Swensons Drive-In — Restaurant in Willoughby

This was my first experience with this particular restaurant chain. I have never been to any location within this chain. This chain is takeout only which means you either eat in your car or you take it home. You pull into the parking lot and the server person comes to you and takes your order from your car. I ordered a single cheeseburger, fried mushrooms, and a Pepsi. As you will see in the pictures a single hamburger is not on the menu you have to ask for it. In addition, when you order a hamburger the only thing that comes with it is condiments. If you want lettuce or tomatoes or anything else on it those items are extra. I have never in my life been to a hamburger place where I had to pay for lettuce and tomatoes on a hamburger! When my first Burger came out the bun was so dry that it literally crumpled all over me. I was told that the buns are toasted and that in this case mine was over done. When I asked for a replacement burger they had no problem giving it to me. The second burger came out with a non toasted bun which doesn't really matter. In my personal taste palette though I did not care for the taste of their hamburger buns although you may feel differently. Personal Taste aside, you should know that all of the items there except for condiments are a la carte. I also noticed that the beef patty itself was exceptionally thin. That explains why they would have double and triple burgers on their menu in my opinion. I guess I can see that the restaurant chain is trying to keep the nostalgia of an era that has gone by long ago. They boast about being in business since 1934 yet it doesn't seem to me like they have adapted to the current Era. Some people might like it this way. Stop in and judge...

Here’s my review.

I ordered the Double Cheeseburg, Potato Teezers, Fries, and a small Mocha Shake.

I started off with the fries, and my oh my. They were a saltier Dairy Queen. Soft, no crisp or crunch, greasy, and soooo salty. Like the cook fell asleep pouring salt on the fries.

I then went for the Potato Teezers and to my surprise, they were fantastic. Crispy exterior, stuffed with potatoes, cheese, and only a hint of jalapeño. The best way to explain it, would be if a hash brown and jalapeno popper had a baby.

The Mocha Shake was very good. Not too thick, not too thin, and the ice cream seemed to be pretty quality.

Finally, the Double Cheeseburg. The first thing I noticed before even opening the wrapper, was the familiar aluminum wrapping for the cheeseburgers you used to eat in high school, surrounding such a small Double Cheeseburg. I was nervous. I unwrapped the burger and noticed a dry, lifeless bun. The patties were so thin. The cheese was definitely looking melted. The onions were scarce and the ketchup was in an abundance. Again, still nervous.

I took that first bite. Blown back by what I had just tasted, I looked over at my girlfriend with utter confusion, and mildly concerned. My taste buds were overwhelmed with sweetness. “What’s in this burger that makes it so sweet? It’s not the ketchup.” It was a very familiar sweetness, but I just can’t pin it down. I tasted the meat by itself, and that confirmed my suspicion, the sweetness is in the meat. It tasted like a bad sloppy Joe and a burger fused together.

Overall, 4/10. Potato Teezers and...

I have been waiting to try Swensons for years. I used to see it off Route 8 on the way into Akron when I was down that way regularly and always planned to try. They finally made it here and I was...thoroughly unimpressed. Although, as soon as we pulled in to a spot a runner was at the car for our order. Luckily we had both looked at the menu before arriving because we were not close enough to the menu on the building to read it and we were offered nothing to look at while the young man was at the car. He just came to the window and said something on the lines of what can I get you. We were not quite ready but ordered anyway. It took about 15 minute or so before we got our meal and the young woman who brought it out had two different orders which confused us and her, though it was all good in the end. My cohort in gastronomy and I tried the highly touted Galley Boy. Double cheeseburger with TWO sauces. Well, it was a double cheese burger, but I could not taste 2 different sauces. In fact what I did taste was a sweet bbq type sauce and nothing else. My cohort didn't taste any sauce. We also ordered the tots and jalapeno tots which are not the correct names but we liked them. They were not overly salted like most place do and they were nicely flavored and crispy. Don't get me wrong it was a lot of fun, but the food we tried was just average. We will go back to try other things, but will be better prepared. (I was expecting something like what I remember growing up and going to Manner's Big Boy in Painesville and Willoughby in the 70s and was...