Tom and I took a drive up to Hartford to try one of the newer burger places to see how it held up to our favorites. Easy parking right next door is nice so you don't have to walk too far. We got there on the early side of things, expecting it to be busy on a Saturday night. Shockingly, this place was pretty dead--never a good sign. A lone waitress in the dining room yelled over that she'd be with us in a minute--what, no hostess? Odd, but okay. She seated us quickly, then came back a few minutes later to get our drink order.
The one thing I have been looking forward to in coming here were the duckfat fries. We haven't had duckfat fries since being in Portland, Maine and falling in love with them at the restaurant Duckfat. So, I'm sure the disappointment on my face was quite evident when our waitress said they were out of them. On a Saturday night? Sigh. She did try to push the truffle fries, but I stuck with the regular to go along with the Burger Baby Deluxe--american cheese, house made pickles, country fried bacon and a housemade sauce. I ordered my burger medium--it was bordering medium-well/well done when it arrived on my plate, making the burger almost dry. The bun was nice and sufficient for the size of my burger and I was a big fan of the country fried bacon, never having that before but unfortunately, there was very little of the housemade sauce (which looked similar to the sauce on a big mac). The fries were fresh cut but heavy on the oil, leaving them soggy.
Tom had the Wagyu burger and the truffle fries. He liked the taste of his burger, however, his was overcooked from his order of medium-rare. The black truffle aioli had a prominent taste and was a different flavor. The truffle fries were soggy as well (maybe this is more expected since they have the truffle oil coating them?)
As we were finishing our meals, a chef had wandered out from the back to wave to a friend. This friend expressed her disappointment in there not being duckfat fries that night; he replied that the machine was actually clogged/broken and they had just fixed it, so they could now serve the duckfat fries. Tom and I were surprised to hear that--not sure why our waitress just didn't tell us that in the first place, instead of saying they didn't have them.
Overall, not impressed at all. We felt that other burger places in the area offer much more in the areas of creativity, quality and taste--not to mention, value. The burgers here are a bit overpriced. Service was friendly but we were kind of off put by the white lie, and I felt bad that she was handling a lot of tables by herself. This place had potential but falls way short. With the stiff competition of great burger joints in the area (West Hartford, Glastonbury, Manchester), I'd say we're not returning.
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