Roots Burger Bar — Restaurant in Muncie

Wife and I needed to kill some time near Muncie and choose Roots for Dinner. Despite it being 6pm on Return Week for Ball State, we only waited about 5 minutes for a table.

All the staff were friendly and very helpful, despite how busy they all were.

You get seated with a steel bucket of popcorn (random but delicious.)

The menus clearly describe what's in or on everything. They have an extensive craft/micro brew selection, with many from local/regional Brewers, as well as many popular commercial brews. I highly recommend the People's Boiler Black - rich coffee and chocolate flavor but not as thick as a stout.

Their appetizers are fantastic (get the pimento tater tots, they are OUTSTANDING!) and the portions are more than shareable.

My wife and I split 2 burgers: the PB&J and the Trippin Timmy mushroom. First, all the burgers are "smash" style, so thinner with crispy edges, medium well done (not my personal choice for burgers, but it's how they make them.). The PB&J has a great ratio of peanut butter to jelly, and has smoky bacon and the surprise addition of spices jalapeno - it works so well together yet makes no sense! The Trippin Timmy had a generous amount of mushrooms and grilled onions and was more a traditional burger choice. Both were very tasty. We got an order of tots as well as their cucumber tomato salad. All of the sides were very tasty, though the cucumber and tomato salad is thick cut, as a note.

We splurged for dessert and, at the recommendation of our waitress, got the brownie batter milkshake and the flavor of the month Pineapple Upside-down Cake shake. All their shakes are served in a mason jar glass with the shake canister (with the rest of the shake that wouldn't fit) and a long spoon. Both were great. Rich brownie chunks with thick batter ribbons and the pineapple was served with a mini-shortcake and pineapple on top.

Our waitress was training a new hire, but both ladies were conversational, professional, gave great recommendations, and kept our iced tea full.

With an appetizer, a pint of beer, two burger meals, AND 2 large milkshakes, our total came out to around $70. The same amount we'd spend at a chain place like Applebee's or Red Robin, only everything here was so...

Was honestly expecting more out of this place since it was owned by the same guy as Scottys and the menu was made smaller so I figured it would have been a little more polished.

The food overall was pretty good but was also quite bland and felt like it could have been seasoned better. I had the Mom's Tenderloin and the quality of the pork was good but for a pork tenderloin sandwich which is well known in Indiana it was very thick and by looking at it you would have mistaken it for fried chicken. The bun was also very flimsy and fell apart trying to hold together the toppings and became very messy. The fries were hot and crispy and could have used a tiny bit of seasoned salt or something but the table salt was able to remedy that mostly.

Our waitress also forgot out popcorn that she asked if we wanted which isn't a big deal but having never been here before it wasn't clear to us waiting if we were supposed to get it ourselves or have it brought to us so we eventually had to go inside (we were eating outside with it being a nice day) to ask about the popcorn situation. The popcorn was good though once we got it.

The worst part of the meal came when I was almost done with my sandwich, I was chewing on a bite when I felt something hard. When I spit it out it was white and almost plastic like. Still having about 3 good bites left on my sandwich I really couldn't stomach to try another bite for fear of finding more of whatever that was. When we let our waitress know she took the piece on a plate and said she would let the manager know but no one ever acknowledged it again until we had already paid and then our waitress said sorry about the tenderloin sandwich. All I had really wanted was someone to reassure me whether I had bitten into some hard part of pork that had made it into the sandwich or a foreign object but the manager was no where to be seen so who knows if it was even brought to their attention.

I'll probably give this another try but it will probably be a while before I...

The quick review: this was a great visit, the food was really tasty and well crafted, quickly made, fun to eat (although I had to use a fork on the burger because it was so large, and a little messy) and really satisfying. But you should read the whole review:

My wife and I were watching our daughter's dog and took a little trip to Muncie. Curious, I searched for dog friendly restaurants and Roots came up.

We were seated on the patio and there were other dogs there. They were dog friendly, but unfortunately, "out of dog bowls" and they didn't want to use a regular dish... So that was a negative for us, but I'll not let that detract from the overall rating.

Parking was free in back if you used the QR code posted in at the welcome desk.

I had a double Hoosier Burger - which is a lot more food than I usually eat. 2 smashed patties (a half pound), ham, egg, cole slaw, and Muenster cheese.

I'm a fan of slaw on burgers, and this was a really good mix.

If you look at my picture of that burger, I think you can see why I needed a fork! I did opt for their standard tater tots as the side... They were good, but normal, so next time I'll try a different one. The burger exceeded my expectations, except that I expected to eat half the burger and save the rest for later but I ended up eating all of it.

My wife had a Truth Burger and it's main features are crispy fried onions and ranch, which she also liked.

The Roots logo is burnt into the bun and that also gives it a fun, crafted look.

So with the dog bowl and tater tots, and x overall value... I could easily rate this a 4 star, maybe 4.5 if I could, but this was the best burger I've had out in several months, enough to...