Wahlburgers just recently came to a city near me. Everyone is in hysterics. Kind of like when a new Chick-fil-a comes to town. Everyone is excited! They show up before the restaurant opens for the day thinking "they" will be the first ones in line only to find out 25 other families/groups have done the same. So we stand there in line, trying to smile all the while thinking, "they better not crowd in front of me when this line starts moving." Come on, you know you've all been there. Thankfully my first visit wasn't the opening day; Lord knows this body can't handle that anymore. There were only a few people in line outside when I arrived and there were plenty of tables for everyone. Whew! Smiles still bright and cheery.
I met two wonderful friends there today. Ok, wait a minute...I need to back this train up. My friend Tonya put on facebook the other day that she was at Wahlburgers with her eldest son. What! I wasn't the first one she wanted to take? How could she? Well, it was her son. And my kids would come first too. (Emotions settling.) We chatted a bit online about her experience and how she wanted to try the whole menu. That gave me an idea. Maybe Tonya, myself and two other people should go once per month. We would each get a different main menu item and share it equally with each other. That way we can all get through the menu much more quickly than we would on our own. She loved the idea and I started making plans.
Fast forward to today. One dear friend could not make it last minute but there were still 3 of us. Tonya, Stephanie, and myself. After we all arrived and sat at our table we happily chatted away (I may have been doing half of the chatting), while looking at our menus. Once we finally settled on what we would each order, the next important question was, how will we have our burgers cooked? I'm a well-done kind of gal. I don't like seeing any pink. I blame my mother for this. Every meat she ever ate had to be well done. If she saw anything but, her nose would wrinkle up and she'd shake a bit, kind of like a shiver. Yep, I take after her in this aspect for sure. Sadly, my party doesn't share this strangeness for overdone meat. They would rather have medium. I still ordered well-done; sorry ladies. Tonya ordered hers medium well to meet me in the middle. She's kinder than I am when it comes to food. After all, food is serious business people!
The top is a picture of the macaroni. Directly underneath that is the BBQ Burger, next to that is the Supermelt, and the very bottom picture is Thanksgiving Turkey Burger. I had determined to enjoy the company more than taking picture which obviously I did because these pictures suck! Next time I'll try to at least let you see the innards ;)
Now that we have that settled, it was time to order. I ordered the Supermelt which started another discussion before ordering actually took place. Tonya mentioned that it was $1 less to get the original melt and it was made with a 1/3lb burger. Still plenty for one person. But I just couldn't. If I was sharing it with these two friends of mine I'd have to get the Supermelt - 1/2 pound of pure beefy goodness. Yep, size won out this time. The Supermelt as described on their site is a "1/2 lb burger, served between thick-cut bread & grilled with government cheese, bacon, caramelized onions, housemade pickles & mustard sauce." Stephanie ordered the Thanksgiving Turkey Burger. A "1/4 lb. fresh ground seasoned turkey burger, stuffing, mayo, housemate orange-cranberry sauce & roasted butternut squash. She also added a side of macaroni and cheese to her order. I made sure everyone knew that the only thing we had to share was our main menu item. Any sides were not subject to splitting evenly. Stephanie was such a sweetie though. She gave us both a bit to taste anyway. Thanks babe ;) Lastly, Tonya ordered the BBQ Bacon. A "1/3lb burger, white cheddar, bacon, fresh jalapeño, housemade BBQ sauce & avocado spread.
My very first impression of the Supermelt was how surprisingly juicy it was for being a well-done burger! The bread wasn't quick as thick cut as I was expecting, but still substantial. The housemade pickles were very good and I'm not a pickle kind of gal. The mustard sauce gave a slight acidic note to this fat laden beasty. The bacon was cooked well, but I thought the onions were a bit too mushy and not quite caramelized. The cheese was there but not very noticeable. Overall this was a very good burger. I'd give it 4/5 stars.
Next one up is the Thanksgiving Turkey Burger. I was really hoping to try this ever since I saw it on the menu. I've always loved Thanksgiving! In my family we always made stove-top stuffing. Love or hate it, this is my absolute favorite part of the thanksgiving meal right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy. So when I saw a burger with stuffing on it, I was excited! The turkey burger to me was a basic turkey burger - pretty good! The stuffing was pretty yummy although it wasn't quite my stove-top. The cranberry sauce was the perfect amount of tang, but honestly I didn't notice the butternut squash. My overall thoughts on this burger was it was pleasant and if I was in the mood for a turkey burger, this is what I would want. I could even build my own with mayo, lettuce and tomato - just the basics. The only thing I would make sure to do next time I eat a turkey burger here is to salt it a bit. I would give this lovely burger 4/5 stars.
Now on to the macaroni. I must admit, I'm not a fan of most macaroni and cheese when I go out. I just like homemade better. Macaroni and cheese is like meatloaf in the respect that everyone has their own way of making it. You like yours better, I like mine better. And that is all I have to say about that. 2/5 stars
Last but not least was the winner - The BBQ Bacon burger. We all agreed out of all the burgers, this was everyone's favorite. While eating it I tried to not look at it because of the little bit of pink that was showing. I was pleasantly surprised they didn't overwhelm the burger with bbq sauce. So many places go crazy with the sauce; but here it was just perfect. The bacon again - cooked very well. The fresh jalapeños gave it that extra kick it needed (even though mine fell off and i just had the lingering flavor. Jalapeños are too spicy for me) and honestly I couldn't' hardly tell the avocado spread was there. It was present to me in texture but not flavor. Lastly the cheese....didn't really notice it, again. The main notes that were hitting my tongue were bbq, juicy burger and bacon. What else is needed in life anyway? I'd give this a 5/5 stars.
Keep your eyes peeled for our next tasting at Wahlburgers.
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