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/
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. 
