Food Review: Smash in line, Smashburger is in Utah

Last week Ava, Eirn and I were invited to the opening of SmashBurger in Sugar House. Smashburger is a franchise and is located inside the same building as Pei Wei on 2100 South. The opening was a smashing success everything was on the house and the line was l-o-n-g.

I'm not a fan of crazy busy restaurants, but considering the food was free I'm not complaining. I had the mushroom swiss burger. It was yummy. My favorite part was the egg bun even though it sounded scary it was soft and delicious. I also tried out the haystack onion rings. The rings were paper thing slices briefly drudged in a batter before being quickly deep-fried. They were good, but they won't be replacing beer-battered rings for me any time soon. The aioli sauc (spicy fry sauce for Utahns) was very good. It had a nice kick and great flavor.

Erin had the spicy burger. It came with a few jalapenos and was a little too spicy for her taste buds. She also had the smashfries (shoestring fries with rosemary). She loved these little guys.

Ava also had the mushroom swiss burger and declared it good. I believe she had regular fries with salt and fry sauce. They were also very yummy. Ava and Erin also tried the chocolate shake, which I'm guessing they liked, but I don't remember hearing any comments about they level of yumminess to Smashburger's shake.

I probably won't be back to Smashburger anytime soon. As a casual-dining-meets-fast-food restaurant (think Noodles & Co. with burgers), the average burger costs about $7 along with $2 for fries, more than my beloved local Millie's across the street.

Any burger joint, you just can't get enough of?

Food reviews: The armpit of the Elbow

I ventured down to Fiddler's Elbow for a meeting with the staff from, The Forum. I haven't been to Fiddler's in a while. I always find the food mediocre, the menu lacks focus and the service is well--let's just say you know that Fiddler's is an equal opportunity employer.

As soon as I sat down a wine menu was shoved in my face because as a girl I must not drink beer. Of course, I promptly ordered Wasatch Apricot Hefeweizen ($4.50 on tap). The server informed me their keg was broken so they may not have it available. She left to go check. About five minutes later, she appeared empty handed and let me know the hefeweizen was available. "Would you like the hefeweizen?"

Uh...yes, please.

I ordered the garlic burger for just under $7 without cheese. It came with fries and no choice of how the burger was cooked, it showed up well-done. The burger was easily the best thing I have ever had from Fiddler's Elbow. It was garlicky without being overwhelming, juicy and an even burger to bun ratio. A nice positive change for a brew pub. I was so impressed by the flavor that I ignored how absolutely messy the burger was (my ketchup stained shirt is in the washer as I write this).

Strangely, they didn't serve fry sauce and at this point I was avoiding any further interactions with my server so I just went ahead and had fries like a non-Utahn with ketchup. The fries needed some serious salting, but they were cooked just right and I believe hand cut. Moving their fries from a previous rating of "crap" to "yum."

As always, I love the micro-brewed apricot hefe from Wasatch. It's a great light beer. Refreshing, sweet and delicious without being too light for even the darkest beer drinker.


So I must conclude that service is the armpit of this otherwise great pub. But, I'm still looking forward to the next staff meeting at Fiddler's as long as we can just once have a server who doesn't make me question their ability to fill out the application. Oh and for beer, burger and fries it was just under $15. Not too bad for a sports bar in Sugar House.

There's burgers in them there hills

Oh my readers, I have so many stories for you. I'm happy to say I have Internet access here in the land of peaches and peanuts for the next few days. So y'all better get used to hearing from me right regular again.

Now on to the recap for the so-called, "Burger Week."


St. George, UT
On the way to Las Vegas Erin, Ava and I stopped at Iceberg in St. George for lunch. I ordered the "Famous Thick Shake" in the flavor of lemon custard. The shake was nearly $5 and huge. I ordered the small and felt overwhelmed by the pint or more of ice cream staring me in the face. The ice cream itself was yummy. But I wouldn't recommend the lemon custard flavor. It was just too much cream for the sweet, artificial lemon to counteract. If you have a big appetite for a shake, Iceberg is worth the price for the size of their shake.

Las Vegas, NV
Oh yes, in Sin City we found burgers at Planet Hollywood. The food was not very good. Our waitress worked really hard to make sure our table was happy. The decor is pretty cool. It was exciting to see John Wayne's high school yearbook and Harrison Ford's jacket from "Indiana Jones." Unfortunately, the decor is not enough. I will most likely never go to another Planet Hollywood restaurant.

Our next burger joint stop was at In 'n Out Burger. As always with any chain the food is consistent. One of my favorite things about In 'n Out is there limited menu. I had the cheeseburger with french fries. The burger was pretty tasty. The fries are marked at mediocre. I suppose my only real complaint about In 'n Out is the ridiculous amount of people in line. Their food is good, but it's not that good. I just don't understand the In 'n Out cult following. Sorry, kids.

Salt Lake City, UT
In the in-between time, I went to Amber's for dinner. Eli made delicious BLTs with avocado replacing the lettuce. So I guess, it's a BAT. A cool trick I noticed was that he peppered the bacon before frying it. It worked out well. Although, I think when I try these on my own I'll have to forgo the dill rye bread. I like rye bread it just didn't work as well with the bacon as I would have liked.

Monticello, UT
Back to burgers again, my dad handled the grill for our family reunion. He made some dutch oven potatoes with bacon. As the man who gave me my love of anything potato he makes a pretty decent dutch. He also grilled burgers and it was dinner with the family. A million kids running around, everyone talking at once and more food than people.

Next up were Navajo tacos at the Pioneer Day celebration in Monticello. I love this dish. You pile up fry bread with chili beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onion. Unfortunately, the booth I went to didn't have very good beans so the whole dish suffered. The beans were bland and undercooked as the ingredient to give the whole meal it's flavor that's a serious problem. However my craving for fry bread is temporarily fixed until next time I venture into San Juan County since it's apparently the only place to get traditional fry bread.

Athens, GA
Well, I just landed so I haven't eaten anything cool and new yet. But I was told that almost all the local restaurants have live music every night here. I'll be sure to check it out and let you know. Have a fantastic week!

Millie's Burgers

Right off 2100 South and straight to my heart. Ahh...deep fried heaven and fry sauce. Millie's Burgers is the quintessential burger shop. Cheap. Quick. Delicious. Millie's has been in Sugar House since the 50's and not much has changed.

The joint is a small shack positively reeking of deep fried joys, burgers and summer. They have picnic tables outside and small booths inside. The atmosphere is simple, small-town and fun.

The service is exactly what I expect from this kind of diner. The girls behind the counter are friendly and 16. So be prepared to hear a lot of "umm, like, yeah and stuff" with a big smile and small giggles. You order at the counter and they bring the food to your table.

For your perfect summer pig out you can get a cheese burger, fries and a shake for about $8. (Yeah, they are that cheap.) The burgers are delicious made with real beef and cheese and grilled nicely. The fries are pretty good, not the best, but they still beat the McDonald's down the street. The shakes are over-the-top, thick and yummy!

Now for that great Utah tradition...fry sauce. If you aren't a native to fry sauce ways, let me explain: fry sauce is a dipping sauce made from ketchup and mayonnaise. At Millie's (as with most local restaurants) it is served with your fries instead of ketchup.

The key to great fry sauce is the right ratio of ketchup to mayonnaise, buttermilk and pepper. Millie's comes close: this isn't the greatest fry sauce, but some of the best I have found in the Valley.

The onion rings were not up to my beer-battered deep-fried golden brown expectations. They are edible, but you will have better luck with the deep-fried, shoestring fries.

Millie's has an extensive menu of shakes, glaciers, burgers, hot dogs, sodas and almost everything deep-fried, but I suggest you try the basics before branching out.

Millie's is across the street from Sugar House Coffee on the corner of 2100 South and McClelland Street (1050 East.) Share the love, Millie's is best enjoyed with friends and family.