Sunday, April 28, 2013

Sinful Burger (Bellevue)

Date: April 28, 2013, Sunday                   www.sinfulburger.com
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Weather: Sunny warm, breezy, 75 degrees
Patronage: Restaurant was not too busy
Lighting: Dive bar/Sports Bar feel
Attendees:  Myself and Jenn
Total Bill (excluding gratuity): $35.00 ($17.50/person)

I want to start on a different note for this one, that doesn't affect my impression of the venue.  We were going to actually go to a different place today (Stella's), but found out that they were closed on Sunday.  Same with Dinker's.  For those two being legendary burger haven's to be closed on Sunday seemed odd, but then again God even rested on the seventh day.

So we were searching the web for another great place.  We came upon a place that was voted in the winners circle best in Omaha 2013.  In this day and age a website is the key to success.  Their website is horrible.  It does not navigate in a coherent pattern and the information is accurate, but you have to dig to find anything.  In fact we couldn't find their hours so we had to call to make sure that they were open, which they were and so we'll start from there.

You couldn't have a better Sunday with the weather.  It has been the first weekend that cooperated with everything and it seems that the entire city was enjoying a weekend spent outdoors.  When we arrived we were welcomed in by a couple of workers and informed that we can sit wherever we wanted, so we chose the bar.

We were immediately asked for our beverage of choice.  I went with Coke, and Jenn chose the PBR drink special.  Our server then made a comment about how the Detroit Red Wings backed into the playoffs for 22 straight years, upon seeing Jenn's Wings hat.  I enjoyed the fact that he knew what was going on in a sport that I love especially involving my team.  Not that this is a hidden fact with hockey, but in this town if it's not Huskers or Bluejays it's rare.  He also made the comment that basketball fan is barely human, made me like him more.

So on to the menu.  I will be the first to admit that normally I do not like themed anything.  I think it feels fake, hokey, and bordering on ridiculous.  So their play is on the 7 deadly sins for burgers and they appear to be aptly named, but more on that later.  An appetizer did catch both of our eyes so we just had to order.  It was a Reuben Roll.  If you imagine a Reuben sandwich mating with an egg roll you would have it.  It was surprisingly fantastic.  It was a nice re-imagining of a Nebraska classic, completed with a home-made thousand island dressing that is made fresh daily.  The dressing is worth is by itself.  It was lighter on the relish and had a nice horseradish tang to it and it completed the Reuben to perfection.

Now the meat of the review and yes pun intended.  The play on the seven deadly sins was sort of refreshing and you could see the thought that was put into each one.  Jenn went with Pride a large burger with mushrooms and swiss and she requested mid-rare temp.  She did substitute her condiment from spicy mustard to a garlic mayo as well as added some grilled onions and a side of sweet potato fries.  I went with Sloth, a monstrous burger, three 1/4 pound patties, American, cheddar, and pepper jack cheese, thousand island dressing (read above, worth a gallon of it) and bacon (as if that wasn't enough).  I chose mine carnivore style, nothing from the garden, and regular fries.  I opted out of naming my temperature just to see what the restaurant felt was a good temp to serve.  I am assuming a risk because I have been served my fair share of well done burgers and they are just lifeless, tasteless, and boring.

The food was served as we were finishing our appetizer, which again is about all you can ask for.  It tells me a few things about the kitchen and staff.  They were watching us and not hovering and that they didn't fire our food immediately as we ordered our app at the same time of our burger.  Our food wasn't left on the hot plate to die while we were eating our appetizer and we weren't served both at the same exact time defeating the purpose of the appetizer. 

Jenn's hamburger looked amazing and was cooked perfectly to mid-rare.  The salt shakers are full of seasoned salt, which of course is all the king of the salts.  Not knowing the temperature of my burger beforehand was a little stressing, but I am pleased to announce that it was a nice incredibly flavorful medium.  It was not lifeless, it had the great char that comes with a medium burger.  Every tier had it's own molten cheese and the profiles from each is apparent.  The jack cheese adds a nice spice level as does the home-made thousand island dressing.  The burger is huge at just over 3/4 of a pound (reminder that this is not the Gluttony burger, and more on that later).  The fries are what you wanted.  Shoestring style slightly overdone, like the kind you find in a typical dive bar and a great compliment to the burger itself.

Now this restaurant does have the ever popular food challenge, much like you would see in Man vs. Food.  Called the Goliath and this thing will kill a lesser individual.  The burger is 4 pounds plus eat a pound of fries in an hour.  If you fail your picture goes on a wall of failure holding what you didn't finish, plus the $25.00 bill for the burger.  If you finish your burger is free and you get a shirt.  If you beat the current time of 6 minutes 43 seconds you get $100 bucks cash.  Not bad for just 6 minutes of work.

The Gluttony burger is a beast by itself and I only mention it in passing because of what exactly it is.  It is two half pound patties with cheese in the center of the patty.  Topped with bacon of course someone has to keep the cardiologists employed in this town.  Now the real kicker is there is no bun with this devilish concoction.  In it's place are two grilled cheese sandwiches.  It looked really good, but I prefer to stay on this side of the ground for a while longer.

All in all it was a nice play on the sins.  It wasn't over dramatized and they let the food do the talking.  You have lots of choices, but if you are a vegetarian this is not the place for you.  You can also get any food item "evil" which looks like incredibly sweet hot sauce.  I love the dive feel to this place and they had T.V.'s with sports on all over.  A really friendly staff that was attentive, but not overly so. 

The food was amazing, and yes I am a sinner.  I plan on sinning more for what it's worth



Jenn's Pride Burger
 
 
Here is my Sloth Burger
 
 
 My Reuben Roll cut open and the delicious dressing:

 
 
Jenn's Reuben Roll
 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

So I was thinking

I naturally tend to do this to a point of counter-productivity.  I have really been enjoying trying to think about how to take this blog to a new level. 

Obviously I am going to be posting photos of what it is that we have ordered.  Just for the fact that nothing ever looks like it does on the menu.  I have always thought that is a form of false advertising. 

I also want to add a note of we are not going to every single burger place in town.  Meaning not every bar or restaurant.  This is just reserved for those places that specialize in the burger front.  We could literally be eating hamburgers for the next 8.4 years.  The one concession I will make is if someone truly says that so and so has the best, then of course, we will check them out.



Sunday, April 21, 2013


So I need to add another new note into Tommy Colina's Kitchen for a reason that is an area that I must have overlooked, so let me explain.

After our meal every single one of us had left overs, due to the fact that we did have an appetizer.  I normally do not have any leftovers and burgers especially do not reheat well at all.  They typically get too overcooked in the microwave or the bun gets super soggy.  It also usually tastes like the flavor has been sucked out of the hamburger and is usually bland.

I am happy to report that upon re-heation (is that even a word, because if it's not I am so copywriting that) a TCK burger stays just as juicy and not overcooked.  The bun was a little soggy, but you try microwaving a bun and see your results.  Mainly the flavor of the meat was still intact.  I have never has a hamburger do that, and was a little impressed.

We won't be using this criteria save for those few exceptions where we actually have leftovers and it has left a mark on us.  Typically you know what you get with reheated hamburgers, but there are times that you have may been forced too many libations and held hostage by your stomach and ordered something and just don't eat it, maybe until morning with really runny eggs.

So Bravo to TCK!




Also we will be adding pictures to these posts and I will try and keep linking the post to the restaurants web site.  That way you can see the *real* pictures of our food vs menu pics.




Burger Places

Tommy Colina's Kitchen
Stella's
Dinkers
Louie M's
Sinful Burger
Drover
Texas roadhouse
Smashburger
Freddy's Steakburger
Burger Star
Five Guys
Red Robin
Don and Millies
Sonic
Dj's Dugout
Crave

Getting some feedback.

So I have had a little feed back about not just trying to cover burgers.  To maybe show and talk about other foods maybe on the menu in order to not alienate those that don't enjoy eating beef. 

I think that is a wonderful idea! See ask and ye shall receive. 

I know that the purpose of this blog is to locate the BEST burger in Omaha, but we can approach this in a different light.  Maybe talk about what else we saw on the menu that looked tasty.  I want to have as many loyalists to this cause.

I am in the process of designing T-Shirts. How cool is that?

I am going to need comments to keep a list of locations so I will start another thread about burger places, feel free to add to comments to this, or for that matter any other post.  Let us know what you think!


  

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Tommy Colina's Kitchen (West)

Location: Tommy Colina's Kitchen (West) http://tommycolinaskitchen.com/
Date: April 18, 2013, Thursday
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Weather: Snowy/rainy, windy, cold, 40 degrees
Patronage: Restaurant was empty
Lighting: Inviting, intimate
Attendees:  Myself, Robyn, Jenn, Grayson, and Cayden
Total Bill (excluding gratuity): $49.00 ($12.25/person)
So we jumped with both feet in to start off this collaborative effort to find the best burger in Omaha. 

It was very quiet upon entering the restaurant, but we were welcomed warmly and told that we could sit where ever we wanted.  Interesting feature in the restaurant is they have a huge wall that is painted with blackboard paint that people can draw or write on.  The host, who saw that we had a 5 year old recommended that we sit near the wall so he can draw.  It was nice to have that level of attention on us, instead of just sitting us anywhere.

When we sat down, our host/server was all over getting us drinks, and within 2 minutes of entering we had beverages.  Instead of asking for our order right away since we had literally just taken off our coats, our server faded into the background  temporarily and let us "shop" the menu.  I had heard about a great appetizer which is cheese fries with bacon, chipotle mayo, and diced pickles. We must have looked as if we were in need of something because our server was there and asked about apps. So of course we had to order those.

 Herein lies the first true test for Tommy Colina's Kitchen (TCK).  A pet peeve of mine involving ordering appetizers at restaurants is that you typically feel forced to order apps and meals at the same time and you virtually get both at almost the same exact time.  You feel as if you can't just enjoy either and you have no room for anything on the table.

I am happy to report that the timing at TCK was just about as perfect as it gets.  We ordered our cheese fries, and were not bothered until they were sitting on our table, and only then were we asked to order our burgers. We could enjoy our app without pressure and just enjoy our company.

So on to the burgers:

Me:  Midtown Shroom, Portobello mushrooms and Provolone, requested Mid rare, fries
Robyn: Burger (Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo) Fries
Grayson: Kids Cheeseburger Fries
Jenn: Triple B Bacon, Brie, and Blue Cheese, requested Mid rare, home-made chips

We had our burgers to us in about 10 minutes.  That is pretty impeccable to have entrees to us before we had time to fill up on our amazing cheese fries.  Our burgers were cooked to perfection.  Mid rare is fairly easy to cook too, but it is just as easy to cook under or over.  The burgers are juicy and HUGE.  Grayson's cheeseburger looked like it could fill me easily.  The meat is seasoned perfectly.  They aren't too spicy and they allow the flavor of the meat shine.  Having a mid-rare burger, you still get the light taste of iron that you are looking for. TCK fries are crunchy and coated in ranch seasoning.  I tried one of Jenn's home-made chips and that was really nice.  Thick cut and crunchy.  A really nice alternative to the fries and compliments the burger just the same.  The fact that the fries are made fresh every day shows the passion involved with delivering a great experience.

All-in-all it was a wonderful experience and we could really experience TCK atmosphere with little interruption and you could tell that there is passion for delivering a good result.  I would recommend this place to anyone.  I am truly looking forward to returning and trying the entire menu.  They have a nice full bar and a good beer list. 

One of the neat things is their menu appears small.  You aren't inundated with just page after page of items.  When you start to read about all of their burgers you will see a vast range of flavors and combinations of flavors.  It appeared simple but when you start to peel away the layers it was really diverse.  That is the mark of not just a good restaurant, but a great one.  They don't feel the need to try and hide behind a litany of flavors and they do not intend to intimidate the diner from their experience.  It is a subtle boast of confidence from the kitchen that declares war only on your individual taste buds and not ego. 

TCK = High marks across the board





Up next..........the legend that is.....Stella's

Stay tuned
 

Let the journey begin...

This journey is the start of a foodies dream to actually unequivocally find and defend the best burger in Omaha.  There will be other quests that loom, but everyone you talk to about tasty burgers names some place different.  I have eaten burgers at some pretty damn incredible places all over the country and the unique thing is every single one of them involved a protein of some sort in between a carbohydrate of some sort.

The first rule of the BBO ( Best Burger in Omaha) is there are NO rules. If something catches my eye, I will eat it.  I will not take the inept advice to try the same burger at every location to compare apples to apples.  If I wanted apples to apples I would eat a damn apple.  The other jaw dropping rule is that chains are included, with exception of BK and McD's.  We will rate the food in overly simplistic categories.  Food, atmosphere, service, and overall impression.

This journey will not be made alone.  I have enlisted the help of a master foodie expert in my sister, thusly doubling my burger experience at every location.  What she brings to the table is vast knowledge and a willingness to try unique things.  My wife, who is not a foodie per se, but what she may lack in food experimentation, she makes up ten fold from actually enjoying a good burger.  I do not want to under simplify my wife's role either.  She is one, that likes one type of burger, and as simple as that may be, there is no way to mask bad taste thusly really should put the fear in places.  She likes a burger cooked to perfection, with lettuce, tomato, and mayo.  That's it.  No frills, cheese, sauce, or anything to take away from the taste.  Sounds simple enough, but a degree over or under and you will be dead to her.

This is also not a closed contest.  We are always looking for a new place, or new company to show us a new place.  Much like good restaurants, it's a word of mouth kind of industry.  I believe that the Omaha food scene is massively under appreciated.  You would know if you have ever traveled to another state and ordered a steak.  I think that we under appreciate the food because we have come to  accept the fact that we eat like royalty.  It's like spoiled children.  To a degree you can't blame the child because that is how they were brought up.