BurgerIM

Burgerim is one of the fastest growing burger chains in America, and now we have one here.  My daughter and I went in to check it out the other day.  We ordered chicken wings and a triple combo, with a couple of milkshakes.

We'll start with the good news--the wings were excellent.  Crispy and crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, and the Sweet Crunchy Chili Garlic Sauce is just marvelous.  The six pieces in a serving are quite large, so it's plenty for a good meal.

It's somewhat downhill from there.  For the combo, I had a beef patty with bacon and cheese, a lamb patty done gyro-style, and a veggie burger that's not on the national menu.  The beef patty, like all of them, was definitely a prefab, and a bit chewy.  Not much flavor.  The buns were not special either, kind of a standard white bread bun that was hard to handle with the sauce.  The lamb patty burger came with a yogurt sauce, and I added onions.  I could not pick out any lamb flavor, and the sauce did not have a whole lot either.  Ended up just putting ketchup on it.  The veggie burger is an upcharge and comes with no toppings--I added some cheese and a few other things.  It wasn't bad, again with ketchup, but it didn't make me want to give up on beef.

The fries are little potato discs, done firm and nicely seasoned--I liked those just fine.

The milkshakes were an adventure.  The counter person took our order--then left the building, apparently to go shopping.  Burgers take a little time to make, and the grocery store is nearby, so she was back in time for the shakes to be made and served as a dessert.  Kudos to the staff for the effort, but I think I would have appreciated being told that there would be a wait for the shakes.  The shakes themselves suffered a little from the rush job--my chocolate shake had some cookies-and-cream leftovers in it, which did not improve it.  Just OK.  But the service was overall very good and I do give the staff points for trying.

The drink machine is a Coke Freestyle, which was in working order but didn't have a great selection.  The decor is fast-growing-burger-chain, with an inoffensive color scheme and sayings on the counter.  There are two small, gendered restrooms--the men's room was long-term occupied during my visit so I can't say what that was like.

It's easy to run up a hefty tab--many of the toppings are an extra charge, so getting a burger your way can get pricey.

The burger restaurant market is crowded, so I don't see why I would go back.  Unless I want to get wings, those are actually worth returning for.  

My Yelp Review

El Meson Latin Restaurant & Bar

This restaurant has been flying under my radar for a few months now.  Came in the other day for lunch and was oh so glad I did.  An amazing experience.

I started off with an Aguapanela, a sugar cane drink with some lime.  Delicious and refreshing, it really complemented the food to come.  I ordered a beef empanada for an appetizer.  It came out hot and fresh, perfectly cooked, crispy but not greasy and great flavor in the filling, set off well by the chimichurri sauce.

For the entree I went with the Platos Tipicos, to get a real feel for the place.  I ordered the Picada Pequeña, the smaller version of the sampler plate, and came away wishing I'd ordered the Grande.  It has steak, chicken, fried pork sausage, pork belly, blood sausage, plantain, yucca root, yellow potato, and a delicious corn patty on each side.  Everything was done just right--the meats were tender and flavorful, and the potato and yucca were tender with just a bit of crisp on the outside.  The seasoning was exactly on point, and more of that chimichurri sauce finished things just right.

Dessert was just slightly disappointing as they only had two of the five items on the menu--I was in the mood for some arroz con leche.  But I had the tiramisu and it too, was excellent--more of an emphasis on chocolate and cream, with delicious fresh cake.  Not enough to take me off five stars.

The decor is very attractive.  The intent is to feel like you are dining in Colombia, and I think they succeed.  They have live music on the weekends. You really need to go try this place.

My Yelp Review

Crave Hot Dog and Barbecue Restaurant

This place has kind of a man-cave hype about it with the hot dog and barbecue-based menu, which kind of sets one up for this amazing decadent experience.  It's not really ready for that kind of expectation yet, but it has just enough potential to make a critique worthwhile, so I'll do that.

I went in the other day for lunch, and was pretty hungry so I ordered both a Crazy Crave sandwich and a hot dog, with chips and a drink on the side, and the chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

Started off a bit rough with the drink.  It was a Coke Freestyle machine, and those are notoriously fussy.  This one had spigot issues and spat a lot of soda against its back wall, but the Coke mix was actually OK.

My sandwich came out first.  A lot to like here.  The Crazy Crave is pulled chicken and brisket.  The brisket on the sandwich was flavorful and tender, which is not easy to do.  But also something not to like--the bun was just a bit stale, and took away from the sandwich.

Next up was the hot dog.  You order a dog, then whatever you like on it.  I wasn't sure what to do so I ended up with bacon, grilled peppers and onions, and spicy pickles.  The hot dog was a quality frank, great flavor.  The pickles were fine.  The bacon was "heating in the oven", which was why the hot dog was delayed a bit (but not much).  Oven-cooked bacon can be fine, but this was very thin and didn't have much flavor.  The grilled peppers and onions were a kind of disgusting goo, fortunately not enough of them to dominate the hot dog.

The cookie was ok but chewy, not really worthwhile.

Service was polite and the food came quickly.  The beer wall is a cute idea though I did not partake.  The bathroom was clean and ready.  I think this place has a lot of potential but very uneven quality is holding it back.  I hope they get it straightened out in time, it would be a good option to have in the area.

I posted my Yelp review awhile back, and the manager wrote back to thank me and say that they would have been happy to replace anything that wasn't satisfactory.  Of course they would have.  Almost every place will do that.  But I don't have time for that, nor do most people.  A restaurant has one chance to make a first impression, and the best ones operate that way.

My Yelp Review

Jade Garden

We had a family dinner at this restaurant the other night.  It's pretty standard American Chinese food, but well-executed for the most part.  The beef and chicken dishes were tender and had flavor as expected.  Service was well above average, the waitress was very attentive and refilled our drinks several times.

The high point for me was shrimp toast.  Done well this is an excellent starter and takes advantage of the region's fresh shrimp.  This wasn't the best I have had but it was close enough.  The other appetizers were just OK.  The spring rolls were somewhat greasy.  They have something called a curly wonton, which is actually not curly at all--it's quite flat.  It's filled with some kind of ground beef that got a mixed reception.  The crabmeat rangoons were just as expected.  The tofu was kind of disappointing, rather chewy with an unpleasant texture.

If you are looking for a Chinese fix, you could do way worse than this.  The interior is pretty standard and inoffensive, but has decoration to rest the eyes on.  The bathroom was clean and ready to go on my visit.  I gave it a 3.6 and rounded up.

My Yelp Review