Burger West — Restaurant in Ontario

My lovely wife and I found ourselves driving out to Ontario from Boise on a sweltering June afternoon, not sure why 😎

After driving around the fine Treasure Valley exurb for an hour or two, we both started to feel hangry. I nearly lost my mind at people standing in the way of traffic at the Love's truck stop, and we were both growing impatient with the leisurely Oregon driving style.

Idahoans are bad drivers, but I expect better from Oregonians given the fact that The Beaver State has a metropolitan area with over 2.7 million people, a million more than the entire state of Idaho. The left lane is for passing, folks.

It was time to get something in our stomachs, before one of us needed medical attention. I've had some amazing Mexican food downtown Ontario, but sometimes you just need a burger. We found Burger West thanks to Google Maps®.

We rolled into the parking lot, and made it to the menu speaker, but the gal waved us up to the window because we were already making eye contact from a Ram 1500 space away. She eagerly explained the menu items, suggesting we try the fish sandwich. We both shiver at the thought of a Filet-O-Fish, so we opted for a Ranch Hand and a Big West. I admired the enthusiastic customer service.

Their drive thru waiting area is wide enough for two rigs, but you need the turn radius of a Mazda Miata. We were riding in a nearly-overheating 4Runner, so we had to wait for it to clear out a little before we could round the corner. I think the Toyota has a water pump issue, had to rev it to 2k to keep the coolant temps in the safe zone.

Our burgers were fine, B- or so. If it weren't so hot and so busy with events happening in Ontario this weekend, they might have earned a solid B. My stomach didn't hurt afterwards, which I can't always say about a Big Mac.

If I had one recommendation for Burger West (besides get an engineer working on that drive thru), it would be buy fattier meat. Even though we both felt we made a safe choice considering the hour long drive back to Boise, there's something about a greasy burger out in the desert we were left wanting.

We would stop there...

Burger WORST, would be a more apt description. Who doesn't take DEBIT OR CREDIT CARDS?!? 1985 called and wants it's "cash only" policy back.

Growing up, I used to love this place. But, it's become a run down, dirty dive, in the years I was gone. Watered down fry sauce, filthy tables and floors, not to mention, more attitude in the drive thru than ANY franchise chain would EVER permit their employees to dish out. If the seats, floor and table are filthy, I can't imagine the kitchen situation. Not using gloves, or washing your hands when moving between handling money and handling food, is pretty repulsive, and I'm pretty sure, against food handling laws. Especially considering their staff's hands touch your food as they're handing it to you in those ridiculously outdated, flimsy-ass containers. Let's just say, there's a reason there's only one location for this restaurant. Good luck with the ancient dilapidated menu board and broken speaker, btw. As busy as it constantly is AND considering that they only accept cash (they've GOT to be making quite a profit, you would think they could invest a few bucks to replace that thing, for their customer's, sakes.)

I wanted to keep the tradition of going there, like I did with my parents, with my son. But, after 2 attempts, we'll never be returning.

P.S. I don't even know where they get those little hateful straws that flick your soda back in your face, after every sip, and the drink is 90% crushed ice, anyway. Save your money AND your dignity by avoiding this busted-ass...

I'd like to think that I'm a burger connoisseur of sorts. I've been to a lot of burger joints in my life and would hope that my reviews actually hold weight. I'm not going to blow bubbles and sunshine up any business unless it's actually warranted. With that in mind, my review is solely based on my experience, what I saw, and how it holds up to my past experiences.

Prior to going, I saw that almost every review raved about the ranch hand Burger and to make sure you get an extra tub of fry sauce. I also noticed that to get the side of fries is an extra $0.10 which according to the pictures is definitely worth it. I also ordered a chocolate milkshake. A lot of reviews said the food took a while to get out - it was only about 10 minutes so not bad at all.

Food: they give a copious amount of fries for that $0.10! I'm glad they don't charge an arm and a leg for French fries. The fry sauce was unfortunately really runny and thin but the extra tub was worth it. The milkshake reminds me of a Wendy's frosty. Lastly, the burger was a bit underwhelming. Perhaps it was due to it being so hyped up but I wasn't super impressed. The patties are thin (like the sausage on a mcmuffin is thicker). I was also surprised that it was unsalted. For the $5, I was hopeful it would be bigger but perhaps thats why the fries are so cheap.

Overall, I would give it a 6/10. Good but not to die for. Perhaps it's the new ownership but it was decent....