Well times have changed!
The Burger business is getting…read moremore crowded all the time. You have 5 Guys, Burgers Priest, Burger Heaven.... quite a number of "Gourmet" Burger joints. I say "Gourmet" somewhat tongue in cheek but you know what I mean. Big Burgers with big toppings that virtually explode when you try and wrap your face around it..... The kind of burger that the Drive Thru places don't make. I have been to many of them. I enjoy an over stuffed burger as much as the next guy. Not something I have everyday but every now and then I treat myself. I travel as part of my job, so on the odd night, I go to Fatburger. The burgers were so big that they had to wrap them to help hold it together while you are holding it.
I normally get one with everything except Relish, plus Bacon, Mushrooms and Cheese. I was just looking at an old picture of my usual. It looks like real cheddar even. Certainly not a strip of process. There are usually enough mushrooms on there that you will find yourself wearing several. It's disgusting but in a good way..... or it was.
I went in tonight, haven't been in town for a while and it is one of my haunts while I am here. I ordered what I thought was my regular burger. Came to $19. I thought, hmmm, wings.... maybe I would get a small plate of 6. Another $10. So once all was said and done, 30 odd dollars with a little tip thrown in.
What I got was something resembling a 1/4 lb with cheese (processed slice), a plain bun, hardly any mushrooms, lettuce or anything else for that matter, and certainly no paper wrapper holding it together. I really should have taken a picture, but I feel rather odd taking food pics. I got the impression that maybe I had made a mistake and ordered the wrong burger. I decided maybe I did but the cost was still bugging me...
It didn't take long to eat it, I can tell you that. Even the fries, which were as usual, very tasty, seemed strange. Smaller than normal. Did I order an expensive kids meal by chance? Maybe there were enough, I don't know the burger had me confused! I glanced around the restaurant a little and I saw some people eating burgers that looked a little more like what I had.
I figured I would ask when I was done. I will also point out my wings came after my burger arrived and they were okay, not tossed in sauce but they tasted alright. I don't know where my veggies were because they didn't arrive with any.... Hmmmm.... One of the employees came by my table to grab the tray, they are good at keeping a place pretty clean, and he asked my how everything was and I told him that I thought maybe I had made a mistake ordering..... he seemed concerned and went to tell the manager. Good on him, doing his job, arguing or anything, just letting the boss deal with a complaint.
I spoke to the young man that was in charge this night, I explained what my burger had looked like and how I was rather disappointed by it. I told him bluntly that it wasn't any better than a 1/4 lb at a drive thru. Small patty, small everything. He told me that I had ordered a 1/3 and if I had ordered a 1/2 lb or one of the "specialty" burgers ( uh, I don't want to argue this point but I am at Fatburger, they should all be specialty, don't you think...?) it would have looked like the one in the picture of the old burger I had on my phone....
I don't know when this change occurred but I mentioned earlier that there is a lot of competition in this segment of the restaurant world, and charging $19 for a small burger, fries and a drink, isn't going to cut it. I hate it when places like this cheapen their product, it usually doesn't go well. Frankly, I am undecided as to whether I will come back and order a Specialty burger in order to get what I used to.... one would also think that maybe they would let you know things have changed. I guess there is a time limit on how long one does that. I guess I can try out 5 Guys again or the new Burger Heaven, both down the road........
