Burger Bar
3950 South Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
When I learned we would go to Vegas for a few days, I hastily wrote down some restaurants I wanted to try. First on the list was this place at Mandalay Bay, Burger Bar. My excitement wasn't even directed towards their burgers. I mean, I wanted to try them, but there was something else lurking on the menu that pulled me towards Burger Bar: the Nutella Milkshake. More about the shake later.
Burger Bar is located in the shopping mall that connects Mandalay Bay to the Luxor. This casual eatery is the brainchild of one of America's most talented chefs, Hubert Keller. Keller's restaurants include world-renowned Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, Fleur by Hubert Keller, and Las Vegas. Keller has also been featured on various versions of Top Chef, as a judge and contestant and as the author of two cookbooks, with another on its way soon. With these accolades, I was even more excited to try this place.
There are three locations of Burger Bar (this one is in St. Louis and San Francisco, and another is on its way to China later this year). This long and narrow restaurant is packed at 9 p.m. on a Monday night when we arrive. I know this is Vegas, and most people are on vacation here, but it is still a minor shock to see people eating so late. The restaurant is dominated by a long bar that caters to hip patrons fresh off their gambling wins and losses.
The menu here is, of course, dominated by burgers. They have 10 chef's burgers that you get as they are listed on the menu. They also have the build-your-own-burger option, where you pick what kind of patty and what you want on your burger. They offer eight types of meat with which to build your burger. Meats range from beef to exotic options like buffalo, salmon, and turkey. It's not crazy exotic, but if you dislike beef, you have other options. Toppings are numerous here. They offer 47 different items to complement your burger. Some crazier ones include jalapeno bacon, pan-seared foie gras, grilled half a lobster, cranberry sauce, and black truffles for $30. We did not get too crazy with our picks, though. Let's see how they turned out.
Before we got to the burgers, we had this Appetizer Sampler with Skinny Fries, Buttermilk Fried Onion Rings, and Buttermilk Fried Zucchini. The fries and onion rings were the best of the three. The zucchini was too mushy and needed to be helped out by the plethora of sauces we got. Almost all of the six sauces we got were to our liking. The lone exception was the White Barbecue Sauce. The best of the bunch was the spicy ketchup, the cinnamon honey sauce, with the king of all being the chipotle aioli. This sauce could have made even wooden Popsicle sticks taste great.
Now, on to the burgers. First up was Katie's selection. She got a varied version of the Hubert Keller Burger. She had an Angus burger patty with blue cheese, sauteed spinach, caramelized onions, and a red wine and shallot reduction, all on a ciabatta bun. She felt this was a well-balanced burger with a subtle taste. The sharpness of the blue cheese was neutralized by the spinach and sweetness of the onions. It was a very juicy burger.
Writing this review, I realized I might have screwed up with my choice of burger. I should have gone with something more exotic. I was overwhelmed by the options for toppings here. I know what I was thinking in my head, though. All genres of food that we try, I have my, "go to item", that I use to judge a new restaurant by. In Mexican restaurants it's carnitas, in Italian places it is lasagna. With burgers, it is a Bacon Cheeseburger. My burger included bacon, cheddar, caramelized onions, and aioli. Pretty pedestrian, but this burger was delicious and very juicy. As I wanted, the burger was cooked medium rare, and the patty had a good flavor. The toppings were a great compliment to this burger and worked well together. The next time I am here, I will get a little more crazy with my selections, but at least I know Burger Bar makes a good burger.
As delicious as this Nutella Milkshake looks, it was equally as delicious to drink. It was not overly sweet and had a good chocolate/hazelnut flavor. The serving size of this shake was not the biggest, but it might seem that way only because we were sharing it. It's a good thing we split it because I was really stuffed from the burgers.
Burger Bar really lived up to the hype. The burgers were great, and the milkshake rocked it. The prices here are high, but being on vacation, you must occasionally splurge. Burgers start at $10 and increase depending on the number of toppings and extras you want to add. We had heard that service can sometimes be an issue here, but we did not experience that. Our server, Harmony, was efficient, kept things moving, and was sweet. We look forward to returning and trying other burgers here, but I wonder if I can get away from the Nutella shake.
Out of five ponytails (because in 2006, Hubert Keller was declared the winner of the best culinary ponytail. Mario Batali must be distraught!), five being best to zero being worst, Burger Bar gets 3.5 ponytails.
For more information on Burger Bar, click here: http://burgerbarlv.com/
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