Smashburger: A review

I thought it would be fun to shake up our blog a bit here and give our readers a small review of a new restaurant in our community.

Nate and I love to eat. We try to do it sensibly most of the time, but we like to go out every now and then. One of our favorite things to eat when we go out is hamburgers. I seriously think Nate could eat a hamburger every day of the week if he had to. So anyway, I was kind of excited when I found out that Smashburger would soon be opening up near us. I had never heard of it before, but noticed a coming soon sign when I was visiting the Caribou Coffee I frequent up by the Cub in St. Anthony. I went home and looked up some information and decided it sounded like a fun place. Some reviewers described it as what Chipotle is to Taco Bell, Smashburger is to McDonald's. Honestly I think Culvers wins that crown, but I still wanted to give this a try.

We didn't have dinner planned last night because Nate was originally supposed to be really late, but then figured out he'd be home by 6ish, so we decided to give it a try.

When you step inside, the decor really does not have much to offer. It's basic, bare bones, really not all that different from the inside of a Chipotle. They also have outdoor seating, but it was chilly. Since the smallish dining room was kind of full we opted to take our food to go.

You pretty much just step up to the counter and order, they either give you a number sign for your table if you eat in, or have you step aside and wait if you're doing take out. Their menu is small, they have about five or so of their "specialty burgers" which can also be done as chicken. Nate ordered the Twin Cities Smash, a burger with swiss cheese, lettuce, onion, mushrooms and smash sauce (whatever that is, I forgot to ask him what it tasted like). Because I'm picky, I did a "choose your own smash" with american cheese and then just ketchup and mustard. We also ordered the smash fries, which are french fries seasoned with rosemary and olive oil. They have regular fries, tator tots, onion rings and salads for sides as well. Also on the menu were several kinds of hot dogs. Full soda selection of Coke products or small amount of bottled beer was available, based on selection of beer they had though we just waited to have our own beer from home. They also have three kinds of shakes made with Haagen Daas ice cream, but again, we just wanted to keep it simple for the first time.

It was busy inside like I mentioned, but they did keep up pretty well, which impressed me since I believe they have only been open for a week. However while we were standing there a woman did come up to the manager and say that she felt her hamburger wasn't done all the way. But, he was nice and offered her a new one. They package up the food to go in these neat little boxes and we probably only waited about 10 minutes or less to get our food.

We got home and settled in to eat. I really enjoyed the fries, we split one order and it seemed to be enough for both of us. Nate had a 1/2 pound burger to eat while I opted for the 1/3 pound. The fries have a really nice rosemary flavor and didn't seem overally greasy. Though, I found it odd that they were still shoestring fries, if I was going to season them like that, I might want more of a steak cut, or thicker cut of some kind. The burger itself was pretty tasty I must say, nothing horribly special about it, but I liked that it wasn't super greasy, and the meat in mine was definitely cooked all the way through. The bun was really good (I should mention they have three bun choices: egg white, multigrain and chipotle spice, I chose the egg white), it was nice and fluffy and not too dry.

Nate's burger was bigger and messier to deal with since it had more items on it. Because he kept having to push the cats away I don't know if he really truly got to get a good taste of it or not, but he said it was good when I asked him. He also enjoyed the fries, they were different from the norm which is nice sometimes.

Bottom line we decided it's not a place we'll go all the time, but is a nice cheaper option (just a hair spendier than Culvers) to throw into the mix when we're needing something in a hurry. While we liked the fries alot, wouldn't want to eat that kind of flavor all of the time. We're also curious to see if it changes at all when the hype settles down and they're not as busy. Although considering they were busy, I thought the food was ready in a pretty good amount of time and it was cooked all the way, so I don't know if that woman we saw was a fluke or not.

I'd give it a B+ if I needed to give a grade. And it's definitely wayyyy better than McDonald's or Burger King!