Meadowlark Kitchen

I had the pleasure of enjoying Meadowlark for dinner for a friend’s birthday.  She is very familiar with the place and goes quite often, so I was stoked when she said that is where we would be celebrating her birthday.

The place is quite small but they manage to fit a lot of people inside.  We wanted to be on the patio, but there was a private party already taking over the whole outside so we were seated right by the front door.

The table shared the Denver nuggets and the chips and dip.  Both were absolutely delicious. I really liked the dill sauce that came with the nuggets. It was the perfect amount of tangy. Brian went with the Meadowlark burger. That thing was HUGE! Oozing with cheddar sauce. It almost took over the burger, there was so much.  He said it was amazing and I don’t doubt it.  It looked phenomenal. I went with the BLT.  The best part about it was that it came loaded with candied bacon. When I say loaded, I mean loaded!  Fantastic food and drinks! The service was even better.  I felt like we were family.  The whole table was well taken care of, always refilling waters and cocktails. What a great place! I will be back for sure!

Ignite Denver

For Valentine’s Day, my fiance and I wanted to check out Ignite.  We had heard that they had excellent juicy burgers and had to give them a try. We were seated and handed the menu. Immediately we saw man candy on the menu. Basically, it was some candied spicy bacon. We started with an order of that and then moved on to the burgers. I ordered the classic with cheese.  This is my go to for trying burgers at a new place.  If they can’t make a good basic burger, then I pretty much don’t need to go back. The burger looked like a tower.  It was so tall! I bit into the burger (which was difficult since it was so large) and it began dripping all over the plate. It was messy and delicious.  I fell in love. This was then put into my top 5 best burgers I have ever had. It was so juicy and packed full of flavor.  This made for a great Valentine’s Day. I will be back to try other burgers on the menu.

Bad Daddy’s Burger

I had been to another location of Bad Daddy’s before and wasn’t too impressed based on the prices and what you get. The service was astronomical though. This time, I was using the Dining Out Denver Passbook and it only works at the Cherry Creek location. I decided to try something different, so I ordered the pastrami Reuben burger. This is much different than my basic cheeseburger that I typically get. As we waited for our food to show up, a server was talking to a couple two tables over from us. She was still talking to them when we left. Our beers arrived and we sipped on them. Another couple walked in, were seated, ordered and received their food before we were even checked on.  We still haven’t gotten our food. Our burgers arrived right before the couple next to us left after their meal. It seemed to me that the service at this location was a night and day difference from the DTC location.

The food arrived and immediately I was in love with my burger.  I love Reubens and this one was a pretty good one. The beer choices are always awesome.  (We usually just stop in at a Bad Daddys for a beer or two) The food is great, but a bit pricey. The service seems to vary depending on what location you are at.  Overall, it was good, just took a long time to get our food based on other tables.

Bair’s All American Sports Grill

I was visiting my mom in Republic, Missouri for a few days and she kept swearing by Bair’s. I told her I had to try this place that she talks about all of the time. We stopped in for lunch at the location in Springfield. The waitress came by to take our drink order. I remembered seeing a sign for a Springfield brewery called Mother’s at the airport. I asked if they had anything from them and they did! I ordered the Tow Head American Blonde. Good smooth beer. I ordered a cheese burger and fries. I know, you are probably thinking I should have ordered something crazier, but I like to try to basics first. The burger came out and it was messy, delicious and juicy. Great burger! My mom got the sliders, which I think is a usual for her there. I ordered another Mother’s beer and tried the Three Blind Mice brown ale. Another good beer choice.  I decided then that we had to go to the Mother’s Brewery to try other beers that they offered. Bair’s has a great sports bar atmosphere. I love the food and the service was okay. I will be back when I visit Missouri again.

 

Sams #3 in Aurora

A cousin was coming through town and I thought, what would the whole family like for dinner? Sams #3!! This was my first time at the Aurora location and it didn’t disappoint. I settled on a cheeseburger with green chili cheese fries. I thought I would be more excited about the fries, until the burger arrived. It was beautiful. It looked almost magical. I took one bite, and I was in love.  It was one of the best burgers I had eaten in a long time. I devoured the whole thing in just a few minutes.  Messy face and all. My family were using napkins and wiping my face.  Normally a person would be embarrassed by this, but the cheeseburger was so good, I didn’t care. It was juicy, cooked to a perfect medium rare, and dripping all of the plate. I think I have found something that I cannot stray from on the menu. I will probably always get the cheeseburger every time I go to Sams. The chili cheese fries were really good too, but I was too full from the burger so even make a dent in the fries. I can’t wait to go back and have another one.

 

The Hornet

The sun was shining and enjoying some patio time was on my mind. My girlfriends and I walked down Broadway and picked the Hornet to enjoy some grub and light cocktails. We were seated on the patio with a great view of people watching. We ordered some mimosas and began looking over the food menu. The waitress seemed to take forever bringing our drinks and finally taking our food order. I got the cheeseburger and fries. A friend got the lobster mac and cheese. The food arrived quickly, which was brought by someone else other than our waitress. My burger was bland. It was as if they didn’t season the beef at all and just threw it on the grill. I was a little disappointed.  My friend’s mac and cheese however, was legit! The lobster chunks were huge.  It was ozzing with cheese. I learned my lesson.  Next time, get the lobster mac and cheese. The waitress took her time coming to check on us, which at that time we wanted more drinks. She took the drink order and brought out the wrong ones. She seemed little distracted.  Other than her and the bad tasting burger, I would say this is a good place to check out for drinks.

 

The Pint Room

175 beers on tap, 150 of them local, specializing in burgers. How can this be a  bad place? Well, it can. What is the point of having so many beers on tap, if you don’t have any in stock? It took me about 3 orders before I picked a beer that they actually had. The idea of 175 beer choices is awesome, but they need to keep up on refilling these.  My other thought it, I hope they have a handle on cleaning out those taps.

We ordered calamari to start with.  The server then said, “I am going to bring you out some bacon. It is $3 and you will each get a piece”. Ummm, okay. Thanks for asking if we wanted this bacon. The calamari came out and it was exquisite. There is no better word to describe it. The sauce that it was tossed in was tangy and not overpowering. It was laying on a bed of crispy rice noodles and bell peppers that were also drizzled with the same amazing sauce. I could eat this calamari everyday. The $3 bacon came out and I grabbed a piece. They were limp.  I like my bacon to be crispy, but this was just a thick cut of fatty bacon.  My fiance loved it, but I thought it was awful.

We then ordered our burgers.  I went with the classic, medium rare with american cheese.  I asked what the fresh vegetable side was and the server stated it could either be a squash medley or brussel sprouts. She didn’t seem to make any effort to find out which it was when I asked, so I went with the french fries. At this point the server had already forgotten about a beer that we ordered and pretty much forced us to buy bacon. The burgers came out and I started to chow down. The meat was nowhere near medium rare. It was a good solid medium to medium well.  I continued to eat it hoping that maybe once I got towards the center there would at least be some pink. No, no pink. I wasn’t in the mood to complain, and really gave up on this place being awesome at that point. I have spoken to a few others about this place and they all have the same issues. In theory this place could be fabulous, but really, it isn’t worth it.

 

In-N-Out needs to build one in Denver!

A trip to Vegas isn’t complete without a trip to In-N-Out. We took a cab from the hotel to get a burger first before heading to the airport. I would suggest getting your fries animal style, but I didn’t this trip.  A double double with some fries was plenty enough for me. I don’t understand why they won’t build one in Denver. So for now, I have to get it when I can. Love you In-N-Out!!!

 

Steuben’s in Uptown

I have only visited Steuben’s for drinks, so when I had a class to attend in the uptown area, I knew I had to finally try their food. I was seated on the patio since it was a warm January day for Denver. The waitress was nice and extremely attentive. I perused the menu and found that yes, it did have a bunch of appealing items, but their prices were a bit high.  Especially for lunch. I find it odd that they have the same menu for lunch and dinner, with the same items and same prices.  I think offering a smaller portion for a decent price, it would be more worth it. I stuck with a cheeseburger and a cup of tortilla soup.  I absolutely love tortilla soup. The only thing I really didn’t like about it was the cheese that they put on top. It made the soup have a weird consistency. The burger was juicy and messy, the way I like it.  Overall, it was a typical restaurant burger.  The food was good, but not sure what all the hype is all about with this place.

 

Park Burger

Some co-workers of mine kept talking about a burger place that they love near our office.  I kept hearing Lark Burger, thinking it was the burger chain popular here in Denver. I really felt like a burger one day and drove to what I thought was Lark Burger. I couldn’t find it.  Asked Siri where Lark Burger was and he responded saying it was 12 miles away.  That didn’t seem right since my co-workers said it was right up the street on Holly. I was looking around and saw a place called Park Burger.  It all came together now. I walked in and was immediately greeted by the host and seated promptly. He went over the specials and explained the menu to me since this was my first time.  I went with the little Park burger adding grilled onions, small fry and iced tea. The food came out very quickly and was piping hot. The burger looked amazing . I kept thinking how crazy big the burger still was for only being a little burger.  It was dripping all over my hands and into the basket.  Onions oozing out of the sides and falling. This burger was phenomenal. Cooked just the way I like it, and the meat was seasoned very well. The iced tea kept flowing as I finished my fries.  The fries had a great seasoning to them as well.  Everything complimented each other including the great service. After tip the bill comes to about $13. That isn’t too bad for a great burger, great service and fast enough to get to for lunch. Overall, I give this place an A+.  Definitely one of the best burgers I have ever had.