Crap on Your Car…

Our area is full of those ugly black birds called Grackles, I think. If you ever go to the HEB near our house around sunset, the place is just covered with them, no doubt making ugly deposits on the roofs and hoods of vehicles exiting the automatic car wash at the HEB gas station.
This evening, my wife and I ran into the What-a-Burger on Grissom and Timber Path where the new bridge is almost open. This will be nice! I only mention this since I took pictures.
Anyway, we went there because I needed to try out that Patty Melt they have been advertising. Excellent as you would expect, but with all the onions on the patty melt, I probably should have skipped the upgrade from fries to onion rings. I’ll leave it at that.
But interestingly enough, there were no Grackles at the What-a-Burger. On the other hand, let’s hope the guard cats didn’t leave any deposits on the roof or hood of this car.

Lunch Report: Chris Madrid’s…

It is interesting to me how places get all hyped up by everyone, bandwagons are jumped upon and inevitably, I feel like an idiot because I don’t know anything about “The Place” for “The Best” burgers in town. Yes, I have heard of Chris Madrid’s and of course, it has been on my list for a while, but to be really honest, it was like going to a movie that everyone has gone gah gah over and then, simply not getting it.From the minute we pulled onto Blanco Road from Hildebrand and the lady in my Garmin said “arriving at destination”, my wife was not happy. She matter-of-fact said, “If this is it, I’m not going in there.” You have to admit, the place looks run down. Rustic would be a compliment, fitting the neighborhood is probably appropriate. And the security guard out front told us we could park our car in the lot across the street. Regardless of how the place looks from the outside, people seem to have gotten the message that what’s on the inside is pretty good.It took some coaxing, but we did go in and figured out where to go to order. I’ll spare you the confusion if you plan on trying Chris Madrid’s: If you walk in the entrance from Blanco Road, you’ll see a wide open seating area with a closed in bar/smoking section (I assume) to your left, and all the way to the right is the cashier and where you order and pick up your stuff. All the way to the back you see a patio area.I don’t have any issues with the atmosphere inside. People seemed happy and there were a few pictures to look at. What I didn’t care for was the way you are herded into a choke point near the cash register to place your order. The menus were located down by the register, but because there was a constant flow of people trying to get by one another, we had to wait until just before ordering to grab a menu. Luckily, the menu is very limited, and I like that. My wife was not as thrilled.People clearly love Chris Madrid’s. Aside from some plaques for People’s Choice Awards, the place is mostly decorated in T-Shirts from various organizations or events, signed by customers. I’m all for customer loyalty to drive the business in, but once there, deliver on the product.My wife ordered the chicken sandwich – the cashier told her it would definitely be worth the 15 minute wait. She also requested extra honey mustard to dip with the order of fries we shared. When I went to pick up the order (15 minutes was about right), the lady told me they were out of honey mustard and offered Ranch instead. At that moment in time, I thought to myself, we are going to be going to Earl Abels sometime in the near future to make up for this lunch idea. Aside from the lack of honey mustard, the chicken was okay, but just okay. The fries were fine, cooked the way I like them and would have been much tastier with some honey mustard to dip them in.My selection was easy. I went with the Flaming Jalapeno Burger with Cheddar, Macho (large). The bun was done right, the burger was loaded with jalapenos and covered in gooey Government Cheese, just the way I love it. The hamburger meat is clearly seasoned with something – almost making it a little too salty. Not too salty to really enjoy though.

Aside from the dysfunctional ordering operation, Madrid’s seems to operate very smoothly. For people ordering burgers (not chicken) they seem to move very fast. The fact that the lady warned us there would be a wait was outstanding and appreciated.On what was an incredibly beautiful day, it would have been nice to sit outside on Madrid’s patio. Looks very nice and wide open, not crowded like some places.

Look, I had a good burger, though in terms of value, I would have been just as happy paying a lot less and eating at Whataburger. I’d certainly enjoy Chris Madrid’s again if I happened to be in the area, but if you have to go out of your way to try it, I know of several others I’d recommend.

Lunch Report: Armadillo’s on McCullough…

If you have lived in San Antonio for a while, you have been to or at least heard of the old Little Hipps burger place that went out of business a while back. Though not affiliated with the previous restaurant, a burger place called Armadillo’s has taken over the building at the corner of McCullough and Evergreen near downtown, and that is where my wife and I found ourselves, just in time for lunch today.The first thing you will notice about the place (aside from the orange color of the metal fabricated building) is that there is little to no parking in front. Not to worry; just across the street you can park.Inside the place is pretty small, but for our Saturday afternoon visit, there wasn’t much of a crowd, so no waiting for a table or anything. My wife liked the fact that the booth we were in had access to the juke box. As some guys seated in the back watched college basketball on the nice flat panel TV, she cranked up a few tunes to add to the atmosphere.She ordered the regular 1/3lb cheeseburger with everything but onions. We definitely love the way they do the buns – heated and smashed (or maybe mashed is the correct terminology) but I don’t know why, that particular style says, “Diner” and we like that.I ordered the 1/2lb mushroom burger with swiss. They definitely don’t skimp on the mushrooms and the lettuce, tomatoes and such all were fresh.I ordered a medium onion ring for us to share, but they put them all on my plate – I guess that is a basket saving feature. Either way, the onion rings are certainly forgettable. There ought to be some sort of international onion ring texture naming convention so you know what you are getting when you order rings. I am totally opposed to hard, crispy onion rings coatings. Even if there is no discernible taste or seasoning to the batter you use (like these), I can live with it if the coating is not breaking my teeth to get to the onion inside.

The onion rings at Clear Springs are good. The onion rings at Armadillo’s seem like something you get in the lunch room at school. If the main en tree, in this case the burger, isn’t spectacular (it wasn’t bad – just not GREAT), then the onion rings have to make the difference. Great service though.Look, if you are downtown and would like a neat place to have a burger (I hear from others they have awesome hot dogs), give them a try. The atmosphere is nice and I could see meeting friends for a few beers after shopping or something. But having said that, unless it is convenient, I know a Whataburger that will make it any way you want it, and the onion rings are a lot better.