Wahlburgers — Restaurant in Ledyard

Ah where do I start… we ordered the double OFC Burger (whatever the double signature burger was called), onion strings, and the Chicken Bacon Penne Mac and Cheese on our visit on 10/8/23 around 12:30-1PM. Honestly, the food was mediocre at best on the verge of just bad for a $50 lunch. If your goal was to be a Bobby’s Burgers comp, you’re well below the mark on a near identical price point. Draft Kings sports book burgers are crushing you guys too 😔 Detailed review below ⬇️

Here’s everything wrong about our meal from a CIA guy (Culinary Institute of America).

•Burger was ordered Medium, came out more on the well done side. In your defense, the Patties are about a centimeter thick, so achieving a medium temp on that patty isn’t realistic. Probably best to not take temps on burgers. Minimal Maillard reaction for a griddled burger, lacked seasoning, somewhat greasy, and the ground beef blend (if your even using one) was a few steps above Wendys but far subpar to a basic Five Guys Burger. Toppings were fine, government cheese was more like a low quality mild cheddar, signature sauce mystified me with is lack of flavor. I couldn’t tell if it was just mayo with the tiniest amount of ketchup for color or what. Either way, it really had no flavor.

•Onion Strings tasted like uncooked flour. I’ll commend you for using red onion for the sweetness factor. However, if your going for that red onion flex, you need to execute. This means walking that fine line between the sugars in the red onion burning and you actually cooking your breading mixture on said red onions so it doesn’t taste like flour. Also, please season your food even just with some salt once it comes out of the fryer….I shouldn’t have to say that.

•Chicken Bacon Penne Mac had overcooked pasta, but at least the Mac and Cheese sauce had flavor and seasoning! The sauce was actually good and tasted like someone might have actually tasted and seasoned their food before sending it out. Bacon portion felt like it being rationed off, bread crumbs were much needed as there was not much texture left on the overcooked pasta. The shining star though was that chicken on top. Let me tell you, whenever cooked that 4oz breast absolutely nailed it! Great Maillard Reaction, actually seasoned, juicy, and just well executed.

I did voice my concerns to the staff up front on departure. However, as I see there is actually management responding to reviews here; I feel it would be best to leave a comprehensive review to correct these simple issues in the future. I will be more then happy to give this place another shot and new review in a few months when they work out the usual growing pain with opening a...

Worked here as both a host and a dishwasher. There's a mouse problem that cannot be solved. Food is good, if you're not worried about vermin. Or the extremely corroded grill racks that the chicken and bacon are prepared on. They offer a vegan Impossible Burger, but they cook it on the same grill in the same spot as they cook any other meats. Food's at least fresh and never expired. Always cycled. Staff are great, but sometimes irritable. Probably something to do with how next to none of the employees are eligible for vacation time. What employees get vacation time, it has blackout dates (more like blackout MONTHS), and any unused vacation time doesn't get paid out. But the management all is. Bi-weekly paychecks, no free employee meals, 50% discount for their employee's plate on dine-in only. There's a 401k, and I have one, but it's because paperwork was fudged. Only like 8 people are supposed to have it. I came and washed dishes right after attending a friend's funeral but had to leave the wake because bills pile up and I can't get vacation time. Hours cut after busy season so they don't have to offer vacation time or benefits. Sick time gets approved, but forgotten about until 1 or 2 checks (2 to 4 weeks) so labor paperwork can be fudged. Wahlbergs show up sometimes, take some pictures, thank us for our hard work, then maybe the bosses might get a bonus, maybe. All this happy stuff after pulling in more than $6,000,000 in this branch alone during the 2024 fiscal year. Absolutely eat here if you want a good tasting burger, without any. Any. Of the other information. EDIT: Wahlburgers wanted to remind me of how they helped me during financial hardship last year. Some utilities got shut off because they fell behind. I live with my parents because life is difficult, finding consistent work is difficult. When this happened, I went to Wahlburgers looking to bring home some water to flush down my toilet. They accommodated me. After telling me I couldn't use the To Go cups. I had to go climb up the TOSHA non-compliant ladder to get atop the TOSHA non-compliant storage area myself to see if we had any of the old soup containers left. We did, so they graciously let me have some water to flush my toilets. My dad went to do the same thing at his job at the Hard Rock Café, and they instead asked him very nicely if they could see his utilities bill. He showed them, and Hard Rock sent someone down to the utility company to knock a big fat chunk out of the bill, allowing us to turn them back on immediately, and finish paying them the following week. Would have taken us two months, otherwise. Thank you for the help during my hardships,...

11/18/2023 - Well sad to say we will definitely never recommend this place to anybody both my fiancée and myself decided to give this place a chance upon arrival we waited about 10 minutes to get a seat which was great but sad to say it took almost 30 minutes for somebody to come over to our table which we were pretty upset about because there was a table right next to us party of five that came in 15 minutes after us and received their Food First which made no sense. So the waitress finally came over and took our order I ordered the cheeseburger melt with bacon and it was supposed to come with Pickles lettuce tomato caramelized onions and a the specialty sauce, which i never got the onions, pickles or sauce on the side as i requested, my fiancée ordered a plant based burger which was just totally horrible it had no flavor whatsoever just plain bland, our order came from a totally different person not even the same waitress which to me was very unfair because she had no clue what we even ordered when she came to the table she gave the wrong person the wrong food but I don't understand when a person takes an order why a different person would come I waited 20 minutes and no one came so I decided to eat so with that being said sad to say we had no silverware on the table which should be on the table automatically before you get there but it wasn't so we had to wait and request that as well we did not get any straws with our drinks which I thought was a major upset those should automatically come as well with any beverage whether you use them or you don't. The atmosphere for this place is very loud and beyond control it's next to the DraftKings which is basically like having a rock concert next to you when you're eating and it was very disappointing because you can't even hear yourself think that's how loud it was and we definitely wouldn't recommend this for anybody that's looking for a quiet meal, well once again we will never recommend this place to anybody we spent almost $85 which included a tip of $10 Which we thought was pretty fair considering the service sad to say once again we will definitely never recommend this place to anybody ever again we recommend Johnny rockets burgers all day long...