When a restaurant, especially a chain, refers to itself as the Gourmet Burger expert, it better be able to back it up with some tasty grilled juiciness. Red Robin has been in the burger business since 1969 under its current name but it started in the 1940s as Sam’s Tavern near the campus of the University of Washington. Since the founder sang in a barber shop quartet with a signature song of “when the red, red robin comes bob bob bobbin’ along,” the future name of the place was pretty much assured.
Today, with over 450 restaurants across North America, Red Robin has become one of the best known of the sit down restaurant chains in the vein of Friday’s and Applebee’s.
With a variety of specialty “gourmet” burgers as well as the good old fashioned model, Red Robin offers an option for just about every burger taste. And with all of those options comes a price. Like the other similar chains, Red Robin isn’t going to be the most economical dining choice if you’re searching for a seared patty of meat, but with the chain comes a certain guarantee of quality and service.
There are currently four area Red Robins and you can find your nearest one on line at http://www.redrobin.com.
The Burgers
We were driving out to visit a shop that was pretty far from out house and weren’t sure where we wanted to stop for lunch when Josh suggested Red Robin. We have eaten there numerous times and it is traditionally one of the chains that we like the best.
In keeping with the theme of the blog, we both ordered the Red Robin Gourmet Cheeseburger. Mark got provolone on his while Josh went with the traditional American. The patties are fresh, never frozen beef and you can taste that quality. The other ingredients are also fresh and piled on a sesame seed bun.
The burger comes standard with Red’s pickle relish which Mark had and Josh passed on. The relish adds a little something extra to the burger but it doesn’t over power the other ingredients, especially the meat, which can be tasted with every bite; when you’re eating a burger that’s a good thing and not always the case.
The burgers also come with the “bottomless” steak fries that, if you really were addicted to potatoes would be a godsend for you. As it is, the steak fries are a good, thick addition to the meal but neither of us requested a second, let alone a third helping.
Overall the burgers at Red Robin are good for what they are: chain restaurant burgers. They aren’t in the class with the top local burgers but if you are out looking for a chain restaurant with a lot of variety for everyone’s taste, you can do a whole lot worse than Red Robin. In fact, Red Robin and Friday’s are generally what we will compare other restaurants, especially chains, to in determining if they have a decent burger or not.
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