordered medium of course, with a side of fries. After we ordered, we waited a very long time for our food. Eventually it felt like we were the only people sitting in the back of the restaurant. Pop-Pop had the strange idea that I was in a hurry to get back to work, so he was getting a little concerned. Daddyo and I got a good laugh over that, but we got an even better laugh when a random stranger came up and asked Pop-Pop if he was a relative of Uncle Sam. We thought at first if he was asking him if he was a veteran, until we looked up a picture of Uncle Sam and realized that he actually did bear a striking resemblance to him. Not long after, our food finally arrived.

 The burger was what you would expect to see. Pretty basic bun, cheese, bacon, fries, and a side of slaw. No condiments on the burger, but there was ketchup on the table so I threw a little on it along with some slaw on top. So how did it taste? As spectacular as standard Cracker Barrel fare? Unfortunately, it did not. Probably safe to say this might possibly be the worst thing on the menu. I actually wished I had ordered a salad or a vegetable plate. Yes, I did just say that. And I'm talking real vegetables too. This burger was completely overcooked, like the question of how I wanted it cooked was merely just to make conversation. And as if they didn't overcook the meat enough, the bun was burnt on the inside. Even the bacon had no flavor. I don't even know how that is possible, I've eaten my fair share of Cracker Barrel bacon and it is always tasty. This was like the reject bacon. Almost as if the chef was like "man, no one is going to want to eat this bacon, I'll just hide it in this dude's burger." He probably realized I wouldn't taste it over the charred bread anyway. Luckily, I had two of my best conversation partners with me, and we all shared a good laugh over it. In between Pop-Pop's continued concern over the length of my lunch hour, that is.

So how does this big country plate of disappointment rank on the Angus Barn Burger scale? I'm guessing you can see where this is going. Overcooked meat, tasteless bacon, burnt bun, not a whole lot going for it. Even the fries were not as good as they normally are. Really other than the slaw, which technically counts as my vegetable, this meal was way below normal Cracker Barrel standards. So with all this being said, I have to give this the dreaded one Angus Barn Burger rating. While I highly recommend almost everything on the menu here, steer clear of this burger. Might I suggest something fried?

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
955 Airport Blvd
Morrisville, NC 27560
(919)463-9222
https://www.crackerbarrel.com/

Pickled Onion - Tickled Pink

After our last disappointing burger experience, we decided to try out a place that we have visited in the past and knew could throw some good competition into the burger battle. On this particular night, the beautiful and lovely K and I were out celebrating the 20th anniversary of the day we met. Unfortunately, I was stuck at work for a 14 hour day and we got a late start to the evening. We almost didn't make it out, but decided since our kids were visiting grandparents we could swing a later night. We were living it up, eating dinner at 8pm and staying out till 11, we party hard. We went to one of our usual places, one that we don't frequent enough, but always ask each other why we don't come there more. This restaurant is The Pickled Onion and it is on the corner of Falls of Neuse and Strickland Rd in Raleigh. Tucked at the end of the shopping center, it is a sports bar with a full menu and plenty of drinks. While it is a bar, it has a good atmosphere and people would feel comfortable bringing their kids there. Not us though, we were living it up like high school again. We even sat on the same side of the table!

Our server came quickly and took our drink order, K ordering a glass of wine and I ordered a beer. The menu is pretty extensive for a sports bar, but we came here for the burgers. We looked through our options and came up with our selections. K decided to go with the Mushroom Swiss burger, which is exactly what it sounds like. A burger with sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese on a brioche bun. I went with something a little different, the Hangover burger. It checked all the boxes for me with bacon, cheddar cheese, fried egg, and Sriracha mayo on a toasted croissant. How glorious does that sound. Ordered up medium, as if there were an echo on this blog. Not sure why I even keep stating that. They also had several different sides to choose from, I went with the homemade chips and K went with the onion rings. Obviously we've been together a long time, she wasn't too worried about me kissing her later. We sat and talked and watched the TVs as we waiting for our food, and when my beer was empty the server was there with a new one, no waiting at all. The service here is really impressive, they are totally on their game and very polite as well.

When our food arrived it looked fantastic. It looked so good that K even requested I put a photo of her burger into the blog as well. Just look at those golden onion breath mints. The burgers were large and looked perfect, but how was the quality? Were they as wonderful and glorious as the last 20 years with my soulmate? Or were they as crushing and agonizing as my current career choice? Well, very thankful to say it was the former, as these burgers were some of the best ones we have found to date. Everything was cooked perfectly, from the buns to the burger down to the fried egg and the sides. Both of our burgers were cooked exactly as we had ordered, pink in the middle and plenty of juiciness and flavor. Every part of this burger was wonderful. The croissant was buttery and tasty and the Sriracha mayo was a great addition. I am a big fan of Sriracha, but was worried about an overpowering flavor. I'll say it was just enough hot flavor blended with the mayo that make the burger really tasty. K claimed that her burger was just as equally delicious. I did not taste it though, as I'm not a big fan of the texture of mushrooms. I guess a mushroom probably tastes better than a slug, but I'd rather not eat either of them. I've learned to trust her opinions over these last 20 years, so I'll go ahead and accept her rating of the deliciousness of her meal.

If you are looking for a good place to eat in the North Raleigh area, we highly recommend the Pickled Onion. This burger was one of the best we have eaten. Everything about it was good, from the burger down to the sides. Even the service and atmosphere was excellent. I can't say anything bad at all about this place. We gladly give this place a four Angus Barn Burger rating. By far one of the best burgers in the Triangle!






The Pickled Onion
7901 Falls of Neuse Rd #101
Raleigh, NC 27615
(919) 848-4161
http://www.thepickledonionrestaurant.com/

Chuck's Burgers - Catch of the Day

So my last few burger blogs have investigated burgers at the normal locations that you would hit for a quick burger. This time we decided to check the Googles and see what it said about the best local burgers. As surprising as this may sound, everything you read on the internet is not true, so we set out to investigate if there was any truth to these search results. We set our sights on a downtown burger joint named Chuck's Burgers that seemed to pop up a lot in our searching. On this particular Saturday night, we just so happened to be heading to downtown Raleigh with our usual burger connoisseurs, D and MC. They also informed me that they were disappointed that I didn't have more creative names for them. They better be careful what they ask for, they are now to be known as D-Mac and The Artist formerly known as MC. We were heading down to watch our friend's band play (Nine Times Around), so we had a little time to grab some dinner before we headed over there. Chuck's Burgers is a little restaurant on the corner of E. Martin and S. Wilmington, about a block away from Moore Square. Be aware of this before you go, because there is probably not going to be any parking. We ended up just paying $5 to park in the deck right behind the place.

The restaurant itself is small and has limited seating, so the wait for a table of four ended up being 45 minutes. The hostess said we were more than welcome to wait at their bar in the back, so we made our way to the back of the restaurant. When we got there we realized that what she called a bar was just the place where the servers punched in their orders on the screens, and really it was just an open area with two chairs and a place for people to stand uncomfortably while waiting for their table. We were able to secure a few drinks here though, so at least we could pretend we were at the bar. Oddly enough, they had cans of Stroh's beer, which we ordered. The restaurant had a hippy kind of vibe, so it must be kind of like how the hipsters think the cheap beer is cool for some reason. Just like how PBR is somehow now a good beer. Profit margins on these things must be huge. After close to the estimated 45 minute wait, we got a seat at a table. The menu is small, pretty much burgers, some appetizers, and a few other things. The burgers were interesting to say the least. Nothing really normal about any of them, and they all featured toppings that seemed more at home on a vegetarian menu than a burger restaurant. We ended up ordering an appetizer, the Fork and Knife Fries, which is basically cheese fries with chili, lettuce and a herb dressing. As for the burgers, I went with the Spirit Animal. What is your spirit animal? According to my coworkers at the office, mine is a mythical creature that votes too many times in a pointless intranet poll in order to skew the results. As far as the burger named Spirit Animal, that is a burger with cream cheese, roasted poblano chilies, grilled tomatoes and tortilla dust. Ordered medium, of course. The beautiful and lovely K went with the Dirty South burger, which was a burger with smoked pork shoulder, chili, onions, slaw, cheddar and mustard. All of these toppings also had fancy names to go with them, but I gave the basics. Pretty sure that "Anson Mills Sea Island Red Pea chili" was really just fancy chili. D-Mac ordered the Bear in Heaven, which was about the most normal burger you could order, with "Switzamerican" cheese being the only odd topping. What is "Switzamerican" cheese you might ask? Apparently, it is just a slice of Swiss and a slice of American. D-Mac asked them to just use the American and they obliged. The Artist formerly known as MC got The Big House, which was a burger with cheddar, sorghum-Dijon, and caramelized shallots, although she asked to delete the shallots. The one neat thing with ordering is that they have different dipping sauces to choose from for your fries, and they come with two choices and then a cup of ketchup.

The food came out fairly quickly, with the appetizer coming shortly before the burgers. The appetizer was ok. Hard to beat fries soaked in cheese and chili grease. They weren't great though, and we left a bunch still on the plate. Not something we tend to normally do, especially when shared by four people. The burgers came out and looked pretty good, definitely different than any burgers we had tried before. The toppings made for an interesting presentation. So did these burgers taste as interesting as they looked? Yes, interesting would definitely be the word for it. My burger was almost tasteless other than the cream cheese. The burger seemed to be cooked correctly, with pink in the middle, but lacked any sort of juiciness or flavor that you would expect from a burger made of real meat, especially fresh meat like they claimed. The bun itself was something that you would get off the shelf at the grocery store for your backyard cookout. Not that that is a bad thing, but for a place that has such oddball burgers you would have expected different. Really the only juiciness came from the grilled tomato on my burger, which unfortunately overwhelmed the entire sandwich. It was honestly like they stuck a quarter pound burger patty on top of a quarter pound tomato and then squashed it  to make it flat. Way too much tomato on this. The really strange thing about this burger was the only real flavor was that of the crab cakes. What's that you say? I never mentioned this burger had crab meat on it? That's because it didn't, yet somehow it had an overwhelming flavor of seafood. K let me try her burger, which was much more tasty than mine, but still had the fishy flavor to it. When I questioned it to the table, K agreed and so did D-Mac, both of theirs had the same fishiness. MC did not get the taste in hers at first, but eventually tasted it too, leading to her panicking that the meat was bad and a fear that we were all going to get food poisoning. Fortunately, as of this writing we are all still healthy, so it was just an odd taste. Honestly the best part of the whole meal was trying the dipping sauces for the fries. Luckily they had a strong enough taste to overcome the seafood flavor in our mouths.

 

So where does this burger stand on the hierarchy of Triangle area burgers? Well, pretty low unfortunately. Even without the mystery taste, the burger itself wasn't very good. The meat had no flavor and the toppings were overwhelming. Once you add in the alarming aftertaste, this one gets the boot, all the way down to a one and a half Angus Barn Burger rating. We almost gave it a two, but after a friend of mine at work gave me a hard time about how I rate lunch burgers I see what he is saying. I can't rate this one the same as The Burger Shop, it is just not as good. So if for some reason you want to try this place, don't ask for the catch of the day, because apparently it is in the burgers.

 

Chuck's Burgers

237 S Wilmington St
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 322-0126
http://ac-restaurants.com/chucks/

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The Burger Shop - table for two

A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some friends at a restaurant not worth blogging about when I was accused by my good friend DJ Felonious of being a burger snob. Judging by the way I was critiquing the burgers we were eating at said restaurant, he might be right. I thought for my next burger blog I would go searching for a good lunch burger to knock me off my high burger horse. By recommendation of one of our neighbors, our family packed up for a Friday night in downtown Wake Forest at The Burger Shop. This restaurant is a relatively new establishment right in downtown Wake Forest, in the former location of The Barber Shop. Don't worry though, it is a new business. The only remnants of the barbershop history is the small spinning barber pole adorned in burger graphics. The hair and scissors are long gone.

The parking at this location is on the street, so you may need to drive around a bit to find parking since it is in downtown Wake Forest. We luckily secured a park right outside the building and went in to check the joint out. It is a quaint location that is perfect for a date night. By quaint I mean tiny, and by "perfect for a date night" I mean the only tables they have there are two person tables. Don't get me wrong, it might still be good for a date night, but only if you get your order to go and find yourself a good romantic picnic spot. The menu is very simple, burgers, dogs, and few other items that no one probably orders because they most likely came here for the burgers. For those of you who have visited Five Guys, the way you order your burger is similar. You just order the size of your burger and then what toppings you want, simple enough. We ordered our burgers and quickly scrambled to secure a table before someone else did. With four of us there, the beautiful and lovely K and I got to share a small table while J-Train and C-Monster sat at the window barstools, of which were also in pairs, two on either side of the door.

The food came relatively quickly and looked quite delicious. I had ordered the double cheeseburger with bacon and slaw along with the normal lettuce/pickles/ketchup/mustard. The rest of my clan ordered normal human size cheeseburgers with bacon and the usual condiments on top. Looking at the photo now, I wish I would have gotten just a normal cheeseburger because that just looks disturbingly big for one meal. Camera puts on a few pounds, right? Nope, but this burger does. The taste was definitely there though, and we thoroughly enjoyed these burgers. The meat was fresh and obviously not a pre-purchased patty, it was like it was straight out of a backyard cookout minus the charcoal flavor. And I mean a good backyard cookout where your friend actually put some effort into making the burgers. Oh man, there I go again, even burger snobbing my friends' burgers. Sorry guys, I see it now. Everything was cooked well though, the toppings and buns were fresh and the slaw was delicious. Their fries were equally good, which were thin fries with lots of salt and cooked fresh.

So how does this stack up against other burgers we have eaten? Seeing as this is clearly a lunch burger, it doesn't get close to an Angus Barn Burger, but it does fare well against other burgers in the lunch burger genre. It is impossible to eat here and not draw a Five Guys comparison though, the similarities are eerie. K even commented that it was like a Five Guys employee quit and started this place, the menu looks similar, the presentation is similar, they even serve their fries in an overflowing drink cup. With so many similarities, we had to evaluate the burger against a Five Guys as we ate. While we agreed that the burger was great, it was just not quite as great as a Five Guys burger. So what rating do we impart on this local burger dive? All things considered, it is a good burger, but not quite as good as a Five Guys burger. As such, we will have to give it one step below that and bestow upon this burger a two Angus Barn Burger rating. Definitely glad we tried it, but we may be more inclined to go across the street to Shorty's for a quick burger.

The Burger Shop
203 Wait Ave.
Wake Forest, NC 27587
919.562.2333
http://www.wakeforestburgershop.com/

Red Robin - Ummmm......

Yes, it has been a while since I have written a blog. I do apologize for those of you who have been patiently awaiting my expertly crafted blogging, but life is busy. I actually had a few others that I planned on blogging about, but got sidetracked with other more important things. What is more important than burger blogging? Oh you know, making money and things of the sort. Unless you guys can help me find a way to make money by eating burgers, you'll just have to be patient. So sorry D and MC, you guys will have to just suffer through another burger dinner with us somewhere to be featured again on the infamous Burger Time Blog!

So for this installment, we decided to try an old favorite of ours. While not a local establishment, they are well known for their burgers. Red Robin was going to be our target for the night. Our last Red Robin experience was slightly disappointing, so we decided to give it another shot. Will their claim that they serve the "finest gourmet burgers" stand up to these burger aficionados' standards? Well, we were definitely out to find out.

We arrived right at peak dinner time on a Friday night, but luckily got seated immediately. The restaurant was definitely packed though, so I would say that wait times would vary. Our server came up and was polite and helpful, got us our drinks and took our orders. We started with an appetizer, ordering the half stack of onion rings. Highly recommend this, it is really just some deliciously fried onion rings with two different dipping sauces that are equally delicious. For our entrees, C-Monster joined the burger crew and went with a bacon cheeseburger while J-Train took his meat in the spherical form for this night, ordering the meatballs off of the kids menu. The lovely and beautiful K and I were on the page with our palates and both ordered the Smoke and Pepper burger, which is a burger with black-pepper bacon, extra-sharp cheddar cheese covered in Smoke & Pepper™ ketchup sitting on a ciabatta bun. We weren't sure what smoke and pepper ketchup was, but it definitely sounded tasty. Of course, we ordered them medium, our BTB standard. Everyone also ordered fries as their side, which are bottomless. They will literally keep bringing you fries if you ask. OK, so J-train didn't get fries, he got apples. I don't get that kid sometimes.

Our food came out and it looked great. A little odd bacon presentation, but still looked good. Unfortunately, that's where the word "good" stopped for this meal. While they somehow managed to cook it how we ordered, pink in the middle right at our desired "medium" level, they also somehow managed to cook any semblance of flavor out of it. I am not quite sure how this was possible. The burger was juicy and gave every expectation that it would be delicious, but it lacked any hint of anything that could be considered delicious. It was almost like the burger had been boiled rather than grilled, and the lingering water was the juice that came forth in each bite. This burger was the equivalent of the little trophy that you get as a consolation prize for coming in last place. It looks good, but it really just is a junk piece of plastic that looks like real gold. And much like the plastic trophy, it is probably are equally flavorful. The only flavor came from the smoke and pepper ketchup, which wasn't bad but really not much more than regular ketchup. I honestly would have rather eaten 12 orders of fries with this smoke and pepper ketchup than eating this burger. K concurred with my assessment, stating that after this meal, she could honestly say that she has no desire to come to Red Robin again. The worst part of the whole experience was when we got the bill. Our burgers were a whopping $13.95 each. These sad excuses of red meat patties came out to be $2 more than one of our highest rated burgers at Bad Daddy's.

So the final verdict on this consolation burger? While Red Robin uses the YUMMMM as their slogan, we give this a big giant UMMMMMM. As in ummmmm, where did you hide the flavor? Or maybe ummmmm, why is this burger $14? Or even ummmmm, how about making your menu less confusing so we realize that we are ordering a $14 burger before we get the check? Seriously, we can not recommend this place. The only high point was having a great server, who made sure we had everything we needed and took care of us fantastically. The burgers however, can not be spoken with the same enthusiasm. They get a down low one Angus Barn Burger rating. Save your money and your appetite for somewhere else!

Red Robin
7860 Alexander Promenade Place
Raleigh, NC 27617
919-957-2880
http://www.redrobin.com/

Frankie's Fun Park - at least the kids enjoy it

It has been a very long time since I have done a burger blog, and I do apologize for that. I wish I could claim that I am trying to eat healthy, but really we just haven't gone to anywhere new to eat burgers. It isn't that I haven't been eating burgers, it is that I haven't had any new and exciting burgers to babble on about. Unfortunately, I am not going to give you a great place to run out to in this blog, but I am going to give you a review of a burger that one day you just may find yourself stuck with. Yes, this comes from the castle of children's fun that is known as Frankie's Fun Park. On this fine day, I decided to go have a night out on the town with J-Train. Just a little daddy hangout night. I gave him a lot of options on where to go. Basically everywhere in town was on the table, I think I even offered to go buy him a car, but he chose Frankie's. Not only does Frankie's feature arcade games, go karts, miniature golf and lots of amped up kids, but they also have a restaurant inside. Creatively known as Frankie's Café, this restaurant features about what you would expect, burgers, hot dogs, and sandwiches and the like.

Surprisingly enough, they were not that busy on this particular night. Normally they are very crowded, but this night it was pleasantly slow. We were able to walk right up to the counter and order our food without any wait. I ordered the Bacon BBQ Burger, which is a burger with cheddar, bacon, BBQ sauce and onion rings, and J-Train ordered the bacon cheeseburger. Now, at this point I was intrigued. The atmosphere and service had me thinking this was going to be a lunch burger, we were in a glorified arcade after all, but the prices had me thinking it might be a good dinner burger. Our two burgers and two drinks came to $24 and change after taxes. I didn't realize this at the time, but this was burger only, we would have had to drop an extra $3.50 each if we wanted fries. We would have been sitting at over $30 for our total if we added fries. My burger alone would have come to $13.50 before taxes if I had fries. For comparison, one of my highest rated burgers from Bad Daddy's Burger Bar would come in at $11.95 before taxes and came with fries. So needless to say, I was very intrigued to see if this pricing was justified.

We grabbed our drinks and found a seat, waiting way longer than I would have expected considering the absence of diners in the restaurant. It was ok though, I was getting an earful from J-train about how Madonna looked weird in the music video on the TV and how one of his classmates eats with her mouth open. There were other kindergarten items covered as well. Finally our food came and it was at this point I realized that our order did not come with fries. I held high hope that this burger was going to be delicious and make up for the lack of fries. Unfortunately, that was not the case. It was a marginal lunch burger at best. The best part of it was the bacon and the onion straws. Not sure how they got off calling these onion rings, because they were merely a tumbleweed of fried onion shavings, but they were tasty so it was not a huge issue. The burger itself was cooked through but not terribly tasty and not overly juicy. More than likely it was just a premade burger that they threw on the grille. The worst part was the bun. I was unsure if it was an actual bun or two tiny Frisbees that I could have gotten for 45 tickets in the arcade. It was as if someone took dry bread crumbs and somehow managed to sculpt them into bun shaped halves. Maybe the burger itself actually started out more juicy, but the bun soaked any moisture out of them. Kind of like when it rains in the desert, it just disappears. J-train on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying his burger. Just watching him eat his made me want to rate this burger higher. He honestly could make anything look tasty, I think he could be eating a cactus and you'd think "that looks painful but delicious!"

So overall, all things considered, this burger is not one that we can ever recommend. Quality was not there, price was way too expensive, and atmosphere makes you feel like you were in a kid's birthday party. Well, we actually were because we sat in the wrong section, but still. Maybe if the bun was better it may have changed things, but I just left feeling disappointed. I would have rather taken our $20 and stuck it into one of those claw games. At least then you know you aren't going to win and you don't get your hopes up. So folks, this burger get a lowly one Angus Barn Burger rating. Thanks for playing Frankie's, try again next time.





Frankie's Fun Park
11190 Fun Park Drive
Raleigh, NC 27617
(919) 433-7888
http://www.frankiesfunpark.com/raleigh/frankies-cafe/

Yard House - vampires need not apply

So after our last disappointing burger adventure to Buffalo Brothers, we decided to try our hand at a place where we won't regret missing out on their mac & cheese pizza. This week we found ourselves kid-free on a night with my sister FB and bro-in-law the Mathematician, who were also kid-free for the night. We decided to try our palates out on a local restaurant called Yard House. It really is local in location only though, as they have locations all over the country. Yard House is a sports bar restaurant with a huge drink selection and extensive menu. They do not take reservations, but they do allow for call ahead seating. FB went ahead and set things up and we met them at our designated time. The restaurant was absolutely packed as there were a few college basketball games on the TVs in the restaurant, so our wait time ended up being a little longer than they had mentioned. Ordinarily this isn't a huge complaint, but once our name was called they had us standing at the counter for 5 minutes. We were wondering if it was some kind of social experiment to see if we would push the big red EMERGENCY STOP button on the wall next to us, but we decided to just ask them what the deal was instead. Apparently they had just forgotten we were standing there. Right next to the counter they just called us up to.

Once the confusion was hashed out, they showed us to our table. Unlike Sullivan's Steak house, where we felt like we were ordering from the kids' menu, Yard House made us feel like we were sitting at the kids' table. This was seriously the shortest table I have ever had at a restaurant. Now, I'm a tall dude and have grown accustomed to furniture and normal human beings being smaller in comparison to myself, but this was one short table. It literally was sitting on my lap, like a giant TV dinner stand. We thought about using our menus to prop up the table a bit, but decided it would be better to just blog about it instead. Once the humor and uncomfortableness of the tiny table had faded a bit, we decided to get some drinks and scan over the menu. The beautiful and lovely K decided to get a mixed drink that probably tasted like Robitussin while FB, the Mathematician, and myself ordered some beers.

We decided against ordering an appetizer, which almost changed once we saw the table next to us order the chicken nachos, but we held strong. K decided that she was going to forgo the burger this time and went with a mix of tacos. We also learned that you can order your tacos "vampire style" here, which means they are coated in cheese or something like that. I wasn't totally following our server when she explained it. All I know is, I have never seen a vampire who required his meals to be covered in cheese. Not that I have ever personally known a vampire, but I'm just assuming. They also have a Vampire Taco on the menu that has garlic on it, so I'm pretty convinced they know nothing about vampires. The Mathematician also decided against a burger and went with the jambalaya with spicy rice. If you are wondering what spicy rice is - it is rice, and it is spicy. With half of our crew now unbloggable, FB and I chose our burgers. She decided to go with the Pepper Jack Burger which has roasted poblano pepper, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle mayo. Ordered medium with a side of fries. I somehow resisted the urge to be an annoying little brother and copy her and chose to go with a different burger. I went with something a little more offbeat, the Pastrami Benedict Burger. Once I confirmed that this was a burger with pastrami on it and not pastrami disguised as a burger, I placed my order. The Pastrami Benedict Burger is a burger with roasted tomatoes, fried onions, swiss cheese, béarnaise sauce, fried egg, and of course, pastrami. Ordered medium with a side of fries, per the usual.


Our orders came out promptly and looked delicious. Of course, that seems like a common thing I write. I guess when you are hungry most food looks good, especially burgers. My burger, well, it had a lot going on. The bun was struggling to hold up against the overflowing mound of toppings on the burger. They were piled high and each one of those toppings was adding a new level of sogginess to the weak little bun. The burger itself was overcooked, as seems to be standard in this area, but also really lacked much flavor. I initially thought that maybe the burger flavor was overpowered by the flavor of all the toppings, but FB agreed that her burger was also overcooked and lacked good flavor. We also both agreed that the bun was weak, and nothing special. It was the kind of bun you would buy because they were cheap and you had a lot of guests coming over for a cookout. Pretty much the only good part of this burger was the toppings. They all were all cooked perfectly and had great flavor. Remove the burger out of the equation and it may have been an extremely tasty sandwich, but all together it just was an odd combination. Good idea on the surface, poor execution. As far as our non-burger diners at the table, K commented that her tacos were ok but better could be had elsewhere, such as Gonza. The Mathematician had the best luck of the group though, and his jambalaya was delicious. Surely he calculated out the probability of deliciousness with the jambalaya. Of course, that meal is nothing more than a ton of tasty stuff thrown together, so hard to go wrong there.

So where does this burger stand on the Triangle burger hierarchy? Not that high up, unfortunately. It wasn't a horrible burger, but isn't something I'd care to order again. The hardest part of the meal was trying to figure out what to rate this burger. We talked about it being in the weak three Angus Barn burger rating, but that really makes no sense and I'm not about to create another graphic just for this burger. If the deliciousness that was the Carolina Ale House burger was a 3.5 burger, this one surely did not deserve a 3. With that being said, we bestow this burger with a 2 and a half Angus Barn Burger rating. Not highly recommended, and quite honestly I'm not in a huge hurry to go back to Yard House again all things considered. There are other restaurants that are just more comfortable, less crowded, and have better burgers than this place. Just save yourself the disappointment and find another place, especially if you are a vampire.

Yard House
4208 Six Forks Rd
Raleigh, NC 27609
(919) 881-2590
http://www.yardhouse.com/

Buffalo Brothers - burger with a side of pizza

After a few weeks of recovering from my Houston, TX burger research trip, which technically was for a work meeting for K but let's not split hairs, we decided to set out on the town in search of another burger for the blog. We loaded up the family Jeeper and headed out to one of our favorite restaurants, Buffalo Brothers. I will go ahead and tell you, my fine readers, that this blog was an especially difficult one for me. We absolutely love Buffalo Brothers for their awesome pizza, and by deciding to burger blog this place on this trip, I had to forgo the usual amount of pizza I would normally consume. Sure I still had some, let's not be crazy here, but it was in far fewer numbers. Buffalo Brothers has a few locations across the Triangle, but the Wake Forest location is our usual location of choice. It has a sports bar atmosphere and is very laid back. Perfect for families or kid-free nights alike, they really have a great layout and perfect atmosphere for an enjoyable evening. Their menu has a lot of options, standard bar food appetizers, pizza, pastas, sandwiches, soups, salads, etc. They have quite an extensive selection. On this night, against the pleading wishes of C-Monster and J-Train, we decided to forgo the appetizer and went just with a meal. We have, however, gotten them before on various occasions and they are all fantastic. The fried pickles are high on my list of tasty starters. The fam ordered some drinks and I ordered my favorite local beer, Lonerider Sweet Josie. It has been said by the beautiful and lovely K that I may be having a love affair with Sweet Josie, that she is the other woman in our relationship, but that is simply not true. Although wonderfully delicious, too much Josie will eventually make me sick. There is no such thing as too much beautiful and lovely K. So enough with the shameless kissing up to my wonderful wife, back to why you really came here. The burgers, of course! Surely it is not my cunning literary talent.

So the food, where did we stand with that? The hardest part was deciding what burger to order. The pizza was already decided before we even showed up. K, C-Monster and J-Train all decided to split a mac & cheese pizza. Yes, you read that right. It is macaroni and cheese, some kind of cheesy white sauce as a base, and little bits of bacon spread over the whole thing. Sound delicious? It is. The first visit to Buffalo Brothers saw J-Train eat 3/4 of a large mac & cheese pizza. Once again, you did read that correctly, a 5 year old boy ate 3/4 of a large pizza. It was like watching the Coney Island hot dog eating contest, slightly disturbing but couldn't help but be entertained. I scanned the menu and decided that the Pretzel Burger was the one for me. This is a burger covered in sautéed onions, shaved ham, and smothered in nacho cheese served on a pretzel bun. I am always a big fan of pretzel buns, and combined with nacho cheese this sounded like a combination that was hard to pass up. Once again, I ordered my burger medium, for consistency's sake. With a side of fries, it sounded good enough to make me not worry about that delicious pizza that they were going to eat.

Our orders came quickly, as they usually do, and they looked delicious. The burger looked like it was cooked well, and the pizza looked absolutely wonderful. My burger was, well, just ok. I'm not going to say it was bad, but it really wasn't great. The bun was pretty tasty, and the nacho cheese was a great addition to the burger, but overall it just wasn't great. As soon as I bit into it, I was overwhelmed with a salty taste. Yeah, I know I was eating a pretzel burger, but it was really too salty even to warrant that name. I guess the combination of the pretzel bun with the shaved ham may have done it. I am not a big fan of very salty things anyway, but I really felt like it was a detriment to my arteries to be ingesting this much sodium. The burger was once again overcooked, it was cooked straight through, no red to be seen. It was still juicy, but overcooked. The burger itself wasn't impressive either, it appeared to just be straight meat. You know how you go to a cookout at a friend's house, one who doesn't really know how to cook but wants to have a party? His burgers are basically like he took the ground beef straight out of the package, pattied it up, and threw it on the grill? That's kind of what this looked like. Kind of like straight meat, that they apparently threw some salt on to try and disguise it. Once I finished my burger, I was very disappointed to see how much the rest of my family was enjoying their pizza. Did that sound selfish? I don't care, it is friggin' mac & cheese pizza. Luckily, I have a wonderful family who peeled off a slice and cured my wounded palate. It was as delicious as it normally is, and not salty at all.

So the final word on Buffalo Brothers? You must absolutely most definitely go try this place for the pizza. I can't speak highly enough on this. The burger? Do not even consider it as an option. I'm going to bestow on this one a two Angus Barn burger rating. Not absolutely horrible, but not good enough to make me want to eat it again. Sure you may think to yourself "hey, it must have been a fluke, that guy is a burger snob!" Do you really want to risk it though? The whole "road less traveled" concept is not something that is lost on me, but sometimes the road that is more heavily traveled is more heavily traveled for a reason. Did I just get all philosophical over some food? Why yes I did, because this is a restaurant that you Kant pass up, for the pizza at least. Thanks for reading and please join us next time for more dad jokes and eye rolling puns. And please don't pass the salt.

Buffalo Brothers
11735 Retail Drive
Wake Forest, NC
27587
(919) 570-6004
http://www.buffbrothers.com/

 

Carolina Ale House - the burger before the storm

So how do you prepare for a snow day? Many people run out to purchase mass quantities of bread and milk for their French Toast or milk sandwiches or whatever they might feel the need to make in the two days that we end up without road access in the South. Some people gather their family and head out for cheeseburgers. We would be the latter. On this fine chilly pre-snowmageddon day here in North Carolina we decided to celebrate a pending snow day by heading out to one of our favorite places to eat, Carolina Ale House. There are several of these locations, but we normally go to the Wake Forest location. We have been to the Brier Creek one as well, which is about equal in terms of service and quality, in my opinion. Carolina Ale House is basically an upscale sports bar, with a bar and pool tables, but also complete meals that is family friendly. This location, on this particular night, was having a Carolina Hurricanes night with games and giveaways and a visit by their mascot Stormy. The beautiful and lovely K, C-Monster, J-Train and myself had a seat on their patio that was heated and covered on this blustery night. Our waitress came and took our drink orders promptly. C-Monster, through the sea of Carolina Hurricanes fans, politely asked the waitress to turn one of the many TVs showing the Hurricanes games on to the Philadelphia Flyers game. Surprisingly enough, she asked the manager and he switched the TV closest to the table to the Flyers game. This is one of the advantages of being a Philly fan in the South, because if this was the other way around we totally would have gotten booed or hit with a D-cell battery.

When it came time to order, we all decided that burgers were the standard fare for our family. K and I both ordered the Pub Burger, which is a standard burger with bacon, American cheese and "Papa Lou's secret sauce" on a standard burger bun. K ordered hers medium well and I ordered mine medium. I figured for the sake of consistency with this blog, I won't change up my method of ordering. You readers only deserve the best! And when that doesn't work, my mediocre will have to do for you guys. Both of the boys ordered off of the kids menu, both going with the Bobby Burgers, which are two mini cheeseburgers. Our wait for our food was short, which was great considering how busy they were this particular night. Our food looked fantastic when it came out. Big burgers, the fries looked great, everything was perfect. The only real issue was that they gave my burger to K and her burger to me. We realized this after we both took our first bite, so we just switched. This probably worked out to my advantage, because I take bigger bites and I scored some extra burger in this deal. These burgers were fantastic. My burger was cooked just how I like it with some pink in the middle. K's was cooked just how she liked it. Everything about it was great. If I was going to have any complaint at all, and this is searching here, it is that the burgers were not quite as juicy as I would have liked. K argued this point when I brought it up, but I felt that was the case. She is more than welcome to address my complaint on her burger blog. The fried onion straws were great, tied in the bacon taste in with the fresh bun and everything. And how about Papa Lou's special sauce? It was tasty, but not sure how special it is. Maybe Lou's last name is McDonald, or maybe his son is a large dude named Mack, because it is really just the same sauce they put on a Big Mac. Not that it makes it any less delicious. That stuff does wonders for a sad artificial burger like a Big Mac, so just imagine what the same stuff does for a delicious real burger like this one! It is wonderful.

So the final verdict? This one is good. Very good. Not quite Angus Barn good, though. And thinking back at previous burgers, it is still just a smidge below Bad Daddy's. Still fantastic and it gets the BTB stamp of approval. Burger was great, service was great, atmosphere was great, highly recommend. The kids even got to see Stormy, the mascot from the Hurricanes on their way out. So what rating do we bestow on this this burger? I am going to throw a 3.5 Angus Barn burger rating on this burger. So close to a 4, but not quite there. If Bad Daddy's got a 4, this is going to have to sit at a 3 and a half. Keep up the good cooking and we'll see you guys for the next Flyers game!

Carolina Ale House
11685 Northpark Dr
Wake Forest, NC 27587
(other locations as well)
919-556-8666
https://www.carolinaalehouse.com

Lynnwood Grill - something is missing

This weeks edition of burger review brings us to a restaurant a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. OK, not really, but our plans this week did take us to a restaurant in close proximity to a movie theater where we would later watch the newest installment of Star Wars. We decided to take C-Monster and J-Train to see the movie so we met up with some of our previous partners in burgerage D and MC at Linwood Grill in Raleigh. Linwood is a Grill and Brewing Concern is a sports bar that brews their own beer, which seems to be a common theme in the area now. I am not really sure why the word "concern" is in their name, but read further and see how it might apply to our meal. The wait for our table was not bad at all, but mostly because we got there late and D and MC had already gotten the table. Our waitress was very polite and attentive and took our drink orders promptly. I actually tried one of the beers they brew in-house, the Mosaic Pale Ale, which was pretty good but exceptionally fruity. Probably not one I would order again, but it was very good. Their menu is the normal sports bar menu, appetizers, pizza, sandwiches, burgers and the like. They do have items like calzones as well. One of the things that they do that is creative with their burgers and chicken sandwiches is that they have options for "up scaling" your burger for an extra charge. It kind of seems like a way to charge you more for your sandwich though, rather than having four different burgers they have one burger that you can add four different toping combinations for around $3 extra.

We split some cheese fries 6-ways for an appetizer, and then ordered our meals. MC went with the Chicken Pesto pizza, D went with the BLT (also known as the burger, hold the burger) and the beautiful and lovely K went full vegetarian and got the Southwest Black Bean Burger. I decided to go with the Pub Burger and do the up scale option with the California Club. This was a burger with bacon, avocado, and provolone cheese. Sounded good, and it had bacon and avocado so figured it was worth a shot. C-Monster and J-Train followed in my footsteps and ordered cheeseburgers off of the kids menu. I did ask for my burger to be cooked medium, but they said that they only cook their burgers medium-well or well done. Terribly unfortunate, but I asked her to make mine as pink as they would allow. Shortly after placing our order, the cheese fries came out and they were great, perfectly cooked and cheesy and bacony to perfection. We easily cleaned the plate, which technically wasn't hard considering there were 6 of us.

Then our food came. Everyone's food looked fantastic. Well, almost everyone. I was foiled by
the allure of bacon and avocado. My burger looked sad, like someone was trying to play a cruel joke on me. "Hey, this guy loves burgers, let's throw a McDonalds patty on some dry toast and see his reaction!" I bit into my burger and quickly realized I had made a tragic mistake ordering this specific burger. It was as if I had somehow gotten my order reversed, like instead of ordering a burger with avocado on top, I had somehow ordered an avocado sandwich with a burger topping. The burger patty was tiny, a sad wafer of meat. To their credit though, they somehow managed to leave a little pink in the middle. How it didn't all turn brown as soon as it hit the grill will forever be a mystery. About halfway through my first half I realized that something was missing. Through the blast of avocado I noticed that there was no bacon on my burger. I brought this to the attention of our waitress, who took the burger back to the kitchen and promptly came back with bacon on my burger. Of course, I didn't get the half burger's worth of bacon that I should have been able to eat, but whatever. It wasn't until I am sitting here writing this blog and looking at the pictures that I realized that they forgot to add the provolone cheese to my burger too. There was so much avocado that I failed to notice this. Three toppings on this burger and they missed two of them. K let me try a bite of her black bean burger and it was very tasty. For probably the first time ever, I found myself disappointed that I ordered a real burger and not the vegetarian option. To add insult to injury, C-Monster and J-Train had two delicious looking burgers.....from the kids menu. Jacob did not finish his burger, so the vulture came out and I swooped in and confiscated what was left of his burger. I mean, I had to get a fair comparison, right? His burger was actually fairly decent, the bun was really delicious, burger wasn't bad, not a terrible burger. Actually quite good for a kids menu item. The last bit was what got me though when I bit into what was either a tooth or a bone. Whatever it was, it was hard and it hurt. After C-Monster inspected my mouth to be sure this chunk of white didn't come from my chompers, we figured it was probably a piece of bone. I'm just glad J-Train didn't bite into it.

So final verdict? Would not recommend. For burgers at least. Everyone else was happy with their food, but the burgers left much to be desired. Maybe had I gone with a different burger option it may have been better, since I think the boys kids menu burgers had potential minus the potential dental damage. My burger was quite horrible really. The worst part of it all was that it was an up charge item, so all said and done I paid roughly $10 for something not befitting of a school cafeteria. And then they charged me an extra 50 cents for the ranch to dip my homemade chips in. So with all things considered, I am forced to give Lynnwood Grill a one Angus Barn Burger rating. So if you come to Lynnwood Grill for the beer, stay for the appetizers, not the burgers. And watch your teeth.






Lynnwood Grill & Brewing Concern
4821 Grove Barton Rd
Raleigh, NC 27613
919-785-0043
http://www.lynnwoodgrill.com/