Gonzoburger — Restaurant in Charleston

First of all, I really truly wanted to like this restaurant. It's in one of my favorite vintage buildings in Charleston WV Elk City aka Westside District. I grew up coming here over the years when it was Chris' Hot Dogs. I was so happy when I opened the door to see the original dark high back wooden booths, the art deco tiled floor and the extremely high seeceilings with the tin panel tiled ceiling. I give it a star based on the interior alone, not to mention the Hand Carved Wooden Bar from the original Confectioners Store that was here in Early 1900s before Chris'

There is NO designated parking area so it's street meter parking or metered parking lots. Like in Nashville, great walkable restaurant but NO place to truly park freely without feeding the meters. The inside walls are littered with (pop culture artwork) nice but busy!!! One can definitely tell that the owner has eaten at some great eateries somewhere & tried to bring it here. The flare inside screams Nashville, New York, Cleveland... somewhere other than Charleston. It's definitely trying to draw in and cater to an upper scale of diners...and the prices per Burger reflects that. We were greeted immediately and sat at a drafty table...there was plenty of empty booths but she choose this spot. Everytime the door opened to the 24 degree weather outside, I felt it (very uncomfortable) She laid a sheet of heavy duty white paper on the tabletop similar to the kind impatient children draw on and took our drink order. Tony went with Budweiser and I my usual Soda ( pepsi, coke whatever) We read the menu front and back to make our selection. Tony chose the NYC which was described as a thick juicy hand pressed made to order burger with pastrami, onions, swiss cheese and Dijon mustard on marble rye served with a generous side portion of seasoned fries $12, and I went with the El Fuego which was described as another juicy thick burger with jalapenos, a sweet chili style sauce, cheese and green roasted Chiles and again generous portion of seasoned fries $12 We could hardly wait!!! Mouths watering!!! It was close to 2pm and we had skipped breakfast, so we were hungry and anxious to try something new!!! Meanwhile I go to the restroom and it is large and clean (very important during Covid-19 issues and every day REALLY) When I returned to the table, Tony was ready for a second beer and our food came about 7 minutes later. She delivered them on metal platters. I asked her to set in the middle of table, so I could photograph and split between us. Here's where it truly goes south! Both burgers were COLD and extremely DRY!!! No juicy burger!! No hot burger!!! The patty on both were like Hockey pucks. Yes they were thick but that's it!!! The fries were generous, and tasted well but the grease used was old. After I left restaurant, I kept belching up the grease from the fries. Since my gastric by pass, this only happens when I am exposed to and consume old grease!! We split the burgers like we normally do, so that way we can try more than one...my choice of the El Fuego had a good sweet sauce on it but Not Enough to really taste it. I told the waitress that I was NOT PLEASED with cold burger and cold bun. She offered to have them refire the burger BUT that was not a suitable option so I declined that. The second sandwich, NYC Burger was Tony's choice...the marble rye was overly buttered, the burger was also cold giving it a very dry texture. The pastrami on top was hard like a jerky NOT juicy or even acceptable. I had to pull it off my burger. Again a dry sandwich but what Dijon I could taste it was good. My total with tip and taxes was $40. I had truly a better burger at Hardee's last week...and I don't eat fast food. Will I go back.??..nah' that's not going to happen! I read the other reviews and I was so disappointed that I didn't have even close to a similar experience there. The owner/manager guy pacing back near the bar NEVER NOT once came over to our table. The waitress never offered a discount. So, am I happy about spending the $40 on dry burgers and...

I don't like telling people about bad experiences, because places can make innocent mistakes, but this is something worth sharing. My sister and I ordered 2 blue shroom burgers, sweet potato fries, and an order of pickles. The service was friendly at first welcoming us inside, but as we sat down to order a drink at the bar, the bar staff decided to go on break. The only worker left completely ignored us, and decided his phone was more important. And when we were finally able to order (we had time to literally write down what we wanted) he didn't want us to tell him the order he wanted to read it from our paper. So we just accepted it and decided it was ok, and got our food to go. My burger was barely done, and missing mushrooms (seriously, not one mushroom.) We were given regular fries instead of the sweet potatoes fries we ordered, and to top it off the order of fried pickles only gets you four. Good to know since that's not stated in the online menu, and they were priced at six dollars. The food was ok in taste, but a 30 dollar order for just this? Not worth it. I was expecting more. Now that the bad stuff is out the way, there were a few small good points for the place. It was very clean, had a nice atmosphere, and the employees who weren't playing on their phones were hard at work. I hope that next time I come here you can give an experience like you did at the grand opening. Sincerely...

Our second visit and as a group we've had 6 burgers. None of them have come to the table looking anything like the pictures and video that I've seen here or on Facebook. The flavors are good but not $11 + burger. In fact, the 3 burgers we had tonight were desperately lacking in size. They were in pieces on the bread/bun. It almost looked like it was by design to try and cover the bread. Also, stick with the onion rings....the fries are poor and again not proportioned. One plate may be plenty and another scarce. Some were over cooked, some we're under cooked.....we even got a few crinkle cut fries in with the plain fries. The long waits don't bother me and the service is friendly. Krista is great (been our waitress both visits) but I'm under the impression that she is also a manager. She's spread way too thin. Let her manage and let her deligate her time to police up the details and enforce some quality control. Front staff, good job. Kitchen staff, quit hanging the waiting staff out to dry with substandard food. Someone brought my daughter's Caesar salad with a bowl of greens with cheese on it. Fortunately, Krista came behind them a couple minutes later with a much more reasonable example with croutons. Thanks again Krista. The bar staff is great too, super nice on my first visit and "in the know" on their beers. Fix the food, the rest is great. The name is GONZOBURGER. We're not there to...