Date: August 20, 2013
Time: 5:15 pm
Weather: Sunny, Hot 90 degrees
Patronage: 12 people
Lighting: Natural mostly as they have large windows
Attendees: Myself and lovely wife and our wonderful kids of course
Total Bill: About $30 (roughly $10/person)
This venture was brought about by my wife just saying "let's go get a burger", and who am I to refuse her! We were in the area and decided to swing by the L street location, which is located about 124 and L street. (They do have another location that is found at 72nd and Jones) It is a nationwide chain but they do cater to local flavors to an extent.
First off if you have never heard of Smashburger, than let me explain what their catch is. Much like their namesake, they literally smash the burger on the griddle. They use Angus beef and by smashing the burger down it gets an amazing sear on it. I wouldn't say charred or crunchy, but it has a great caramelization on it. They don't cook to order and in this case, I am completely ok with that.
Much like other restaurants that I like, the menu isn't massive. When you start to dive into it and read the descriptions of the items you do start to swim and get confused. My advice is go with your gut in this case. It is very easy to change your mind about 15 times and then you second guess yourself. To throw another wrench into it as well, you can build your own burger with any number of toppings that you so desire.
I mentioned that they cater to local flavors, and they do slightly. They have a husker burger. Obviously being a "steak" state. That particular hamburger has A-1 steak sauce and a haystack of fried onions on top. I have had this burger in the past. Yes I'm the person that absolutely hates onions. In fact if I could eradicate them permanently from food I would. Anyone that knows me knows this. For whatever reason on that particular day I decided to go that route and I really enjoyed it.
On to this particular visit.
I went with a simple sounding Truffle Mushroom and Swiss. I am a huge sucker for mushroom and swiss burgers. The kicker in this equation is the simple word "truffle". I don't know how many people have had the pleasure of enjoying truffles. They have a very distinct flavor to them, but it adds such a depth of flavor to food. Truffles are extremely expensive, but luckily they are so strong in flavor, you don't need much to go a long ways. On this hamburger it is truffle infused mayo. It doesn't sound exotic at all, but believe me when I say that this burger will blow the top of your head off with flavor. Without the truffle element it would have been an o.k. burger, but just the little bit of infused mayo made it a very wise choice for me. It isn't overpowering at all, it just adds another dimension to the profile of the burger. The mushrooms are the typical button style that you would expect on it to begin with. The cool thing with mushrooms is that they assume the flavor of the food they were cooked with. Almost like an edible sponge. That just added to the fascinating hamburger.
Robyn went with "Rob" style. All of her ingredients looked garden fresh and perfectly ripe. It is difficult to review her particular hamburger as they aren't cooked to temp order. The one area that could have broken this meal is the topping being "off". Happy to report that as usual her hamburger was devoured before mine (I eat very slow, except just one time in my life). When she says nothing about her hamburger, it means it was just what she wanted.
The fries are deceptively incredible. They have a very light coating of powdered ranch dressing on them that is just a great compliment. You can also get, and I highly recommend, smashfries which are rosemary, olive oil, and garlic tossed. They are simply amazing.
All in all for being a chain restaurant you get a definite gourmet feel out of it. It is almost refreshing to get these kind of flavors out of a fast food feel restaurant. All of their burgers look amazing and sometimes it's good to step out of the box. If you have never had truffles and have always wanted to try the flavor, you really can't go wrong for just $7. You need to try something new and different, because you only live once. Next time you are around a smashburger, check them out and be amazed at the amount of flavor in every bite.
Here is an image of my Truffle Mushroom and Swiss. I really enjoy putting "real" pictures in my posts. It's horrible to see a picture on a menu and your food looks nothing like it.
I copy their website in all of my reviews so that you can check them out and see for yourself. I will try to get better about talking about other things on the menus as well. I just can't review something that I haven't put across my lips. If anyone wants to see something in these posts let me know.
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