Burger Schmurger — Restaurant in Dallas

I think this place seems to be doing well because it’s new. The area is craving good restaurants and sadly this place does nothing well.

The Schmurger (their main burger) is a smash burger style and it’s ok but it lacks juice and flavor. There’s not much to say about it honestly. I asked for extra pickles on this one and they just threw them into a ramekin on the side. Who does that? For one it’s more expensive for the restaurant as they use more pickles and two if you pay over $10 for a burger it better be dressed perfectly.

I also ordered a Pasadena which is the only burger that comes traditional with lettuce, tomato, etc and it came off bun. All the burgers are wrapped up and it still was melted off balance to the inside of the wrapper which means it had to of sat on the hot pass for a while. I had to manually peel the melted and stuck burger off the wrapper to put it on the bun again. This is blatant disrespect to cheeseburger chefs everywhere. Also they use spinach instead of lettuce which has zero crunch and it was lacking flavor overall.

The fries were incredibly salty and trust me…I love salt. They say they use beef tallow but I suspect it’s a fully refined beef tallow that’s deodorized and bleached as there was no flavor that came through. They were also very dark but not overcooked so I think the oil had not been replaced.

Service was decent and the staff seemed to care.

The layout and atmosphere felt neat at first but once you settle in you realize it’s not conducive to a good experience. For one, it’s too open which leads to excessive noise. Two, they saved money on the bar carried over from Bar None by leaving the plumbing and the bar itself in the same place so the restaurant has zero focal point. The bar is stuffed to the side when you walk in and the focal point of the restaurant actually draws your eyes to the restroom. They should of created a U shaped bar in the center and had segmentation for noise management and kitchen access so that the food runners aren’t constantly running into the video games stashed to the side and the drunk people at the bar. This u shaped would have also made the TV situation better as the place is pinning itself as a bar and well, the TV’s are not optimally placed so I’d never consider watching a game here. I really don’t think much brain power went into the layout and floor plan.

In summary, if you want a great burger in the area then get the Bourdain Burger at Goodfriends a mile down the road. Try this place if you want to confirm my review but if you’re discerning I believe you’ll come to the...

On our fourth try, we just decided to wait it out and actually eat here. We arrived at 8:30, and we told there would be an hour wait. When we arrived, there was only one party apparently waiting, there were two empty patio tables, and four empty interior tables. They were apparently in no rush to seat people at the empty tables. The first were actually seated about 10 minutes after we arrived, and they had seated several of the waiting parties and filled the empty tables by 20 minutes after we arrived. By that time, three parties had left and they were apparently in no hurry to clean and seat those tables. Fortunately, there were places to sit at the bar. Although the host did not tell us that the bar was open seating for food as well as beverages, the bartenders did do so and were very nice. Needless to say, we opted to eat at the bar rather than waiting for a table. I asked for onion on my burger, and the bar tender taking our order looked at me like I was trying to order chicken cordon bleu. After about a 45-second pause he said you can get onion on the side. Of course, these are also smash burgers that are glued together by cheese and meat and bun, so when the burgers arrived it was not possible to put the onion (or the other vegetables that accidentally came with them that were not requested) on my hamburger. The burgers were good – I would have been very pleased if it had been a walk-up pop-up which is how the restaurant started. My partner ordered the schmurger, the basic burger that is meat, cheese, schmurger sauce, and a bun (the grilled onions and schmurger dills in the menu description were undetectable). It was very good. I ordered the Maverick, a featured burger that had a bacon jam described that was also almost undetectable. We ordered the onion strings, and the order was what I would charitably call skimpy and not hot. The bartender other than the one that actually took our order was very friendly and helpful - she clearly remembered the regular that sat next to us. The burger prices, while not unreasonably high, made it very annoying to be charged $2 for one very small slice of onion, one very small slice of tomato, and two or three leaves of spring mix. At about twice the cost of Liberty Burger, I did not find the value proposition compelling. As may be obvious, I found much of the process very annoying. Almost all the problems we encountered could be rectified by a capable restaurant manager, but until then not...

Keeping in mind they’ve just been open a week, here’s my review. The first visit was good, the premier Schmurger was fine, I just prefer a bit more salt and sauce, and the onion strings as a side were ok but literally 1/3rd to 1/2 of the basket was just crumbs, you’d need a spoon to eat them, which I didn’t have or ask for. But all forgivable stuff for first week of operations! Came back tonight (Sunday) and tried the Pasadena. Again, could use a bit of salt and more sauce. Consistency is a good sign though. The fries side was ok, but strangely somewhat oversalted, but quite a few were too small and became a bit overcooked. The pain point here was the cocktail. I ordered a “rye old fashioned, and i don’t care what it’s made with.” It came out with some strangely off putting flavor of licorice, I couldn’t identify what it could have been but not typical for an old fashioned. I assumed their well Rye must have been the culprit, and sadly I couldn’t drink it. When the bill came, it said it was made with EH Taylor Straight Rye, and the bill for that one cocktail was $18 (16 + 2 for being a cocktail). I questioned it and was told it was the cheapest rye in the bar. Not acrually true at all as i spotted michters, and I believe Sazerac rye while i was there. Anyway, a sadly undrinkable $18 cocktail that left also left a figurative bad taste in my mouth. I’ll give them another shot in a few weeks, but next time I’ll stick to beer.

The service was great - always someone...