Better Burger Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Town of Salina

Wednesday October 1st:

We were SO EXCITED to try Better Burger because of some of the posts we'd seen and how delicious the food looked.

We waited 10-ish minutes before a waitress came to take our order .No biggie. We ordered drinks (soda and iced tea, so no bar prep needed) app and dinner all at once. It was another 5-7 before she returned but with only one of our drinks... She said she would be right back with my iced tea, but didn't return until 20 minutes later. At that point, we were not given an update as to when (or if) our appetizer would be out. She put my drink down and rushed away, so my husband had to get her attention again for a soda refill. We waited... and waited... Spoiler alert: We never got the soda, or any of our food.

As we were sitting, we noticed a few odd things.

The music: They had jazz music on, which is GREAT, but Isn't jazz supposed to be relaxing? It was quite literally blaring through the speakers. Cool - some people like loud music and maybe we're just not as hip as we used to be. Except for the fact that in addition to the jazz, another speaker was playing this obnoxiously percussive rap/R&B. All the TVs had the volume on with sporting events The cacophony of noise was almost unbearable. PICK ONE. PLEASE.

In the entire time we sat, none of the tables had any food or were brought any, other the popcorn the hostess brings you upon seating.

After 50 minutes, we couldn't take the noise, lack of customer service and food anymore, so we got up and left. We have never done that before, but it was date night and we really wanted to salvage what was left of our evening and find a place where we could actually get food.

We are very patient people who rarely, if ever complain, and we extend a lot of grace to waitstaff because we understand that it's not an easy job. We tried to be extra forgiving since the restaurant is so new, but this seemed beyond ridiculous.

A soft-opening is bound to bring a few snafus, but one non-negotiable should be the level of courtesy the staff shows to patrons. It didn't really get busy until we left, so try as I might, I can't find a reason to justify our experience.

If the server is still learning the ropes, have a manager pop over and disclose that. If the kitchen is slammed, make sure the drinks and popcorn are refilled and provide some kind of update to the customers on their orders periodically. They had to have known the kitchen was behind before we were even seated, so the hostess could have disclosed that there'd be a wait for any food... We would have gladly left and decided to try again another day.

Better Burger needs...

I saw that this new restaurant was recently reviewed by Syracuse.com. I decided to check it out despite the numerous other restaurants in the Syracuse area serving hamburgers. My hubby & I arrived around 1pm to avoid the lunch crowd. There were still a decent amount of people in the restaurant. We were seated right away & our server brought us water & a basket of buttered popcorn. Nice touch but felt that the butter wasn't necessary. Too greasy & not enough napkins provided, taking into account the hamburger & fries we would be eating :D There was cute artwork on the walls featuring cartoon hamburgers. We ordered the Bacon Ranch($18) & Smokehouse($18) burgers with Everything Nice Spice Skin-on Fries. We waited...and waited for our food (a little over a half hour). I had to ask for more water during our wait. Another server brought us a second basket of popcorn. We didn't eat any since we didn't want to spoil our appetites. We were just about to leave when our food was finally delivered to our table. Our burgers were lukewarm (whomp whomp) but very flavorful. The fries didn't have any skin on them??? However, they were very good with the spice. When we got our check, we saw that we were charged an additional 50¢ each for the fries even though the menu states "Served with" (what's up with that?!) I'm giving this new restaurant 3 stars due to the long wait time to receive our meals, the lukewarm burgers and the additional charge for the "Served with" fries. Despite all that, I'm really rooting for Better Burger to do well because the food is very good! I'm hoping that they will quickly work out all of their "new restaurant/server/staff" kinks and become a hot spot for great burgers. Best of Luck to them!

P.S. There is outdoor...

Went for the first time yesterday because we had heard good things, but was really disappointed and will not be going back. We were seated quickly, but then sat at our table for at least 15-20 minutes before we had to get somebody’s attention to see if anyone would be able to take our order/drinks. Several staff members said they weren’t sure who was supposed to help us, but we were really thankful that one woman stepped up to be our waitress. We ordered just a cheeseburger for a toddler & upon receiving was given a burger with heaps of onions smashed in between the patties- They had to make another one. All of our burgers were smash burgers, but must have been on the grill for a little too long because they were extremely dry and crumbly. There were five adults and one kid, and all of the burgers were missing at least one component it was supposed to have on it. A little bit later we had asked for some salt, which they came back with a little container of. Upon putting it on our french fries we realized they had given us a cup of sugar. Sadly, we were all really disappointed with the food and service with how long it took to get everything. There were other couples around us that were waiting for their bill and said they think that their server just left and went home. The one saving grace was our waitress who stepped up to take care of us, we know she did the best she could, but for almost $200 (20% tip required) and the poor quality of the food, we would...