It is amazing how often we go to well-rated restaurants only to be served with less than savory food. We have gone to 5-star rated restaurants only to walk out an hour or so later and couple hundred dollars less wealthy asking ourselves, "What just happened? This place was recommended as a 5-star restaurant, but we could have gotten the same if not much better at a fraction of the price down the road." Therefore, my quest is to find the best as seen by a simple litmus test - the cheeseburger.
Why a cheeseburger and not a steak or a signature dish of some sort? The answer is simple - if you can't do the basics really well, how can you be expected to do the more complicated dishes any better? There is nothing worse than buying, for example, a pasta dish with really soggy overcooked noodles covered up with some fancy sauce of some sort, or an old side of prime rib covered up with au jus.
The prerequisites, or at least the litmus test, are straight forward. It's gotta taste good, and it's gotta look good, and an hour or so later I can't have rumblings - a bad sign - in my stomach. Taste is king, and it can't be falling apart half way through the burger. Simple enough you would think, but surprising how often it just doesn't come out right. How hard could it be to put together two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and a sesame seed bun? And "Who's got the beef?" or "Where's the beef?" as some would say.
My Top 5 Picks
- Don Shulas Steak House, Miami. Don only serves the finest Angus beef. - Margaritaville, Key West. Jimmy Buffet has a really good burger, and music to boot. - Hotel du Paris, Monte Carlo. These folks don't hold back on their burgers. - Le Bec Fin, Philadelphia. Classic, no holds-barred-burger. - The Boat House Restaurant, Harbour Island, Bahamas. My absolute top pick.
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