Review: Bobby’s Burger Palace

My friend Beth has been trying to get me to go to Bobby’s Burger Palace for months now.  Bobby as in Bobby Flay.  Although I wanted to go, usually we ended up somewhere a little more local, but this past Saturday, our whole day was planned around a burger lunch with Bobby.

As I was plotting out our route (since it also included a stop at a new cupcake spot as well), I quickly glanced at the reviews for the burger place.  Not a good idea.  There were many that totally panned the place, with a lot of them mentioning the long wait.  Given the set-up of the restaurant, knowing that there’s not really a good spot to wait, and the fact that we were going with the kids, I started to second-guess going there.  Especially on a Saturday.  At lunchtime.  But I needn’t have worried.

When we got there, we were 7th in line, which gave us a few minutes to look at the wall-mounted menu and decide what we wanted.  I was torn between a few different burgers… Bleu Cheese is always my go-to, but then I saw one with Goat Cheese … and then the burger with Avocado Relish.  What’s a girl to do?  Order two and share!  Beth got one with Cheddar, tomatoes and Avocado Relish, and I got the Napa Valley one with warm Goat Cheese and Meyer Lemon Sauce.  OMG.  Just sayin’.  If only I could have convinced Nick to get the Bleu Cheese and Bacon Burger, I could have tasted all three.  But no.  My kid came to a burger place and ordered a salad.  I can’t be mad about that, but you know… it just gives us another excuse to go back.

For Madeline, I ordered a grilled cheese kids’ meal, thinking it was the easiest thing for her to eat (read: least messy).  As an aside, the grilled cheese kids’ meal is not something on their menu (they only have a cheeseburger kids meal listed), but ask, and smile, and ye shall receive.

And fries.  Of course, fries.  Regular fries.  Sweet potato fries.  Assorted dipping sauces.  I do one “reward meal” a week and between the cheese, the burger, the fries, I was doing it right last week.  The fries are my favorite kind, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.  Salted just right.  They come in these cute little tins.  So cute, I asked about them.  They are cake baking pans (from Allied Metal Spinning).  Fun idea, right?

So after you order your food, you get a little table tag, so they can find you when your order is ready, and head off to find a seat.  There are communal tables scattered throughout the small restaurant, and a lots of seating at the counter.  We had to wait a few minutes, but found seats together easily.

Now the burger.  Oh the burger.  The biggest thing about the burger is that it is crazyjuicy, without being greasy.  There’s a big difference.  The burgers are all made pink through and through, so if you’re not a fan of rare or medium rare, you need to speak up (they’ll mention it when you order).  I loved the goat cheese on the burger, but admittedly was hard-pressed to really pick out the Meyer Lemon.  Out of the two burgers, the Napa Valley one was the stand-out, no contest, and totally worth going back for.  Oh, before I forget, you can have any burger you want “crunchified,” which means they’ll add potato chips to the top of your burger, underneath the bun.  Totally up my sister’s alley.  I skipped that, thinking it wouldn’t go with the goat cheese topping and, honestly, as fun as I think that is, it seems a little odd coming from a big-time chef, but who am I to judge?  It *is* a burger place after all.

Just seeing that picture makes me want to go back. Now.

I swear one of these days when I take a shot of me holding something, you won’t see chipped black nail polish.  It’s not always like that.  Murphy’s Law and all.

How are the prices?  Not too shabby.  For $41, we had two burgers, an generous salad, sweet potato fries, regular fries, two sodas, and a grilled cheese kids’ meal (included fries and juice).  Soda refills are free (it’s a Coke establishment) and for those that want the full burger joint experience, they have shakes available as well (Nick decided against a shake, surprisingly).

Now if you feel like you need to work off your recent indulgence, once you’re done at Bobby’s Burger Palace, you can take a walk around the outlets store.  You’ll find Ulta, Filene’s Basement, Whole Foods, Nordstrom’s Off the Rack and even a coming-soon Bloomingdales to keep you occupied, among others. If you get back in your car and drive across the highway, you’ll find IKEA and The Christmas Tree Store. Oh, but if you don’t already know, all retail in this area is closed on Sunday, so plan accordingly.

I know. The bare feet drive me crazy too. But I swear they didn’t touch the floor and I scrubbed the bejebus out of them after.

They look like they hated the place, don’t they?

We went to the location in Paramus, but there are four other spots that might be closer to you.  Happy eating!

Bergen Town Center
610 Bergen Town Center
Paramus, NJ 7652
Tel: 201.368.7001

Project 365
July 28, 2010, Photo #135

“Mom, I need help!” came the call this morning.  My feeling is that if you managed to get up there yourself, you can figure out how to get down.  But I helped anyway.  I’m that kind of mom.  ;)  Apparently she decided that the window in the living room would be too easy to look out to see what the dog next door was up to.  ‘Tis much better to scale the radiator cover in the kitchen and look from there.  That window is actually further from the dog she was scoping out, but I wouldn’t want to point out the obvious to her.

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