I’m not a burger snob, but as a rule, drive-through burger dinning should be reserved for emergency situations where there aren’t viable sit-down alternatives. My favorite burger from a drive-through is the Olive Burger from Burger Street. It’s a regional chain operating in Dallas, Fort Worth and Tulsa.

I order the Olive Burger just as it comes. It has two patties, no cheese, and it’s topped with mayo, lettuce, tomato and sliced green olives. I think of it as a cool, refreshing, almost light burger. It’s especially nice on a hot Dallas afternoon.

Burger Street is also the best place for Southern Sweet Tea. It’s $0.99 for a large cup of Southern goodness.

Burger Street
5657 East Mockingbird
Dallas, Texas

214-823-3845Â

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In-N-Out Burger is legendary. Burger aficionados make annual visits to the West coast just to get a fix of one of the best fast-food burgers anywhere for any amount of money. In-N-Out is a regional chain and those of us out of the region are usually left to just long for the next time we’ll be near enough to drive through and use our secret menu ordering skills.

Mooyah Burgers and Fries in Texas is the closest thing to In-N-Out I’ve ever tried, and it’s pretty clear why. They use the same high quality ingredients. The burgers are fresh and never frozen with no additives, fillers or preservatives. The fries are made from potatoes cut fresh the same day. The buns are baked fresh every day and the shakes are made from 100% pure ice cream. When you visit a Mooyah, it even looks a little like an In-N-Out. The employees are friendly and the menu is almost as simple as the published In-N-Out menu.

The regular Mooyah burger, the one I always get, comes with a default of two patties that are also very reminiscent of In-N-Out. My standard order is a Mooyah Burger with swiss cheese, bacon, onions (sometimes raw and sometimes grilled), and mustard. Burgers are thoughtfully wrapped upside down, so when you turn them over to unwrap them, they are ready to eat, right side up.

When we go to Mooyah, we rarely order fries. It isn’t because they aren’t good. They are. We just don’t have appetites large enough to accommodate more than a Mooyah burger. Mooyah fries are cut from fresh potatoes and served in cups. When we DO spring for fries, a regular order is plenty for two. Mooyah gets extra points, from me, for including Malt Vinegar as a condiment beside the ketchup dispenser. A carny once told me, when I was little, that Canadians put vinegar on their fries, and I’ve preferred them that way ever since.

I wouldn’t dare proclaim a Mooyah burger to be as good as an In-N-Out burger, but it’s so close I no longer miss In-N-Out when I’m in Texas. The thing missing most from Mooyah, apart from years of history, is a secret menu!

Mooyah Burgers and Fries
2626 Howell Street, Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75204
214.999.0059 / fax: 214.999.0049
Hours: Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm Fri-Sat 11am-10pm

Famous Dave’s is going to deserve another review from us because Cali had already had a Sub on the road and therefore, only ordered a Margarita, and I was coming down with a fever.

I ordered sausage and something creative called Catfish fingers. I grew up in Arkansas. I’ve seen Catfish in their native state, and I can assure you they don’t, by nature HAVE fingers. That said, the catfish fingers were one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth. Perhaps it the proximity to nuclear testing facilities…I’m not sure, but we have to teach our catfish down here in Texas to grow fingers that we can chop off, bread and fry. Those things were good.

The BBQ sausage wasn’t very good to me, but again, I wasn’t feeling well. I want to give it another chance. It didn’t seem juicy enough to me.

The veggies, on the other hand, were something special indeed. The green beans were crisp and just a bit spicy. I like crisp green beans when I eat at a high end place, and I like soggy green beans when I eat southern. Having crisp, spicy green beans at a BBQ place was a nice surprise. I also had the mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. The corn was great. The potatoes were good.

Cali LOVED the cornbread. The one thing that is MOST different between us is our opinions about cornbread. I like it like my grandmother makes it. Cali likes it like her mother makes it. Her mom makes it sweet. My grandmother makes it southern. Either way it’s a butter delivery system. Dave’s cornbread is sweet, so I licked the butter off and left the bread on the plate (not really, but kind of).

Over all…I would go back just to eat some of those nuclear powered catfish fingers. When I’m there again, I want to try the ribs. Share your experience in the comments.

Famous Dave’s Barbeque
1977 North 1200 West
Layton, UT 84041

We’re on a roadtrip, so there are frequent opportunities to try new places. Taco Time is mass-market fast-food chain and we stopped at in Ontario, Oregon. Because of Carnivore.TV, I felt obligated to order a burrito, so I chose the Chicken BLT Burrito with low expectations. I always expect mass-market fast-food burritos to be heavy on re-fried beans and light on non-bean flavor.

The Chicken BLT Burrito from Taco Time was surprisingly good. It blends bacon, fresh lettuce, tomato, guacamole, real cheddar cheese, ranch dressing and all-white meat chicken. The flavor blend was excellent and refreshing. It’s a larger burrito, but it felt light.

The Burrito I had suffered from engineering problems. The bottom burst open about half-way through consumption. Other than that…very nice!

When I hear burrito connoisseurs dismiss Chipotle simply because they know it’s owned by McDonalds, I’m dismayed. The only thing the two restaurants have in common is consistency.

We eat at a Chipotle at least once a week, and often three or four times. Chipotle burritos are the yard stick against which I measure all other burritos, and it’s simply because of the quality of the ingredients. Chipotle uses organic meats and vegetables raised by farmers who never use antibiotics. The animals are free to roam in healthy environments, and the farmers feed the animals vegetarian diets with no animal by-products.

Chipotle burritos have complex flavors created by a wide range of ingredients. My favorite, for example, is Barbacoa. It’s spicy, shreded beef that is seared and slowly braised for hours in a blend of chipotle adobo, cumin, cloves, garlic and oregano. I usually order Barbacoa as a bowl with black beans, rice, hot AND mild salsa, sour cream and cheese. I also like the Barbacoa tacos.

When I first got married, we were on a budget and the Chipotle logo intimidated us. We thought it was an expensive restaurant. It wasn’t until we witnessed Ozzy’s Chipotle obsession on The Osbournes that we gave it a try. We were living in Illinois at the time, and it reminded us so much of our former loft in Texas. Everything from the art to the music to the industrial design. That the food is excellent just cemented our love for the place.

Chipotle provided our first experience with what I call upscale fast food. Noodles and Company has the same kind of feel. I’d like to see more upscale fast food places that offer quality food and a great atmosphere at a great value. If anyone has any recommendations, I’d love for you to share them by leaving a comment.

On our way out of Portland this morning we stopped at one of the 39 Burgerville restaurants serving Oregon and Washington. My wife and I both ordered Tillamook Cheeseburgers (no fries). The burgers were fantastic and the service was great as well. This morning we didn’t know anything about the chain–didn’t even know it is a chain. I’m educated now.

Burgerville is to the Northwest what In-N-Out is to Southern California. The company only uses fresh, local ingredients including Country Natural Beef, and the ever-so-wonderful, Tillamook Cheese. The first Burgerville was opened in Vancouver, Washington in 1961.

I don’t need a burger to be made out of fresh, local, sustainable ingredients before I’ll enjoy it, but I think Burgerville’s commitment to those prinicples is noticible in the taste. Now, I can’t wait to get back to Oregon!

Burgerville in the Media
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/07/04/PM200507043.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2660515