Also In Houston

Cheeburger, Cheeburger

Recently, when I was in Philadelphia visiting our 11 month old grandson and his family our daughter, who is well aware of my fondness for burgers, suggested that we do a little shopping for the baby in Cherry Hill, NJ and then have lunch at a place named Cheeburger Cheeburger*.

Upon entering the restaurant my immediate inclination is to leave because the décor is such a poor imitation of a 1950’s cafe. There are white painted walls with a weird blue accent, glass block partitions, stainless steel cladding, black and white tile, and a wall paper trim at the ceiling that looks like it came out of a kid’s bedroom.

We sit down at one of the chrome trimmed tables with white plastic laminate tops, and are promptly handed a menu. The menu seems poorly organized, and cluttered with what seem to be unlimited choices. There are five sizes of all beef patties (the smallest being 5.5 oz and the largest 20 oz), five cheeses and 28 different “free” toppings plus five specialty toppings at additional cost. There are also seventy-five or so flavors of shakes that may be combined in a zillion different combinations. OK, I exaggerate on the number of combinations, but believe me the menu is truly overwhelming.

As you might expect I order my 5.5 oz burger with mayo, lettuce, tomato and a slice of raw onion. I also ordered a 50/50 order of fries and onion rings to share with my daughter who for some inexplicable reason orders a birthday cake shake.

The burger is very good.

The lettuce is shredded not leaf which I personally prefer, but there is a huge slice of raw onion and several slices of bright red tomato. The bun is good, sort of Kaiser like, but way too large for my 5.5 oz patty since it must be one size fits all with the 20 oz patty forcing the large size. The juicy patty is cooked medium, as I requested, and has a solid fresh beef flavor.

The fries have great potato flavor and are tasty indeed. The onion rings are likewise terrific, light, and with a wonderful crunch.

Sadly, the shake is all wrong. Too foamy, little evidence of ice cream and a horrid flavor of what - birthday cake, I don’t think so.

All in all it would be nice to have a Cheeburger Cheeburger in Austin.

*During a 1970’s skit on SNL during a famous skit parodying Chicago’s famous Billy goat Tavern, Don Akroyd yelled, “Cheezborger, cheezborger”. A coincidence, I think not.