Macaroni Burger??

We invited a couple to go out to dinner with us a while ago and they requested that I take them to a burger joint. I was honored that they regarded my opinion enough to think that my burger snobbery would lead them to a great experience. Also, I was honored that they actually read my blog especially after I offended them with my very controversial stance on pickles. Yes, I have friends who love pickles in their food and chances are that someone you know and love are pickle lovers as well. Tolerance.

I had three burger places in mind that have continually been brought up by friends of ours. I knew very little about them except that they were all bars that supposedly made great burgers. I offered all three options to Ryan and Emilee and immediately had all three choices shut down by said friends. Emilee claimed she was what doctors call 'pregnant' and didn't want to be around second hand smoke bla bla bla. Like cigarettes ever killed anyone. We then resorted to perusing yelp.com for well rated restaurants and decided on Rich's Burgers and Grub which is a little place in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City and one of the few burger places I had never heard of. 

If this place is anything it is creative. They make a macaroni and cheese burger. . . Need I say more? Creativity is great and all but it is also dangerous as hell. Creativity can go from a delicious garlic burgers to a vile Hawaiian pineapple burgers before you can say "no pickles". Both are creative, however, one is a delight the other an atrocity. Needless to say I was timid around all this creativity. We all ordered something different; Emilee got the artichoke heart burger, Ryan the bleu cheese, Whitney the macaroni and cheese, and me the simple bacon cheeseburger. 

As you can tell Rich's Burgers and Grub has a vast and diverse menu. My friends are great and offered me a bite from each of their burgers which was more than I would have asked for. Each burger was different and each was delicious. All that creativity was done wisely and paid off. If I had to rank them from most delicious to least I would rank them from the creamy and smooth macaroni and cheese burger to the simple but great bacon cheeseburger to the powerful bleu cheese burger to the tangy artichoke heart burger. But again, all of them were very good. AND all of them are served with the pickles on the side, now that's just plain courteous. Their fries looked amazing and sounded good on paper, what with all the spices and Parmesan cheese, but in the end they were just ok. Sometimes less is more, and I think in this case it is true with their fries. Their fried green beans were very good, however.

 All in all, for just finding this place without ever having it suggested it was a very good experience. They are a bit pricey, but I have learned from doing this blog that you usually get what you pay for. Usually. Highly recommend Rich's to anyone and I hope to go back soon to try some of their other menu options.

Salt City Burger

Exactly what Salt Lake needs, a burger company to put us on the map. I believe that is the goal at Salt City Burger Co.This place is a bit different than other burger places. Every burger comes to you with absolutely no condiments at all. Instead there is an enormous salad bar filled with onions, mayo, ketchup, tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, etc. . . The idea, I imagine, is that you get the condiments you want and no extra , let's say just for example purposes. . . pickles! That may or may not ruin your burger. The idea of this sounded really good to me. Get the burger you want and if it sucks the restaurant is only half to blame if at all right? Genius. I see a flaw in the system however. Humans have this problem that when they see free topping anywhere they just get a little of everything because hey, it's free and you want to get your money's worth. Like a supreme pizza, they're fine but it really just ends up being a green pepper pizza in the end. . . Am I right? All the toppings does not mean a better pizza or burger for that matter. My wife and I seemed to be some of the few humans who have learned this. The other flaw with this condiment bar idea is the tomatoes. I love tomatoes on my burgers, but . . . I mean, I am aware that not everyone is blessed with a tomato garden in their backyard like I am, least of all burger restaurants. We all know that there is a VAST difference between store-bought tomatoes and freshly grown tomatoes and I even accept that if I go out to eat anywhere I will have to settle for the far inferior store-bought tomatoes. I get it, it's just the way it is. But if you are going to put them on display in a giant tub can you at least buy them when they are red and not when they are pinkish orange? What a disappointment to walk up to their tub of pre-sliced tomatoes and mistake them for sliced orange wheels. I like it better when they just hide it under my bun so I didn't have to begrudgingly put in on my burger. And the tomatoes were kind of crunchy, not good. Anyway back to condiments in general. What did I get on my burger you ask? A dab (a small dab) of ketchup a dab (a bigger dab) of mustard, mayo, onions, 2 orange crunchy tomato slices (two because they were about the size of a silver dollar), lettuce, and pepper. That is my usual list on my typical burger minus the orange and crunchy parts.
Remember when I described the tomatoes as 'not good'. Not good is a good way to describe my entire experience there. To me this is a place that is seemingly doing everything right, yet they still fail somehow. The environment was cool and the service was good though a bit on the slow side but the food was just 'meh. I ordered the Smokehouse Bacon Bleu Burger. Now, this particular burger was special and different from their normal bacon burger because the bacon was infused into the burger itself. That ALWAYS gets me, I'm such a sucker. I can't help it, it just sounds so good! But it was not. How can a bacon infused burger end up dry and bland? How? I don't know but it was. The best part was their bleu cheese, that was about all the flavor I got the entire meal. The buns look homemade and they were amazing. The onion rings were fine and the fries were fine too, nothing wrong with them but nothing to brag about either. So there you go, one of my least favorite experiences yet. I would be willing to give them a second chance but we are not speaking to each other until I can get over it. Disappointed at the end of the meal, we ordered a homemade cookie with ice cream on top just so we wouldn't end on a bad note. Aaaaaaaaand it was worse than the burger. only the outer edges were done. Maybe I caught them on a bad day, I don't know. Some of you should go try them for me and see if your experience is any better than mine. Let me know if they deserve a shot at redemption.