Cobra Burger — Restaurant in Richmond

This past Saturday was the second time I tried Cobra Burger. Food was great the first time, so I brought my friend from out of town with me to try it again. The 1-star review is primarily due to the attitude and level of rudeness my friend and I received.

Disclaimer - I have worked in the service industry for years, and do not typically take the breath out of my day to write reviews. Every customer deserves respect, even if staff disagrees. If I like a place, I go back. If I don’t like a place or have issues with the food as long as the customer service is good, I don’t find a need to review, as someone else can give the business a second chance.

Let’s start from the beginning - We walk in the door, we see a customer getting up that left baskets on the table. The host immediately says with an attitude - “Can you buss your table, we are really busy right now”. Sure okay, fair is fair, could have been nicer about it, and it wasn’t really busy besides us at the door.

We finish ordering, and go to sit down. There were a few open tables, all of which could have used a good wipe down. (In my mind, I’ll help them out, so I grab the buss rag off the counter and clean our table). When I bring the buss rag back, the host scolded me and said with a very strong attitude/eye-roll “Next time you need something you can ask us for it, instead of taking things off our counter”. I didn’t care to comment back because getting into an argument with someone who still has my food isn’t the greatest idea.

Point is 1) You just told a customer loudly to buss their own table 2) Your front of house was nasty (Tables grimy, sticky floor, and napkins/trash on the ground), and if you are so busy that you cannot clean, you shouldn't have time to sit back on your phone) 3) If you see a customer wiping down a table, the proper response would be, “Sorry about that, let me take care of that for you, next time just let us know and we’ve got you covered”. After being made to feel uncomfortable I sat back down and waited. Then I watched the host openly talking smack talk to the bartender.

Food comes out, 3/4 burgers were wrong. I asked for no mayo, had mayo, whatever. I'm not a child and did not say anything. My friend and his girlfriend both clearly ordered a cobra burger w/no changes, and received 2 backyard burgers with bright yellow tomatoes on top. The bartender who ran it, took only his girlfriends back for some reason, and then argued with my friend telling him that what he had in front of him was indeed a cobra burger, just as he ordered it (even though cobra burgers don’t have tomatoes on it, but whatever we can pull it off).

Bartender walks away, we look at his burger, definitely not what he ordered. Bartender comes back with one new burger for his gf, my friend tries to explain again that that wasn’t what he ordered, and got told to his face again that it was. Then I watched the table behind us get the wrong burgers too, not sure if it was my friends or not but whatever. The fact that you argued and belittled my buddy straight to his face as if he can’t remember a simple menu order or see what is in front of him, with something your staff messed up on is ridiculous, and straight up wrong.

It was a long day, the staff clearly wasn’t the friendliest. We ate our wrong food and left. Note - the trash cans were overflowing in the front so we couldn’t even properly “buss our own tables”.

Will not be returning or giving them another dime. Plenty of other good burger joints in Richmond that have basic customer service and manners. Owner will probably scoff at this (per a laundry list of other reviews) as having an attitude is cool and “metal” here. What you put out is what you get. My review might not matter, but over time this place will take...

My boyfriend and I were both ill after eating here. I ordered a burger with no cheese, pickles, and lettuce. I understand they are smash burgers but they should not be so thin that there are pieces dangling off and holes in it making it fall apart. The burger was soaked in grease and the fries were bitter tasting and the most soggy fries I have ever had. My boyfriend noticed a funny smell and pointed it out to me and I just said yeah mine smells like it too. Maybe it's the sauce since we had added some of the sauce from the table. Nope. It was something bad. We both felt ill upon finishing our meal and have been feeling sick for the last week. There was a drunk guy screaming at his friend calling him names while we were there as well which was off-putting and extremely uncomfortable and not one of the men who worked there said anything. They both left drunk and proceeded to get in their truck and drive away. This is not worth the hype or the money. Edit to respond to the clearly incompetent owner: Your assumption about politics is completely wrong. I actually commented when I walked in that I loved the aesthetic and specifically the sign regarding abortion rights so not sure where you got that from. Clearly you need to make up stuff in your head to justify your awful restaurant lol. Also, why would someone just lie about a drunk person screaming? Seems like a weird thing to lie about don't you think? Especially over politics? Maybe go back and check your cameras and watch the 2 men come in and sit at the 3rd table from the door and then watch as they are sitting there and the one guy starts screaming at the other regarding throwing the beer in the trash because he said he couldn't finish it because it was disgusting. "Get the f out of here you fing loser" was specifically what was being screamed as they walked out of the door. I never said they didn't know there was a drunk guy screaming, I said no one did anything about it. Obviously everyone noticed. Also, regarding the whatever you consider a smash burger, I have had plenty. They should not be falling apart. There's a clear difference in lacing and the entire burger falling to pieces and not to mention the entire bun being SOAKED in grease. I'll be more than happy to forward you both mine and my boyfriends hospital bills from that same day clearly stating we have FOOD POISONING. If the bottles are refilled multiple times weekly then why is there gobs and tons of crusted up nasty sauce all around the rims? So much that when you go to pour it, pieces of it flake off into your food and the top doesn't close properly? Maybe that's why the sauce is bad. Your lack of accountability as an owner and your quickness to be dismissive of customers and chalk it up to politics is insanity. Only to fill your need to feel different and edgy because you're clearly lacking in every other aspect. Especially if your "food" has made...

My husband and I tried Cobra Burger tonight before heading over to Maymont for a concert. We were craving burgers, and heard so many good things about Cobra.

First, the food. We both had the signature Cobra burger. My husband had a double, I had a single. The combination of flavors was tasty, but the bun was SO big for a single burger that I barely tasted the meat. I think they need a smaller bun for a single, and my recommendation would be to go with a double if you actually want to taste meat. The fries were hot and crispy, with a smoky, creamy dipping sauce.

So, why the two stars? The food deserves 3.5 stars. But the ambiance turned us off. We arrived right at opening time since the Maymont concert started at 6:00. Shortly after we arrived a family with two school aged boys came in. The music the staff turned on was hard core heavy metal, played so loud we couldn't hear each other talk. Plus, the lyrics were peppered with f-bombs and sexual innuendo. I understand that Cobra Burger has an edgy vibe and I have no problem with racy lyrics, but I expect a restaurant with a kids menu to play more appropriate music during hours when kids will be there. Save the hard music for later when the place is full of young people having a good time. We asked the bartender if he could turn down the volume, and he said yes, but then did nothing. Come on Cobra, read the room already - the only patrons at the time were the family and us, a retired couple. We ate as fast as we could to escape the deafening music, and noticed the family that arrived after us ate in record time, and the dad was chugging his beer as they ran out the door.

We won't be back, and will head to Beauvine Burger next time we crave a burger. Better food, better atmosphere.

P.S. props to Cobra Burger for promoting composting and recycling. Everything in your food basket, including the paper and sauce cups, can be composted....