Twisted Root Burger Co. — Restaurant in Lubbock

You will notice that most of my photos of this awesome establishment aren't even of the food. This is because to me, an eatery with such a sense of humor found in and on nearly EVERY facet of the building is such a rare and refreshing find that I almost wouldn't have minded if the food was subpar.

Fortunately I am happy to report that this is most definitely NOT the case here. Not only were several things gut-bustingly funny from many of the chalk drawings on the doors and walls to the pictures found on the tea recepticles and salt and pepper shakers, but your actual gut is likely to leave very full and happy as well because this is THE BEST burger in Lubbock, bar none.

The beef patty is a beast in and of itself but I ordered the Freshman 15 which is that juicy, luxurious patty smothered in French fries, melted cheddar cheese and a fried egg. These items are of course sandwiched by a soft, subtly-sweet buttery bun. This burger may sound like it would by design be dry but it was just the opposite. This was the juciest most delicious burger I have ever eaten hands down. But I am one who rather likes the greases and juices of a good ol' American burger to run down my beard.

As far as sides go, I chose onions strings in lieu of fries (because a decent helping of fries already topped my burger) and I must say, both the fries and onion strings were absolutely delicious with a subtle sweetness in and of themselves. Top them off with any of Twisted Root's delicious custom sauces and you can't go wrong.

The establishment was clean, the staff was friendly albeit with a personality in and of themselves and I absolutely adored the competent mixture of modern humor and classic Texan decorations. Also, you are not called to pick up your order via your likely incorrectly-pronounced first name ala Starbucks but rather with a little colored card you are given with the name and a random fact of a person in popular culture ranging from the Rock, to Molly Ringwald to Chandler Bing. I thought this was a nice touch.

But this review would not be complete without mentioning possibly my favorite part. The bubblegum-flavored Twisted Root Beer. This was absolutely delicious and apparently the custom flavor changes all the time. Personally I can't wait to try the banana root beer. Also, as a final note, it probably goes without saying at this point but the 'Fat Elvis' shake with bananas, chocolate, peanut butter and bacon pieces was the PERFECT way to end such a delicious meal.

For what you get, prices are more than fair because portions are more than fair. And bring the kids because the whole family is liable to have a fantastic time here at the Twisted...

The guy that took our order was nice, but new. Had been there 2 days and didn't seem trained yet but no one was there to train him it seemed. He did add to go, which we verified, but they made it in house instead. The other guy behind the counter put both of his gloved hands on his hips, then right after dug into the lettuce. Hope his shirt was at least somewhat clean. The lady we asked to take the lettuce off our burgers seemed sweet but she was very hard to understand as she quickly announced names of ready items and left them sitting out. We had a hard time knowing if it was our order or not. By the amount of time the shakes sat out for others, I'm assuming we weren't the only ones that couldn't understand. By time we did get our food most of it felt cold. I didn't pay attention at the time, but I'm not sure if they had a heating area to keep the food warm while it's sat. The burger tasted okay, but nothing special honestly. The cheese bites tasted like they had a chunk of cheese just put it and then fried. It tasted like how you would expect cheese to be after microwaving it. The kind that doesn't melt very well.

Overall the food was mediocre. I wouldn't leave a bad review for that alone. But the other things, along with violating food safety rules by digging into the lettuce after having your hands on your hips for about 5 seconds was kind of gross. The way I see it, if you wouldn't feel comfortable licking someone's shirt that you don't know and you don't know if he has been clean or not, you probably wouldn't feel comfortable with them doing that and then digging into the food without changing their gloves. At the same time he was touching everything else, including the screen, without changing his gloves.

Myself at least, I stay away from places that don't care about food safety. It's not worth getting sick over, even if the food was excellent.

Two stars because the guy that took the order was...

I just didn’t have a good experience here. I wanted to like it because it has a lot of potential, but it just fell short. To start it all off when I placed my order I asked if I could have my shake made when I was done with my food. That didn’t happen. They made it before my food came out. Then on top of that it just wasn’t good. Kind of crazy but it reminded me of Cool Whip. The shake just didn’t taste like ice cream. It was not good. I’ve never done this before but I actually took it back and asked for my money back. It was over $6 and I thought I could get a better shake at Braum’s for half the price.

Then on to the food. I got The Millionaire burger ($16.50) and the Treat-yo-self Twisted Cheese Fries ($8). The fries tasted like they had been sitting for a bit. The cheese was stuck on the fries like how it get when you make nachos and it starts to cool. So it was just warm. It could have been so much better if they had been made fresh where you pull a fry and you create this long cheese string. Instead you pick up a fry and you get a whole section of fries with it. The burger was ok. Again it just didn’t seem that fresh. Picture wise it looks good but it could have been better.

Lastly the place just wasn’t that clean. You could see crumbs and stuff on the floor. The table had their kind of sticky film on it. Tables that weren’t cleared. Granted I guess it was 8pm and they were already getting in shut down mode so they weren’t going to be cleaning up just yet.

Just...