The Unvegan » Burgers

Winter Grilling at Coppertop

The Unvegan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:00:15 +0000

Just like out back.

In dire need of lunch at the base of Breckenridge, I skied on over to Coppertop Bar & Grill to meet up with the fiance while she was on a little break from ski school. Realistically, very little is expected of ski mountain food. The restaurants have a captive audience, jack up the prices and provide more warming and high energy foods than truly good food. So when I moseyed on over to the food area at Coppertop, my expectations were quite low. But wait…did I just see a dude walk by with curly fries covered in cheese sauce? Scratch that, my expectations hit the roof.

So the first thing I did after choosing to go with a burger was ensure that they could hook me up with those same cheese-doused fries and they certainly could. They didn’t disappoint and even told me they could throw chili on top. I didn’t want to overdo it, though, so instead I doubled up on cheese by ordering a bacon cheeseburger, with pepper jack cheese. I was impressed that they were actually grilling up each burger as they were ordered and didn’t have a whole set pre-made. Plus, they were actually grilling them…with real fire, which was also pretty sweet.

Cheesey meets curly.

Soon enough, all was ready and I got busy with my foodstuffs. I found the curly cheese fries to be everything I had hoped for. The beauty of topping curly fries with cheese is that they are especially resistant to sogginess, and in fact the cheese began to get a bit gnarly and cold before the fries buckled.

As for the burger, it tasted exactly like I would expect a summertime grill burger to taste. You know, the kind you eat on Labor Day over at your buddy’s place while knocking back a Silver Bullet. In that context, it was a good burger and probably better than usual considering the 0 degree weather outside.

On the other hand, this burger and cheese fries cost me something like 20 bucks, which is about double what I would pay for such food in a normal marketplace. But alas, Coppertop had a captive audience and while their prices were wildly inflated, I certainly can’t complain about the taste of what I ate.

Hinano Cafe: The Diviest Cafe of Them All

The Unvegan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:00:19 +0000

Which came first?

Ever walk into a “pizza parlor” that actually functions as more of a full-on Italian restaurant? Or how about a “Japanese place” that only serves sushi? We are constantly being misled into restaurants that either offer a lot more than expected or a lot less. And then there is Hinano Cafe in Venice, which only a crackhead would consider to be a cafe. You see, Hinano is pretty much the definition of a dive bar. Sawdust coats the floor, there are maybe five real tables and the two guys behind the bar take turns dishing out beer or flipping burgers on the lone griddle in the middle of the bar.

The most unique cafe ever.

We arrived about five minutes before the end of happy hour and walked up to the bar to order. Since the bar was called Hinano, it only seemed right to order Hinano Beer, which comes from Tahiti. I’m not sure whether the bar is named for the beer, vice-versa or if it is just a happy coincidence, but perhaps it is best to leave such questions in the realm of the chicken or the egg. As my buddy and I tried to order our beers, we were quickly met with a bad attitude as the bartender yelled, “Just tell me what kind of beers you want.” We were under the impression that we had been telling him what beers we wanted, but apparently this wasn’t the case. We repeated our orders and when he came back it was time to order food.

Food at Hinano, by the way, consists of anything that can be easily made on a griddle. And I mean easy, as they don’t even dive into the realm of teriyaki chicken. But I was here for one thing only – a burger. Hinano kind of has a reputation for their burgers, which are not only cheap, but supposedly damn good. Their cheeseburgers run the same price as regular hamburgers and anything can have bacon, hot links or chili added for an additional charge. They can also be stacked into a double for the same price as adding bacon. They usually come with smorgasbord of toppings like tomatoes, lettuce, pickles and onions, but I wanted none of these. I ordered myself a double cheeseburger with bacon, plain. In no time, my burger and a bag of chips were brought out to me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they don’t have a deep fryer, so Hinano is a no-French fry zone. Instead, every burger comes with Fritos, Doritos or Lay’s. And you don’t seem to get a choice of chips, as my friend requested Lay’s and wound up with a bag of Fritos.

It looks like my burger just vomited a pile of veggies.

But back to my burger.

It was sitting on a paper tray basking in its own beauty, which I suddenly realized a pickle was getting way frisky with my bun. By the time I arrived on the scene, he bun had been impregnated with the juices of the pickle and a huge chunk could not be salvaged. Damn you, pickle!

With partial bun removal behind me, I went to work on the burger, which was quite good. It was plenty juicy, what remained of the bun held its own and the American cheese had been melted to perfection. The bacon was at a fast food thickness and probably not worth the upgrade price, but still a nice addition. Sometimes nothing can quite beat a simple bacon cheeseburger prepared on a griddle in the middle of a dive bar. Yet, while I enjoyed the burger, I couldn’t help but think that similar burgers exist in diners across the country. I know I’ve had my fair share of burgers like this one, but it’s probably the setting and the price that makes people fall in love with their burgers and brings them back for more, moreso than the burgers themselves.

For my part, I thought that while the dive atmosphere was great, I’ve had better, less pretentious service at places like Father’s Office, which thrives on an air of superiority (although the Hinano burger definitely tastes better). If you need a change of pace, by all means, Hinano is going to give you that, but as you eat your burger you might want to ask yourself whether you like the burger or just like the idea of eating a simple burger in a dive setting. If this were truly a cafe, I just don’t think the burger would taste so good.

Old Western Eating in Temecula

The Unvegan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:00:08 +0000

Like all those Old West burger places you hear about.

Temecula is a strange part of California. Somewhere between LA, San Diego and Palm Springs, it’s essentially the middle of nowhere. Except it’s not. It’s wine country, it’s gated communities and it is the Old West. Nowhere is the latter felt more than Old Town Temecula, which is a blend of truly old buildings and new buildings made to look like cowboys once had shootouts inside. Front Street Bar & Grill sits in Old Town, but doesn’t try to look like a cowboy outpost. Instead, it has the looks of colonial mansion, with a great outdoor patio.

Despite the 70 degree weather, the heat lamps were on in force and while this has just about nothing to do with the meal, I felt it was worth noting.

The onion rings are trying to escape!

Annnnnyyyyway, we were seated immediately and as I took a look at the menu, I instantly knew what I wanted. It was actually pretty easy, as Front Street had a pretty good burger selection. One of these was the Old Town Burger, topped with cheddar, onion rings and homemade BBQ sauce. It came with fries also, and just to be safe I asked the waitress if there were any other vegetables hiding between the lines. She told me it also came with lettuce, tomato and onion and I asked her not to let them go to waste.

I no longer want onion rings.

When it came, I was happy to find a plate devoid of vegetables and loaded up with fries. As has been my recent policy, I haven’t been considering onion rings vegetables until they’ve been tasted. If they retain a strong onion texture, they are banished, but otherwise they are cool with me. These particular onion rings were scattered atop the burger in a way not entirely conducive to eating, but I squeezed them in, threw the bun on top and got to work. What I found was exactly as I expected. All ingredients were good and basic. The patty looked and tasted preformed and the cheese was average yellow cheddar. I liked the BBQ sauce and definitely appreciated the homemade aspect of it, but ultimately it wasn’t a far cry from KC Masterpiece. This is neither a bad or a good thing, but it is a thing. The onions in the onion rings were still way too crunchy, which was the only actual disappointing aspect of the burger. The sesame seed bun did its job, but little more. While I ordered the burger cooked medium rare, it leaned a bit more towards the medium end, which was alright because the burger was still juicy, but could’ve been improved a bit.

And, of course, the fries were great. It’s hard to mess up fries, and Front Street did not.

Upon finishing, I felt as though I had just eaten a classier version of Carl’s Jr. It was definitely an improvement on Carl’s and was satisfying, but I’m going to have to eat at a few more places in Old Town Temecula before I send my loyal readers down to Front Street.

Going to Hell with Lucky Devils

The Unvegan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The devil is in arugula.

Deep in the heart of the Hollywood Strip is a burger that rivals Umami Burger. Or so a coworker told me once upon a time. That once upon a time may have been over a year ago, but I never forgot, so when I had the chance to meet some buddies for dinner in Hollywood, Lucky Devils crept into my mind (and it didn’t hurt that it has been sitting on my to-eat list). What we found was a neat space with a great and enthusiastic server who was happy to tell us of their current specials, some awesome beers on tap and help us out with anything on the menu. Even though I had sworn not to drink, his description of their special black IPA on tap almost had my mouth watering enough to break the promise I made to myself.

But while a neat space and great staff is good and well, none of that matters If the food flops. Of their interesting burger options, the one that looked best to me was the Diablo Burger. Plus, it was keeping with the hellish theme of the place, and who was I to fight Hell? This burger was topped with white cheddar, double-smoked bacon, avocado, wild arugula, house 1,000 island and devil hot sauce. I ordered it without the wild arugula (What makes it wild? Do they literally find it in a field somewhere?) and made sure the get the hot sauce at their 2x level because my buddy had already tried the 1x and found it to be lacking in heat. I also upgraded the burger from Black Angus to their 100% grass-fed Tallgrass Beef for an extra $1.50. It’s a small price to pay for grass-fed beef, which is always superior.

You are cooked well, my meat.

When my burger arrived, I looked upon it in disappointment. Sprouting from inside the bun, I could see arugula gone wild. This was a damn shame and immediately destroyed my first impression of their food. I had to de-bun the burger, remove the leaves and put it back together before I could even taste the burger. When I finally did get to eat, the first thing I noticed about the burger was the overwhelming amount of 1,000 island. This sauce dominated the burger, and not in a good way. The devil sauce, which offered some great heat when I could eat it away from the 1,000 island, was severely tempered whenever it hit the dressing.

The other elements of the burger, including the meat itself, were awesome. I could only taste a single smoke in the bacon, but it was delicious, and I loved the inclusion of white cheddar, which is always a sure way to get to my heart. The bun did a great job of keeping the burger together and had some great give to it when I squeezed it for every bite. The Tallgrass beef was a bit more lean than your usual burger, so it didn’t ooze out much juiciness, but it was definitely not dry and cooked to a nice medium/medium rare.

What an appropriate name you have.

Oh, and did I mention that I ordered fries? No? Well, I did and they were damn good. They were listed on the menu as Crispy Fries and certainly lived up to their name. But while, crispy, they weren’t overdone and still had a nice potato-ey taste and some softness in their core. They were nice and evenly salted and really made a great companion to the burger.

Ultimately, what could have been an amazing burger and fries was undone by a couple of big flaws. Arugula (wild or tame) is simply unacceptable on an unvegan burger. And just go easy on the 1,000 island. There’s no need to flood a burger with that stuff, and in fact I think it would have been better off without it completely. It can go hang out with the arugula in a salad somewhere instead of chilling on my burger.

Jimmy’s Super Lunch to the Rescue

The Unvegan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:00:47 +0000

Super, thanks for asking!

More than once, my work has taken me into the bowels of Glendale, past a little hole-in-the-wall called Jimmy’s Super Lunch. On the outside, it appears to be your average burger shack, but a quick look at the menu and at those working inside tells a different story. Jimmy’s appears to be a part of the trend of old burger places that are now run by Asians (family or otherwise) that now double as teriyaki chicken shacks. I encountered this with Irv’s, Twin Castle and Crown Burger and I’m now suspecting this is more of the norm than some sort of trend.

What differentiates this from all those other wall holes and from pretty much any burger place in the world is that it doesn’t have fries. You read that right: no fries!

They try to make up for the lack with chips, but I have no need to mess around with such things. Instead, I made up for it in my own way, by ordering the Double Bacon Cheeseburger ($4.60). I figured that ought to fill in for the lack of anything deep fried. Burgers at Jimmy’s come with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, pickles, mustard and ketchup, but the unvegan version is ketchup-only.

Fast and flat food.

Within minutes, my double was ready and I was certainly glad I got the double, because it wasn’t exactly a sizeable burger. The patties were damn thin and obviously not hand-made, but still tasty. Each had its own piece of melted American cheese and a healthy dose of bacon. The bacon was nice and crisp, a good choice as per usual. Finally, the bun was an average poppy seed-laden burger holder, but had been tossed on the griddle for a nice bit of crisp. It was a nice touch, but not enough to make Jimmy’s anything more than what it was. Sure, it was a step up from fast food burger and it felt good to support such a hole-in-the-wall, but Jimmy’s is simply a good burger and not much else.

The Thrill of Far Bar

The Unvegan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:00:23 +0000

These drinks could kill me softly.

A month or so ago, Thrillist Rewards made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. For $29, it included one half-pound burger, unlimited wasabi fries, unlimited wings and two flights of delicious beers at a place called Far Bar in Little Tokyo. A few of us capitalized on this deal and finally made our way there to indulge. But finding it wasn’t exactly easy, as it required a walk through a strange alley. In fact, I walked into the restaurant next door by accident, but a guy there walked me over to the actual bar. Upon arrival, my friends who had gotten there first thrust a basket of fries and wings in my face and I knew I was home.

Look for an alley like this, it's easy!

One thing that Thrillist did not mention in their reward was that the bar would feature a free drunk guy. And this guy was plastered beyond belief. It entertained for a while, but ultimately the bar kicked him out. This left us as the next closest thing to loud people in the bar, and most of our loudness was asking for more beer, wings or fries.

I’ll start with the fries, which were a nice component of the meal, but ultimately just filler to keep my stomach from eating more wings. They were topped with garlic and a sort of creamy wasabi sauce to give them a bit of an Asian kick. Fortunately, the wasabi was only lightly drizzled on the fries and each basket came with an extra dish of the sauce so they wouldn’t get soggy.

Sichuan, Japan, it's all the same.

The wings, though, were pretty awesome. These were neither your average buffalo wings nor your average Asian-style wings. Despite being in Little Tokyo, they actually had a flavor and texture reminiscent Sichuan fried chicken. They were cooked with hot red peppers and weren’t topped with any sort of sauce. While I love me some buffalo sauce, these wings did a great job of capturing the essence of wings, and included an Asian touch that can seldom be found in your typical wing joints.

Don't worry, it's not rude to stick your bacon out at me.

But let’s not forget about the burger. While everything else was unlimited, but devoid of options, there were a good handful of burgers to choose from. Ultimately, I went with the B.L.A.T Burger. This half pounder was topped with bacon, avocado and ponzu onion marmalade. I was weary of the onions in this marmalade, but figure I would give it a shot and scrape out the bastards if they were ruining my burger. I ordered medium rare, then ate some more wings and drank some more beer as I waited. Upon arrival, my burger was a pretty little thing. There was a thimble-sized bowl of pickled vegetables sharing the plate with my burger, but thankfully none of the juices escaped the thimble. I opened the burger in search of onions and, finding none, went to town.

What I found was perfectly crisp bacon mixed in with perfectly ripened avocado. The ponzu onion marmalade had little-to-no onion remnants or taste and was a very welcome addition to the burger, offering a little tartness and sweetness to an otherwise way savory burger. Oh and the meat was pretty damn good. It was cooked perfectly with a sort of medium grind to let me know it wasn’t just some pre-made patty. And the bun was everything I could have hoped for. It acted as little more than a conduit for the burger, but was both sturdy and pillowy all at once.

Oh, I should also mention the mind-melting cheesecake-filled eggroll dessert. Not to be missed.

Meanwhile, the beers I tried were delicious. I would write about them all here, but that would be both boring and painful. The most important thing to remember about them is that they have a ton of locals on tap, including just about every beer Stone makes. Plus, although they weren’t available for my flights, they have a ton of Japanese beers that I would love to pour down my gullet on my next visit. Oh yeah, I do think there will be a next visit, because they have a happy hour during which they sell their burgers for only 5 bucks a pop. That alone is worth heading to Far Bar for. This little gem in a back alley in Little Tokyo definitely has a new fan.

A Late Lunch at Roadhouse

The Unvegan — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:00:14 +0000

Just like Patrick Swayze.

Little-known fact: restaurants in Rarotonga generally close their lunch doors after 2:00 pm. This fact would have been great to know before the girlfriend and I rode our motor scooter around half of the island in search of a late lunch. Just when we had given up hope, I recalled a place called Roadhouse that we had passed many a time on our way from our hotel to Avarua. If they were closed, we were just going to have to snack ourselves away until dinner time. Fortunately, Roadhouse was open (from 11 am to 2 am every day) and sadly devoid of Patrick Swayze (RIP).

The chalkboard outside the place advertizes burgers for 5 bucks and fish and chips. And when we got inside and talked to the bartender, we found out that was the extent of the menu. You see, Roadhouse is pretty much a bar, and their food offerings are the type that someone would love after a few beers.

They did, however, offer two types of burgers – egg and cheese. Usually I love egg on my burger, but after destroying a load of eggs for breakfast, I needed a little break from chicken babies. I ordered the cheeseburger straight up, with a side of chips (fries), then took it to go to chow down on back at the hotel.

I call this the salad burger.

When I opened up my greasy bag, I found pretty much an entire salad on my burger. The bartender had told me everything that came on it, so I expected it to a certain extent, but didn’t realize my burger would be buried in veggies. Nonetheless, I had ordered the veggies for my starving girlfriend to eat.

Once the burger was cleared, I went to work on eating. The bun was a bit large-looking after clearing out the veggies, but the bread was awesome. I guess Rarotongan bread is pretty much amazing. The burger inside was decently tasty and actually a bit better than the one from Palace Takeaways, but definitely would have been more tasty after a couple of beers. Of course, as the only food available at that time of day, I couldn’t complain.

They look good in the bag, until you let them out.

The only thing I could complain about were the chips. These guys were undercooked, undersalted and kind of soggy. Even a few beers wouldn’t have made these taste good. Perhaps the cook was just shocked by the crazy people that wanted to eat at 2:30 and the shock made him lose his deep-frying memory, but I would definitely order these chips extra crispy next time to ensure a better side.

For a bar, I don’t expect much from Roadhouse as far as food, but when you only make two things I would have hoped for a little better. Sure, the burger was alright, and I was asking a lot for food in the middle of the afternoon, but I couldn’t be entirely happy with a burger whose best feature is the bun.

Local Fast Food at Palace Takeaways

The Unvegan — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:00:29 +0000

Rush hour.

One amazing thing about Rarotonga in the Cook Islands is the lack of chains. No Starbucks. No Subway. No McDonald’s. It’s enough to make a coffee-loving, fast food-devouring American feel dizzy. Fortunately, I don’t care for coffee and this also doesn’t mean Rarotonga doesn’t have fast food. Yes, even this slow-paced island that runs on even slower-paced “island time” is not without its fast food, but this fast food is local.

Our awesome bartender/sample-giver from the Cooks Lager Brewery, Wendy, recommended Palace Takeaways. Situated on the outskirts of Avarua, this little shack served burgers, fish and chips and not much else. Wendy told us they were the best burgers in town, so I had to find out for myself.

The burger options hovered between the 5-10 New Zealand Dollar range, which isn’t exactly cheap, but I suppose it isn’t too expensive either considering all the meat was imported from New Zealand. After a few moments of consideration, I ordered a cheeseburger with bacon and egg on top. Tiring of eating around vegetables, I finally gave in to my basest unvegan instincts and ordered without cole slaw, which came on all their burgers for some reason. Yes, I know it goes against my travel principles to order this was, but cole slaw is a bitch. I ordered a side of chips to join my burger and for those of you who don’t speak British, chips is just fancy word for fries.

We're going bacon streaking!

Despite being called Palace Takeaways, there were some picnic tables around the shack with a view of Avatiu Harbor and we snagged one to eat at. The burger looked pretty snazzy for a fast food burger, with a great-looking bun and a whole heap of bacon. Unfortunately, the Maoris of Rarotonga seem to like their bacon streaky and this just isn’t my thing, so I spent a good portion of my eating time separating out the bacon that seemed edible to me. Sorry, I just like my bacon crisp. The egg was tasty, as always, but unlike the bacon was not runny at all. The white cheddar cheese was a great touch and then there was the heart and soul of the burger – the beef. While this beef was of a pretty good quality, it was a surprisingly small patty and I was surprised to find it a bit dry, especially considering that they had no qualms with greasy, fatty food. Nonetheless, it was a burger I could certainly get used to.

Finally, the chips were pretty awesome. Nicely fried without being well-done and well-salted. They made a great companion to the burger and offered a nice, salty alternative to the streaky bacon.

With time and a few more visits, I’m sure I could shape Palace Takeaways into a delicious burger joint to match my tastes. The locals sure love it and after one visit I can definitely see why.

Staying Savory at the Sugar Factory

The Unvegan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:00:42 +0000

Shine on you crazy burger.

Out in Vegas for a buddy’s 30th (yes, he is that old), we had a bit of a group birthday to celebrate. Ordinarily, this might be cause for someone to expect to drop much more money than they want to. But he chose a place called the Sugar Factory in the Paris and a quick look at the menu revealed something quite reasonable, especially by Vegas standards.

Connected to a candy shop, both sweets and their bar serve as a good waiting area before getting seated. In fact, you can combine the two, as the Sugar Factory has a bunch of sharkbowl-esque drinks, with one even filled with shark gummies. But enough about the sweets and the awesome race we had on each side of the table to see who could finish their massive goblet first. That matters little to an unvegan.

She bit it like a lollipop.

As I perused the menu, I immediately found myself staring at the Pizza Burger ($16). This thing contained mozzarella, provolone, pepperoni and a marinara sauce. It also came with fries. So not only was it perfect for an unvegan, but it was also the first time I had ever seen pizza ingredients offered on a burger like this. I hoped that it would be half as mind-blowing as the pizza nachos I discovered in Michigan last summer. But I wasn’t content with just that and teed up my burger with an order of their Fried Macaroni & Cheese Pops. This mac and cheese was battered, rolled into a ball, deep fried and plopped in some creamy tomato-herb sauce.

Now children, this is what the inside of a mac and cheese looks like.

They came served like an upside-down lollipop with a stick through and already chilling in the sauce. They looked delicious, but made me realize this was one of the only dishes on the regular savory menu that paid some sort of homage to the name of the restaurant. No, they weren’t sugary, but they were kind of like lollipops. It was a little disappointing, as it would have been awesome to see what kind of culinary creations they could have come up with to mix sweet with savory. Like a burger with a sweet sauce or pizza with chocolate chips tossed on for good measure (yes, they have dessert pizza, but I’m thinking outside the box here). But I digress, the mac and cheese pops were quite delicious and the sauce they were in did a great job of keeping them from drying out and giving the mouth more than one simple flavor.

Hefty and pizza-y.

As for the burger, it was surprisingly huge and must have weighed in at at least half a pound. With the toppings it was probably more. I had realized too late that the waitress didn’t ask me how I wanted it cooked, so when I dug in, I crossed my fingers in the hopes that it had been cooked medium rare. Unfortunately, it was on the darker end of medium. Yet, I would not let this get to me, I still had pizza on top of a burger. I loved the use of two cheeses and was quite happy with the marinara. After all, going from ketchup to marinara isn’t exactly a big jump. At this point, it was pretty much a cheeseburger with a tweak, but the pepperoni was an awesome touch. And these weren’t your boring evenly sliced pepperonis, they were thick, uneven and seemed like they had been chopped from a pepperoni log in the kitchen rather than some factory. Oh and there was the bun, which was a bit too spongy, but may have been a good juice absorber had the burger been cooked a bit less. I don’t know though, so I can’t exactly give it a grade based on potential.

Finally, the fries were pretty good, but really nothing amazing. Again, it would have been sweet (pun intended) to see them do something sugary with the fries. They are really sitting on some golden opportunities here.

So as Vegas goes, the Sugar Factory is really a great choice. It’s reasonable, somewhat creative and has pretty good food. The burger wasn’t amazing, but I definitely enjoyed it. And maybe if it had spent a little less time cooking, it could have found its way near the top of my burger list. If only.

Sonic Good is Just Pretty Good

The Unvegan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:33 +0000

So this is what all those commercials were about...

About 10 or so years ago, the world began to see commercials for a fast food burger place called Sonic. These commercials were often both funny and hunger-inducing. Unfortunately, though, Sonics were only in select locations throughout the country. Yes it was annoying, but it was also genius, because it whet the appetite for Sonic with people who had never even seen the place. The idea was that when they would finally see one, whether in travel or with a new one being built, they would want nothing more than to devour their burgers. And it worked, at least on me. When I saw my first Sonic years ago while driving through Independence, Missouri, I just had to try it. I remember it being good, but this was pre-meat blog and in the middle of a cross-country road trip, so the memory is mostly blur filled with the knowledge that the meal kept my internal fuel running just as long as I needed it to.

But just this weekend, on the way to Las Vegas, I came across another Sonic and decided it needed a proper tasting. The town was Victorville, California, and the Sonic was just off the highway amidst some other tasty-looking fast food-esque restaurants. One thing unique about Sonic is their old-fashioned drive-in spots. Notice, I didn’t say drive-thru because while they have that, they also have the spots where you order from your car and a server brings out the food on roller skates. We opted for the drive-in, which I hadn’t experienced since I was a wee child at an A & W in Michigan.

Sonic Boom!

As for the food, the girlfriend told me their Cherry Lime Slush was unbeatable, so I started with one of those to split, then moved on to the big gun: The Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger. Although served with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles, when I asked for it plain, it seemed fit for an unvegan. Then, to make the meal even more frightening, I ordered Chili Cheese Tots simply because I had never seen such substances offered on tots.

Sonic me some tots!

Soon enough, the food was roller skated out to greet us. I was a little disappointed with the lack of a window tray (like a regular fast food tray with things to stick it to the window like a table). I remember A & W had those, but perhaps they now only exist in memory. I opened up the burger to find it had been prepared perfectly, then I began to take it down. What I found was a pretty good bacon cheeseburger. And that’s kind of where it ends. In Sonic’s commercials, they would say, “It’s not just good, it’s Sonic good” but in my case it was just simply good. Ultimately it tasted like a fast food burger that was better than your typical fast food, but not good enough to reach the level of Five Guys Burgers and Fries or In-N-Out Burger. The tots were similarly good and while they earned Sonic points for creativity, they didn’t change the game.

Also, there was the Cherry Lime Slush. I do love me a slush and was happy to see that Sonic had them. The slush did deliver migraine-level brain freezes to each of us, but I still definitely appreciated the addition of these frozen beverages on the menu.

So for the gimmick of old-fashioned drive-in food, Sonic delivers some good food. Unfortunately it just isn’t quite good enough to merit multiple return visits based on the food alone.