Smashburger – Camelback

As per Mr. Blake’s suggestion (way back in our WHO WE ARE Post), we have decided to review and compare our favorite burger joints.  We plan to review In-N-Out, Umami Burger, and Five Guys in later posts.  But Smashburger is our first of the series.

We were eager to try Smashburger after reading about it online. They use meatballs and smash the meatball (that is why they call the restaurant Smashburger) so it makes them look like patties. We were especially excited about the variety of their offerings.  There are so many toppings available for burgers including jalapenos, different kinds of cheese, chipotle mayonnaise, buffalo sauce, avocado, and crispy onions (known as Haystacks).  In addition to different kinds of burgers, Smashburger also has SmashFries (made with potatoes and rosemary), Sweet Potato SmashFries (made with sweet potatoes and rosemary), Haystacks (onion strings), and an assortment of drinks, including shakes, malts, and floats – all made with Haagen Dazs ice-cream!!!  Here is a picture of their menus:

                                    

Egg (that’s her name) took our order and got it just right!  She also had several recommendations for us.  This is what she looked like.

We followed Egg’s advice and ordered the following:  1) a classic burger with cheddar cheese (none of us like American cheese) and jalapenos, 2)  an avocado club – this is their most popular chicken burger, 3) an Arizona devil dog, 4)  Smash Fries, 5) Sweet potato Smashfries, 6) Haystack onions, 7) Vanilla Shake (for Karsen and they use Haagen Daaz ice cream), 8) Root beer float (for Anya – and they use IBC root beer), and 9) Iced Tea for mommy.  Because we were doing a blog, Egg also made sure that we got to try all their different sauces including the smash sauce, chipotle mayonnaise, and Frank’s red hot buffalo sauce.  We shared everything so that we would be able to let you know how everything tasted.

First, we’d like to let you know about our drinks.

This is a picture of Karsen’s delicious and refreshing Vanilla shake.  This shake is better than Five Guys – because FIve Guys doesn’t offer shakes and better than In-N-Out’s because it is made with Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Here’s Anya’s Root Beer Float:

You can tell that Anya is really enjoying her float.  This float is also superior to In-N-Out’s because of the Root Beer.  In-N-Out uses A&W root beer and Smashburger uses IBC.

Even Mommy was impressed with the Iced Tea.  It was fresh brewed and made with Tazo Tea.  Here is a picture of the tea:

We also had water to stay properly hydrated and Smashburger provides special water straws that are half the size of regular straws because the water cups are smaller.  Here is a picture of that.

All of our food arrived at the same time.  We decided to first try the Classic Burger first.  This is what it looked like:

You’ll notice that the burger is split in 1/2 so that we could all try it.  From the cross-section you can see the classic egg bread, lettuce, tomato, “smashed patty”, cheese, and sauce. We got the regular size which is 1/3 pound.  You can also order a large burger which is a 1/2 pound of ground beef and a small (maybe that’s 1/4 pound?).    And the cup is filled with their delicious SmashFries.  These fries are perfectly crispy (without being oily) and are seasoned with rosemary.

Anya thinks that the sweet potato Smashfries are even better.  These are also seasoned with rosemary.

We tried both kinds of fries with all of the different sauces (the chipotle mayonaise, smash sauce, and Frank’s buffalo sauce).

Even their ketchup was special.

And of course, Anya’s favorite sauce was the Cholula sauce that was on the table.

Then, we tried the Avocado Club and the Haystack (onion rings).

The Haystack onions were a little greasy.  We know because of all the napkins we needed to use while eating them (note:  when we returned to Smashburger a week later, we had perfectly crispy, non-greasy haystack onion rings!).  We ordered the chicken avocado club on Egg’s recommendation.  She said it was their most popular non-hamburger order.  While it was an okay chicken club, we all agree – it paled in comparison to the excellent burger.

Finally, we tried the Arizona Devil Dog.

We also had the  hotdog cut in half.  This hot dog contained onions, jalapenos, chipotle mayonaise, tomatoes, habanero cheese and guacamole.  This was quite a tasty dog.  The guacamole tasted like creamy avocado.  And the jalapenos were spicy, making our mouths water (good thing we could down it with vanilla shake and root beer float).  Even with all the spiciness, Anya added her favorite Cholula sauce.

In general, we liked the burger best, the hot dog next, and the club last.  As for the sides, mommy liked the smashfries and Anya liked the sweet potato smashfries.  Karsen is wishy washy and liked them all.

This is a place that we enjoy – Why go to McDonald’s when there’s a Smashburger in town?

As usual, our smiley faces are out of 5: 😀 😀 😀 😀 1\2

That’s pretty good! 😉

Here is a picture of the manager:

We will definitely return here soon! Thank you everybody! Special thanks to Egg!

P.S.  We brought our father to visit Smashburger a week later and even he liked it!!!  And he is the finickiest eater!!!!

P.P.S.  We can’t wait to do reviews on the other burger places.  Doktor – you’re coming with us to Umami burger, right?