Great Austin Burger Hunt - Elevation Burger

Elevation Burger
2525 Anderson Ln #1-200
Austin, TX 78757(512) 419-7444

 

I do not mind paying more for a burger that tastes better, but I really have to wonder about a place that advertises something you cannot taste. That is my first reaction to Elevation Burger...but, let's go back and start at the beginning.

 

I ordered the Elevation Burger, with two slices of cheddar, fries and a regular drink.  The total was over $11.  For a place that is not a sit down restaurant, that is definitely a premium burger price. They do not ask how you want your burger and it was delivered so quickly that I can only assume that they pre-cook their patties.  I do not  believe that it is possible to cook beef, even unfrozen, all the way through in the amount of time that passed before my burger was on my table.  It arrives on a metal baking tray, the kind that is used for baking sheet cakes, or I believe more properly, half-sheet cakes. I was shocked to see that the burger was quite small.  For $6, with cheese, and without fries included, I expect more.

 

The burger comes in a little half bag, and then wrapped in waxed paper.  I took it out of the bag, which was a mistake and took a bite, and ended up with grease on my shirt, and all over my table.  Yes, you could say that the burger is juicy.  You could also say that it was greasy.  I ordered it with lettuce, which was wilted and disgusting after about 5 seconds.  I removed it. The burger is tasty, but not tasty enough to warrant that price.  The burger is go greasy, that as the grease drained off into the wrapper, it looked like it took about half my cheese with it.

 

The fries were on a par with Mighty Fine, and 5 Guys.  Greasy, but tasty.  One thing to note, while their order of fries is not as large as the one at 5 Guys, it is still quite large and can easily be shared by two, or maybe even three, unless you really like fries.

 

I find the idea of a Health Food Burger Shop to be a bit of an oxymoron, but that is what Elevation Burger is trying to be.  Organic, Grass-Fed, Free-Range Beef, at least that is what their sign says.  Fries cooked in "heart healthy" olive oil.  Fries may be...healthier...when cooked in Olive Oil, but somehow I doubt that makes them "healthy."   And, while organic grass-fed beef may be healthier, I do not see that making a burger a healthy choice.  To me, what they are selling is the antithesis of a great burger.  Now, that would not matter one bit to me, if they delivered a great burger, but they don't.  It is a good burger, but not great.

 

One interesting side note.  Some time back, I reviewed Terra Burger.  The location that I tried is now an Elevation Burger.  They both sold organic beef burgers, but the burgers could not be more different.  The Terra Burger was dry, and the Elevation Burger has gone too far off the opposite end of the scale.

Unless Organic, Grass-Fed, Free-Range beef is the deciding factor in your burger choice, you can do better than Elevation Burger...and for a less.

Great Austin Burger Hunt - EZ's

EZ's Brick Oven Grill
3918 N. Lamar 
Austin, TX 78756 

(512) 302-1800 

 

I have driven by EZ's dozens...heck, possibly hundreds of times over the last few years and never stopped in.  My wife and I fixed that situation a few nights ago.

 

The restaurant on Lamar is done up in a sort of retro 50s style.  It reminds me of Mighty Fine, but that is the 50s as done by a big national corporation.  EZ's is a smaller chain, with only 5 stores and they have done a better job with their retro style.

 

We both ordered Bacon Cheddar Burgers.  I ordered the Curly Fries and my wife ordered the Sweet Potato Fries. The problem is that I ordered a soda, and when I made my way to get my drink and found that they are a Pepsi house, which is a big negative for me.  Worse, they had no Diet Dr. Pepper.  I ended up having to drink Diet Mt. Dew, and that is nasty.  This is definitely a case of a restaurant not caring about their customers, especially those who want or need to have beverages without sugar.

 

Our food arrived quickly, and the burger was pretty good.  It would probably make my top ten.  It comes on a wheat bun, and that is without them asking me, so I have to assume that is the regular bun.  The meat was well cooked, and the bacon was crispy, which is a big plus.  The only negative, it was a little bit heavy on the mustard

 

The sweet potato fries were very crispy, but the chipotle sauce that came with them had crusted over.  It tasted okay, but the crust made it less than appetizing.  Now, when it comes to the curly fries...well, it is going to take a bit of explaining. 

 

When you put the words "curly fries" on the menu, it carries a certain connotation that goes beyond the shape of the potatoes.  Curly fries are seasoned fries, but not at EZ's.  Also, they were not terribly crisp.  They were alright, but not great.

 

Because of the beverage situation, I will not be putting EZ's on my list of places to try again.  The burger is not good enough to make up for having nothing to drink.  After seeing a few of their pizzas, I may be tempted to brave the lack of drinks to try the pizza.

New Mandarin Chinese Restaurant

New Mandarin

212 E. Oltorf St.

Austin, TX 78704-5531

 

Today's review is on carry out food, which is not new, but this time someone else went out to bring it back, so I got it probably 15 or more minutes after it was prepared.
 

Now, if you remember my review of Rice Bowl Cafe, you may remember that I was looking for another restaurant in the same area of town.  Well, that was Mandarin Chinese and I think they may be connected with the north Austin Mandarin that went out of business about two years ago.  I say this because the New Mandarin website is using exactly the same template as the site for the out-of-business Mandarin website.  Fortunately, the south Austin Mandarin, or New Mandarin is still going strong.
 

I ordered my usual.  Sesame Chicken, Hot and Sour Soup, Fried Rice and it came with an eggroll.
 

The Hot and Sour Soup is quite peppery, and quite good.  Now, I am a fan of Hot and Sour Soup, but mostly I am fan of Hot and Sour Broth.  I do not mind the egg, but the mushrooms, tofu and other ingredients are not something I care for.  I tend to skim off the broth and leave the rest.  Well, when I got to the bottom of the bowl, I found that there wasn't much left, so I give them an extra point for giving me lots of broth.
 

The Eggroll was in the box with the rice and chicken, so it is a bit soggy, though it does retain some of it's crunch.  Tasty enough, considering that I did not have to move from my desk to enjoy it.
 

The sauce is quite dark, and a bit less sweet than average, but still good. The chicken is cut into smallish pieces and mostly cooked properly.  As I am eating it, I hit occasional pieces that are a little overdone and chewy, but mostly the chicken is done correctly.  The pieces are well coated, but there is not an abundance of sauce.
 

In an unusual but welcome surprise, there are no vegetables or onions in the fried rice.  It's a bit bland, but a little soy sauce takes care of that.  I wish there were more of the sesame chicken sauce to mix with the fried rice.
 

I managed to miss New Mandarin in my own searches for Chinese restaurants, but I will be happy to give them another try.

Great Austin Burger Hunt - Burger Tex

Burger Tex
5420 Airport Blvd
Austin, TX  87851
(512) 453-8772

 

I ordered the #3 with Swiss Cheese. That is a half pound burger with fries and a drink.  I was prepared to be disappointed when I saw that they serve Pepsi, but then I saw that they have Diet Dr. Pepper so it is okay.  The building on Airport is really old and when you walk in it looks like an old Barbeque joint, with unfinished wood floors, or at least it looks like they have not been refinished in my lifetime.  Now, don't take that as a negative, I didn't.  Small hole in the wall burger places are often very good, and though this one is not all that small it does have that hole in the wall feel to it.

 

The food came quickly and then I had to hit the salad bar for condiments and fixings.  That makes it feel a little like Fuddruckers, but again, that is not a negative.  The first bite of my burger had me very impressed.  I would have to judge it a little below Phil's Icehouse, but Burger Tex might be in second place. To the lady in front of me, the gentleman behind the counter was bragging that they make their own buns, and that may be true, but it is not much to brag about.  There is nothing wrong with them, but they just do not add much to the experience.  I do have to give them one plus point for having brown mustard.

 

I was tempted to ask if they double fry their fries, because they were excellent with a very crispy crust that I associate with double frying.  They were good from first to last and never got soggy and saggy.

 

Overall, I was very impressed.  The burger was tasty, and the fries were great.  Burger Tex goes on the short list of places that I will look forward to visiting again.

Cheese Sticks

When I was in France, almost 40 years ago, I remember buying these delicious cheese sticks. I remember them being crunchy and light and filled with Swiss cheese flavor. One of many fond memories of France.

Fast forward some 20 or so years, and I remember a bakery in Austin, Texas, Upper Crust Bakery, that had these delicious Cheese Sticks. They might have called them Cheese Twists, and they were nothing like the ones from France, except that they were crunchy and light, just not as light as the ones from France. Upper Crust Bakery used a Cheddar, at least I think that was it, and they were delicious. I used to stop in there when I passed and buy as many as I could afford, or as many as they had left.

One day, they stopped having them. Now, I wasn’t able to get there as often as I would like, and I have checked back several times, and nothing.

Now, as you might imagine, I have been looking for a way to get these delicious things that I remember, and not long ago, I watched the Hairy Bikers making something and it sparked my imagination. They made twists, with Parma ham and gorganzola, and you can find the recipe here.

I tried this once before using Philo Dough, but that turned out to be way too much work and while the result was edible, even approaching tasty, it was not really a success.

This time I tried Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry sheets and some Extra Sharp Cheddar. I unrolled the dough, spread on some butter and then sprinkled on cheese. I folded it, rolled it out, trying to get is to the original thickness and then repeated the process about four times, using about 4 oz of cheese.

Now, one problem is that I was doing this on Super Bowl Sunday, and my Niners were playing, so I was not in the mood to experiment with backing. I cut the dough into strips, attempted to twist them, and loaded up our baking stone at 350 degrees.

When I checked on them later, they had sort of fallen over and partially opened up, and the grease dripping from them was phenomenal. They did not look too appetizing, so I tried flipping them over. That got both sides crispy, and they were pretty good.

I have still got more than a little way to go before they match my memories, but I think I might be on the right trail. Next time, no butter, more cheese, and I am going to experiment with cooking, both on a pan, and on the baking stone. More news at 11.

Rice Bowl Café

So, actually I headed off to try to find Mandarin House Chinese Restaurant. Funny thing, I called the number and it was answered, but with a different name that I did not catch right away. I got my order placed, and headed off to the address on the website, and it isn't Mandarin House anymore. So, I called again and I wish I had paid attention to the name they said as they answered. I got directions and headed off to what I assumed was the new location, which was a couple miles up the road. But, when I arrived there, no Mandarin House. I called again, and this time I heard it, Rice Bowl Café, which I had seen where they said they were. Turns out that Mandarin House has been closed for two years. They need to shut down their website.

 

So, this review is about Rice Bowl Café, not Mandarin House.

 

Rice Bowl Café

11200 N. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78753

(512) 835-8888 (number on the banner on the end of the building)

(512) 837-6361 (the number on the Mandarin House website)

 

After the mix up over the restaurant and the location, I was amused, which would normally put me in a forgiving mood. I picked up my order and headed back to work, as I always do. Sesame Chicken, lunch portion, Fried Rice, Egg Roll and Hot and Sour Soup. And I would have been in a forgiving mood, until I paid the bill, which was over $9.00. That is a lot for a Sesame Chicken Lunch. Unfortunately, it got worse.

 

So, the first demerit comes for putting the egg roll in with the steamy rice and chicken. I did not wait all that long, but it was awful. The egg roll was completely limp, with no crunch to it. It was the worst egg roll I have ever eaten. Now some might argue that the restaurant cannot be responsible for the egg roll going limp in a to go order, but I disagree. All they need to do is drop the eggroll into a bag, say one just like the bag of friend won ton strips that came with the lunch and were not in the styrofoam container with the rice and chicken.

 

Now, there was one good thing about the eggroll. It wasn't loaded down with onions. As you can imagine, things loaded down with onions do not rate highly at Hold the Onions. There were onions in the sauce. There were onions in the Fried Rice. There were onions in the Hot and Sour Soup. I have never seen onions in at least two of those items. Now understand, I don't mean a few finely chopped onions, I mean massive slices of onion in massive quantities.

 
 

It got worse. The sauce was full of both onions and some sort of relatively small, but whole peppers. This made the sauce hotter than most I have tasted, but not by a lot. The real problem was that the sauce wasn't very sweet. Actually, thinking about this now, while writing this review, it was sweet....for barbeque sauce! Actually, it wasn't even very sweet for barbeque sauce, but you get the idea. It was savory, and not completely bad, once you separated it from the onions and peppers, but it wasn't very good. Also, the sauce was gloppy and unappetizing to look at, with a gelatinous consistency that spoke of too much cornstarch being used to thicken the sauce.

 

When you combine less than stellar sauce with overcooked chicken you get a fairly unpleasant combination. The chicken was chewy in a bad way, and over cooked or dried out until parts of it were stringy. Things are not looking good.

 

The Fried Rice was overloaded with onions, though onions in Fried Rice are fairly common. Once you separated the Rice from its onion prison, it wasn't too bad, but in a meal that is really suffering, it did not shine out either.

 

So, at last we come to the Hot and Sour Soup, which was also loaded with onions. Now, I generally only want the broth anyway, so I did not really suffer too badly from the onions in the soup, and finally, it seems like they got something right...well, almost. The soup was a little bland, though tasty, without the kick of spice that helps clean out the sinuses while eating a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup.
 

 

So, in conclusion, we have a limp as a rag eggroll, overcooked chicken in gloppy unappetizing sauce with a side of bland friend rice followed up by a mediocre soup, every last bit of buried in onions, as if that could save it, and the whole thing overpriced.
 

Needless to say, I will not be going back to Rice Bowl Café.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Moonies Burger House

Moonies Burger House
13450 Research Blvd.
Austin, TX 87850
512-257-9000

 

I had seen this place before, it is just across the street from Half Price Books at 183 and Anderson Mill. Other times I was not ready to stop for food, but finally, I decided to stop, after spending some time at the bookstore. In a first for the Great Austin Burger Hunt, I am trying sliders, because that was the special. They offer a variety of burgers, with a selection of cheeses, American, Cheddar, Swiss, and Pepper Jack. The sliders came with American cheese and grilled onions, which I asked them to leave off.

 

Now, let me ask a question. What is the use of placing a special order, if they ignore it? That's right, none. The special was for sliders with grilled onions, and obviously, as the proprietor here at Hold the Onions, I asked them to Hold the Onions. So, what did I get on my sliders...yes, you guessed it, onions, so big point against them.

The sliders come dry. Now, that might be okay, except that the first thing I thought when I bite into was...this is dry. The meat is dry, and that is not a good place to start a burger, and I say that with the admission that I generally like dry burgers. The tiny bit of american cheese is barely noticeable. The bun is soft, but not too soft. In fact this is a pretty good little slider roll. It probably deserves a better piece of meat. In fact, the roll is the best part of this slider. Now, I do not want anyone to think that the meat was bad. It was a bit over cooked, but it was tasty and had a nice char on it. It isn't bad, it just isn't great and they are changing a good bit for this burger. I expect more at this price.

The fries are good. There are breaded and quite crispy. They are no spiced, but they are excellent with catsup. They have good legs, as they were still crispy, even when they were cold.

Their only diet drink was Diet Coke, which I count as a point against them.

It looks like a sports bar, but none of the TVs were on when I was there in the afternoon.

 

I cannot really say what the regular size buns are like, but the ones I saw go past my table certainly looked like the ones on my sliders and I think that is a good thing. The sliders are on the high side of average, with an extra point for the nice buns. I won't skip Phil's Icehouse for Moonies, but I wouldn't mind coming again.