Sunday, September 21, 2008

Restaurant Review

Our family (minus Berkley...sorry baby) went to the Tab Choir Gift of Music concert on Saturday night. We thought the kids should get some culture pulsing through their veins. We haven't been out to eat in awhile so decided to make it a family date and tried a fairly new place downtown called Acme Burger. I've been wanting to try it since I learned of its existence.

THE MENU: very grown up and ranges from $6.50 to $22.00 for a burger....ONLY the burger. The $22.00 was for a XXL burger (probably for a group to share). Onions rings, shoe string fries, mac n cheese are ordered on the side. Salads were for a grown-up palate with no normal dressings in site (no Thousand Island, no Ranch, etc). I honestly can't even remember the names of the dressings they offered. All sounded very high brow. Elk, Bison, Mahi Mahi, & Veggie burgers are a sampling of what they offer.

SERVICE: waitress had a slight attitude and almost acted like our children were completely out of place. I guess they were since they were the youngest patrons but they are well behaved. When we told the waitress we needed some extra time she gave us TOO much time. She walked past us several times and we purposefully put our menus in a pile to signal we were ready. I finally had to grab her. Our burgers came fast but it made me wonder if they already had some cooked and in a pan waiting to be served.

FOOD: the $6.50 burger was the least expensive and I would have gotten more meat with the Six Dollar Burger at Carls Jr. It was charred (don't order it well done....medium is plenty and THAT wasn't even pink), dry, and the bun was about and inch bigger than the patty. It made the meat seem even smaller. Salad was OK but Paige ended up putting fry sauce on hers because she didn't like any of the snooty dressing flavors they had. Kids gagged down about 1/2 their burger. We also ordered onion rings and mac n cheese. Both of which were very yummy. The menu said the mac n cheese came in a family style 10" skillet but we know it was only about 6 or 7 inches MAX and were charged $12.00 **gulp**.

ATMOSPHERE: trying to be trendy and have a pub like atmosphere. The kids loved the bathrooms because they were painted with chalkboard paint and had big pieces of chalk to write with. They put their mark on the walls and learned a few new words in the process. Sat next to a lesbian couple who tried to nicely express their frustration to the manager (food wasn't that hot, charred, etc) and were met with hostility and AGAIN a snooty attitude. Didn't know if it was because of their alternative life or because they actually spoke up. Including tip we were over $89.99 **double gulp**.

CONCLUSION: I immediately got a headache because I was so ticked at the amount of money we spent and basically would have had a better meal at the drive thru for a fraction of the cost. If you've been curious about this place I would say eat at your own risk and know that you've been warned. Putting a stack of dollar bills in the bathroom would be put to better use. If any of you have had a good experience there then you were lucky. You couldn't talk me into trying it again....unless you are paying and I will only be ordering the mac n cheese and onion rings.

4 comments:

Rachel said...

Good to know! I will avoid Acme Burgers.

Now don't you feel better about your bad experience? You got to be the guinea pig for the REST of us and now we all know better.

Huh, that doesn't sound much better, does it?

Seriously though, I completely appreciate the heads up.

Kim said...

This is good to know because having the word Burger in the name would have lured me into the restaurant just to be disappointed by a piece of charcoal on a dry bun. So, thanks for sharing, even though I'm sorry you had to spend so much money on bad food/service.

Jen said...

Where's the Beef? Not to mention where did all my money go. I will definitely stay away from this one.

Thanks for the heads up.

Just remember - without this experience you wouldn't have had such a funny story to share.

Small town country girl said...

you should send a copy of this to Acme Burger

Bad food is such a bummer