Playing With Fire at Gordon Ramsay BurGR

Gordon Ramsay BurGR

3667 S. Las Vegas Blvd. 

Las Vegas, NV 89109

For the two of you reading this blog that do not know me personally, you might think that food rules my life, and for the most part you would be correct. I do have other interests though. I love watching hockey, I do one Sudoku a day, and since we got Netflix, my TV watching has gotten way out of hand. Okay, it sounds like my life is pretty lame, but this is what I enjoy.

It also might surprise most of you that I am not really into food cooking shows. I have never seen one episode of Top Chef, Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, any show about cupcakes, or Hell's Kitchen. I enjoy food shows that feature actual restaurants, places which I can add to my restaurant wish list, and actually visit. These two worlds collided recently though, when we visited a restaurant created by one of the biggest names in food cooking shows, Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen fame.

Located at the Planet Hollywood Casino, BurGR bears the name of the loud and demonstrative chef, who I hear is really quite nice in real life. This restaurant, as the name would suggest, features burgers, fries, and milkshakes, with a special emphasis on using the best ingredients available. Why the misspelling of the word burger? I learned its a play on Gordon Ramsay's initials, which now makes sense.

Since we were on vacation, and had just woken from a two hour nap, we arrived here at the rather late dinner hour of 9:30, and were sat immediately, which I hear is rare for this restaurant. One of the perks of being in Vegas on a weekday. The decor of BurGR brought to mind an Austin Powers kind of vibe. The wait staff wore outfits that you could easily see in those movies, the walls were brightly painted, and in case you forget who's in charge here, there are plenty of pictures of Gordon Ramsay on the walls and menus here. Tables and chairs were uncommonly low to the ground, which seemed odd, until we finally adjusted to it.

This restaurant is definitely geared towards burger lovers. There are 12 on the menu, including a garden burger, one with chicken, and yet another with a turkey patty. Not in the mood for a burger? You are pretty limited here to a fish sandwich, a hot dog, or one of their two salads offered. Katie and I made quick work of selecting our dinner on this evening, and eagerly awaited our food. This is how it all turned out for us.

We had ordered an appetizer, but our food made it out before, so we started in on our burgers first. Katie had this Blue Burger ($14). This was a simple burger, with just Maytag blue cheese and arugula on it. Katie really enjoyed the juiciness of this burger, but found it to be missing something. She thought the meat was good quality, but this really needed more blue cheese, or maybe a sauce to go along with it. She'd get a different burger next time.

Thanks to a recommendation from my foodie friend Daniele, I knew I would be ordering this Farm Burger ($15) at BurGR. The beef, which is cooked over apple and alder wood, is joined between the bun with an English sharp cheddar cheese, duck breast bacon, and a fried egg. I liked this burger at first, and then it really started to grow on me. The duck bacon kind of tasted like unseasoned pastrami, and the sharp cheddar cheese was kind of a nice deviation from the normal old regular cheddar most restaurants use. The beef was juicy, and along with the yolk from the fried egg, negated the need for any other condiments. The bun was sturdy, and I liked the way it absorbed the yolk and the burger juices. A very enjoyable burger.

Burgers come ala carte here, so we opted to try their Truffle Parmesan Fries ($11). We could tell that these fries were very fresh, and fried well. They were topped with shredded truffle Parmesan and truffle salt. The truffle was present, but did not overpower. These were served with two dipping sauces, a curry ketchup and a truffle aioli. The aioli was the better of the two. Thick and flavorful, this sauce went well with the crisp fries. I had no problem finishing these off.

After a few bites of our burgers, our appetizer finally arrived at our table, served by the manager, who told us how sorry he was for the delay, and we would not be charged for these Piggies in Blankets ($12). These were not what I was expecting when we finally tried them. They are described on the menu as pork belly with cheddar sausage, but they are separate. The cheese sausage variety of these were much better than the pork belly ones, and this is coming from a pork belly fiend. Both are wrapped in buttered dough, and then served with a curry ketchup and pickled mustard seeds. They were way over cooked, and the curry ketchup overpowered the rest of this. This is the first time in all these years of doing this blog that I have not been pleased with a pork belly item. I never thought it was possible, until this evening.

Even with the hiccup over our appetizer, we did enjoy our time at BurGR. The burgers here are pretty simple, and do not really have to rely on the toppings for them to be good. Not the best burger we have had, but better than average, and if you're in the mood for a burger on the strip, this is a pretty good choice. Service was a little on the spotty side, as it took a long while for us to be greeted, and there were some long spans of time when drinks sat empty. Something I'm sure that Gordon Ramsay would yell about on one of his shows. Now back to Netflix for me.

Out of five soccer balls, (because when he was a youth, Gordon Ramsay was a highly sought after soccer player), five being best to zero being worst, Gordon Ramsay BurGR gets three soccer balls.

For more information about  Gordon Ramsay BurGR, head to their website here: https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/burgr/