Well, I've made two trips there and had one meal.....
Friday night, I left work at 5pm and headed there straightaway. I don't know that part of town real well, but had called ahead and had gotten a landmark - the enormous diamond-shaped radio tower used by WLW radio here in Cincinnati - and so I did not have a lot of trouble finding the place. Problem was, the place was absolutely MOBBED when I got there at around 6pm through bad traffic. The parking lot was full. The drivethrough lane had maybe 20 cars in line. People were parking on side streets and walking 2 blocks to the place. You'd have thought they were giving away money or something. Keep in mind that this was in ~20 degree weather with some wind. Being as how I had to be home fairly soon thereafter, I shrugged and drove off. I thought of Wanderingjew as I picked up a 1.00 double cheeseburger at a McDonald's on the way home, and wolfed it down.
So the next morning, I tell the wife we're going to go try a new place for lunch. We pack the kids into the minivan and make the 35 minute drive from SE Cincinnati (Mt Washington to you local readers) to Mason, arriving at around 2:00pm. I picked this hour because I knew the kids would get a nap in during the drive, which is good for them, and because I figured we'd miss out on the lunchtime crowds.
WRONG-O
It wasn't as packed as the night before, and by that I mean I was able to snag the very last parking place in the lot behind the store. Lordie!
The next surprise for me how the service "flowed". I had originally though that this was a sit down place not unlike a Big Boy's or a Steak and Shake, but even my glance from a distance from the night before had dispelled this misconception. So I knew we'd be in line, and the only thing my wife hates worse than a crowded restauant is standing in line at a crowded restaurant. So I asked her to trust me to order for us all, and to find us a table while I stood in line. The wait wasn't too bad about -- 6-7 minutes -- but I didn't like the fact that I was given a table marker (like those given to you at a Ponderosa's) and told that my food would be brought to me. Ah well, maybe this means the food is fresher.
One problem with a crowded restaurant is that if any mistake is made, it takes forever to get it rectified. The first problem were drink cups. I told the cashier I needed kiddie water cups, and she gave me two small cups I assumed would have lids in the service area, but they did not. Putting uncapped drink cups in front of my kids is not unlike walking into a operating car wash bay, so that wasn't going to fly. So I stood in line a second time to just get cups for which lids were available - which meant that our food arrived and was mostly consumed by my family before I was able to return. More problems when I went back to get my custard later. I had prepaid for it at the cashier's suggestion, she had said to just come back to the side counter and present my receipt and I'd immediately be given my frozen custard. Well, immediately was about 7-8 minutes while the kids were screaming and carrying on that they wanted to leave....
Enough of the negatives, though. The wife really, really liked her deluxe double with cheese/mayo/tomato/lettuce/onion - hey, she's her own woman, and expresses no distress when I tell her no kisses for 24 hours after her lips touch mayo -- and thought the malt was unlike anything she'd ever had before. I had a single butterburger with cheese, lettuce, and onion, and thought that for a single hamburger, it was quite subtantial. We both agreed that the grilled buns were of excellent quality - not something you see at many burger joints around here - and that the burgers were very tasty. I thought the burger was a step or two better than those served at Steak N Shake.
The real endorsement, though, came when I noted that my three and a half year ld who never eats more than a quarter of a kid's sized burger had eaten ALL of the half a regular butterburger (her younger sister finished MOST of the other half) we had given her. WITHOUT CATSUP! She also could not get enough of the chocolate malt, demanding more as she finished what we grudging shared with her.
I also ordered and ate (having noted some of the recommendations in this thread) a cod fish sandwich. I was disappointed in this, becaus they used a lower quality elongated bun that wasn't toasted, and used shredded lettuce instead of leaf lettuce, and shredded cheese instead of a slice. The fish itself was decent enough, but the sandwich was not worth the 4 buck menu price.
I should add that EVERYONE loved the frozen custard. You don't find much frozen custard in Cincinnati -- albeit I just learned of a place called Ritters just north of Cincinnati on SR747 that serves nothing but frozen custard and am told they are doing solid business -- but I can't recall ever having any myself, nor had the wife. We split a small vanilla between us, and everyone loved it. The texture is very interesting, I think.
Let me add that except for the fish sandwich, i thought the prices were pretty reasonable.
The wife says she wants to go back but that we should wait a month or more, after the novelty of the places wears down a bit. I agree, and look forward to our next foray there, when I will get the bacon cheese butterburger and the pork tenderloin.
One question for all you wisconsinites out there -- I found very little evidence of butter in my butterburger. Isn't it supposed to be rather prominent in the sandwich and all, particularly given that they are called
butterburgers? What gives? I was expecting something a bit more like the Solly's pic shown below
They also had an item on the menu called cheese curds. What exactly is this?
