I love to try new restaurants and moving to a new town has given me the opportunity to visit quite a few different ones that we didn’t have in Arkansas. 

My favorite friend/co-worker and I had heard about a burger joint that had recently opened, so we thought we’d try it out. 

I sorry to say… I’m not impressed with Smashburger. 

First off, you can’t call in an order unless the total is over $40 and you have to give a credit card number over the phone.  When you’re on a time crunch during the lunch hour, not being able to call in an order so its ready when you need it to be, just doesn’t cut it.

The restaurant itself is pretty cool and contemporary looking on the inside. (The one pictured above is not the actual location that we visited, but it looks pretty much the same) However, it had been raining all morning and when we got there, the floor was so slick, I thought I was going to fall and break something. Plus, there were no “Caution: Wet Floor” signs anywhere.

Smashburger is the kind of establishment where you order at the counter, they give you a number card, seat yourself and they bring the food to your table.  It must be a popular place because even at 11:30 in the morning, all the tables were full and the line to order was nearly out the door.  And, to make matters worse, there was only one register open with only one employee taking orders.

We finally got to the counter and ordered.  We each wanted the Kids Smashburger meal.  However, I wanted to try the Smashfries instead of the regular ones, which cost an additional 30 cents for the substitution. 

Smashfries are seasoned with rosemary, olive oil and garlic. I’d heard they were pretty good and was anxious to try them.  They look really yummy in the picture above.  Just wait…

 The girl taking our order didn’t ask us if we wanted cheese or mustard or other condiments/vegetables on our burgers.  I actually was going to request Sharp Cheddar cheese, but she didn’t ask.

The prices were good.  Each kid’s meal (choice of a burger, grilled cheese, chicken tenders or hotdog, along with fries and a drink) cost $3.99.  (However, there is no prize or toy like with other traditional kid’s meals)

They claim to be a “Fast Casual Dining Restaurant”.  I don’t think they were very fast.  We got our orders to go… and we waited…and waited… and waited.  When we ordered, we were told it would be between 6 and 8 minutes for our food to be ready.  If I’m not mistaken, we waited over 20.

When we got back to the office and sat down to eat our food, I couldn’t even get a grip on the container holding my Smashfries because of all the oil.  Olive oil was dripping down the outside of the fry box!  I don’t even want to mention the amount of oil that was lurking in the bottom of the carton! Here’s a picture of my bag after I’d eaten nearly all the fries, which were okay tasting. 

Can you see the oil puddled around the fries?  GROSS!!! Strike 6

The burger wrapper was also drenched in oil, but the actual sandwich itself was pretty good and the Classic Egg artisan bun was fantastic.  However, it was plain with only cheese.  Simply because the order-taker didn’t ask me what I wanted on it.  It certainly didn’t look like the one in the picture below… similar, though.  Just imagine it without the lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, mustard and ketchup and slightly more smashed.

Apparently they have incredible “Handspun” shakes made from Haagen-Dazs ice cream, which is a major plus.  We’d just had Starbucks, so the last thing I needed was more calories. 

Speaking of calories…

My Kids Smashburger had 530 calories and 32 grams of fat, not counting the cheese.  One serving of Smashfries had 520 calories with 26 grams of fat!  Good grief!  Click HERE for a link to all of their nutritional information.  I should have known there was a lot of fat in this meal… I needed a baby wipe to clean up all the grease that was left behind on my desk.

I’ve heard quite a few good things about this particular restaurant, so maybe we just went on a bad day, but I will not be going back.

It gets a thumbs down from me.

For more information on this restaurant, click HERE.

Until next time…

Happy Blogging!