Vista Drive In. Manhattan, KS.

Day 5

Kansas, What the hell!? I don't know how so little got spread over such a large distance. It's kind of


like gold leaf, but with gold replaced with something really mediocre, like Wonder Bread. Wonder bread that stretches 400 miles long.

Breaking up the monotony of a 8 hour drive through nothing (Kansas), and West nothing (Northeastern Colorado) we stopped at the world's largest ball of sisal twine in Cawker City.

Eventually the emptiness of the landscape penetrated to our bellies and we stopped at Vista Hamburgers in Manhattan, KS. I ordered the Royalburger, this is what happened.

Review

Bun:

It's whole wheat, and it's weird. Some light toasty action, but it has a very grainy mouthfeel. As far as flavour goes, it's something, but it's not something good, can't put my finger on it.

Patty:

It stays weird here. There are two patties, or, are there one and a half? 6 oz of beef, must be one 4 oz patty and one 2 oz. On the positive side, it has a nice crust. Other than that it is very greasy and bland, grease pools on the parchment paper.

Cheese:

There's lots of Kraft Singles on it... Again...

Sauce:

Some oddly sweet mayonnaise.

Vegetables:

They're fresh, but they also taste like water. Lame shredded lettuce and a sad tomato.

Other:

Undercooked french fries and discount brand ketchup. Swell.

Rating 3.5/10 The Best Burger in Manhattan,     Kansas....

http://www.vistadrivein.com/

1911 Tuttle Creek Blvd. Manhattan, KS.

Drifter's Hamburgers. Colorado Springs, CO.

Day 4

Lower oxygen concentration seemed to lead to increased alcohol effectiveness. Recovering from a night out in Denver, we took in the sites of the city. Single-origin, cold-brewed, locally-sourced, sustainably-powered, environmentally-friendly coffee shops are on every corner. Beautiful brick buildings with a thousand hip enterprises cover the city.

Leaving late in the day we drove the quick trip South to Colorado Springs, where Nikola Tesla built an experimental lab. Before we ate we swung by The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in Colorado Springs, Colorado in our Chevy Colorado.

We stopped in at Drifter's Hamburgers and ordered a cheeseburger, Wild Style.

Review

Bun:

The white bun is soft and has some nice chew to it. 

Patty:

The patty is thin and small, it has hints of char, but is otherwise underwhelming. They advertise everywhere in the joint that they use high-quality hormone-free beef. They might be cutting quantity in order to keep a reasonable price. If I were to do this again, I would order at least a double, more likely a triple.

Cheese:

Pretty sure it is a Kraft Single, I have no idea what the American obsession with these is. The feeling of processed cheese coating the sides of your mouth is far from appetizing.

Sauce:

A bit of something like Thousand Island, not really noticeable.

Vegetables:

Waaaaaay too much lettuce, more lettuce than beef, The lettuce was cold and ended up actually sucking a lot of heat out of the burger. The pickles and onions are overpowering and don't mesh well with the burger as a whole. 

Other:

The milkshakes were upside-down thick! Would be way easier to eat with a spoon than a straw.

Rating 4/10

http://driftershamburgers.com/

4455 Mark Dabling Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO.

Park Burger. Denver, CO.

Day 3

After making our way through Idaho, with it's rolling hills and river valley vistas, we ended up in Salt Lake City. A precursory glance of Mormonland gave us the urge to get up and move states so we boogied on over along the US-40 to Denver, Colorado. We literally crossed the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide to get us some tasty burgers.

We met up with The Salmonator and his lovely lady and they brought us down to Park Burger.

I ordered myself the Classic Double (2 x 1/4lb patties, cheddar, bacon, and burger sauce)

Bun:

We're working with a white bun, again, we've got some dryness issues here. The texture is killing me

because otherwise this thing is good.

Patty: 

Two beef patties, cooked rare. The meat is juicy all the way through, I could have used it cooked a little more, but that might be my Canadian-ity showing up.

Cheese:

You've got a decent amount of pretty standard cheddar on here.

 Sauce:

She's saucy baby, we've got a creamy thousand island thing goin' on and it's going to be a hot mess.

Vegetables:

They are fresh, and they've got flavour. Lettuce, onions, tomato, pickles. These pickles, hot damn, delish.

Rating 7/10

Humble Burger. Moscow, ID.

Day 2

After Sonic, there was nowhere to go but up. We spent the night in Pullman, Washington, home of the WSU Cougars. Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho Vandals is just across the border from Pullman. Both the towns are oozing with that small-town Americana feel. 

We stopped in at Humble Burger in downtown Moscow and ordered ourselves a couple Humble Burgers. As the name suggests, this is simplicity and it turned out pretty good.

Review

Bun:

We're working with a nice toasted brioche here, good texture, if a little on the dry side.

Patty:

It's juicy, it's fresh, the most noticeable quality is the excellent browning on the patty, we are talking full Maillard Reaction, baby.

Cheese:

Unfortunately, the cheese got lost in the sauce on this, nothing much added or lost that I could notice.

Sauce: 

There is a mild mayo-based sauce, simple, tastes like a little mustard, a little chili.

Vegetables:

This is what really stands out on this burger. The pickles are gorgeous, bread and butter, so much fresh flavour, they taste homemade. The red onions were slices so thin, they were beautiful. The freshness and quality of the vegetables were a real standout.

Other:

The service from these guys was great, They were super-friendly and non-pretentious, exactly what I want out of a small town burger joint. The fries were also excellent.

Rating 7.5/10

http://humbleburger.com/

102 N Main St., Moscow, ID.

Sonic Drive-In. Ferndale, Wa.

Day 1

Originally, we had planned on focusing on local, or at least regional burger options for review.

However, after being selected for secondary screening at the border and spending a couple of hours standing in line and having our stuff rifled through, we were hangry.

In my mind, Sonic seemed like a reasonable choice, drive-in, huge milkshakes, Americana, the whole bit. To be honest, the drive-in thing made me uncomfortable, it just seemed awkward. Why should I eat a burger in my lap while risking getting food all over my vehicle instead of eating at a table like any other normal civilized human?

We ordered a SONIC Cheeseburger each through the weird drive-in intercom.

Review

Bun: 

The bun was a plain white, Wonder-Bready thing, nothing special.

Patty:

The Patty was dry and flavourless, grey meat.

Cheese:

Processed crap.

Sauce:

This was weird. Every bite seemed to be different, there were some with no sauce, some with pure mustard, and some with a mayo/ketchup mixture. Super inconsistent and the bites without any sauce combined with the Wonder bun and dry meat ended up being nasty dry.

Vegetables:

Wilted shredded iceberg, flavourless tomato slice, no bueno.

Rating 3/10