Burgers-N-Cream - Higgins View

"It is one thing to hear for oneself a sweet lute, sweetly played, and quite another thing merely to hear about it." Henry Suso

Burgers-n-Cream is big among my friends who like burgers. They told me the burgers were fantastic. I REALLY wanted to try try this great burger. Burgers-n-Cream in Cool Springs, here we go...

The Digs: When you walk into a place at 11am it's going to be clean. The stainless steel look is great. It's kind of a get your own drinks and stuff-you-want-at-the-table kind of place, which is fine - give me the food. Interestingly, we were there for 35 minutes and were the only ones IN the place... the lunch crowd doesn't come early, or did I hear incorrectly about the food? Because of the word from my friends I was so into the menu I forgot to ask for CHEESE on my burger... they have an American Burger which is almost perfect. I asked for no ketchup and got my mustard pickle and onion burger. The cheese I added after the first bite...

At First Sight: It's a double burger, which I like, but it's the same amount of meat as most burgers and thinner patties, we weren't asked and did not get to order the medium-rare meat. The onions were real sliced onions, the bun toasted. Fries are those hand cut peel-on-the-end fries. I added in onion straws for variety. You get a LOT of fries. Did I mention the place is clean?

At First Bite: Flavor combination was good. The double burger had a good meaty flavor, not juicy but not overcooked. A good flavor on first bite but I was expecting something a little more memorable. The cheese I added on the second bit but 'official first bite' of the cheeseburger. It made me think of my hometown cheeseburgers. I think some more grease may have helped it.

The Finish: I got a good fastfood burger... but I paid a little more for it. I was REALLY rooting for these guys. The backstory story about the place is great and don't get me wriong the food is not BAD. I would rather go here than a lot of other places. And it looks cool. But when I finally got there? It made me want to find a better burger.

Score: 7.00
Quick edit... ok, it feels like piling on but maybe my disappointment is exponentially increasing. The more I think about it, the more the score drops. Check out my comment to Mary's post, but in the afterglow and now disppointment... my score is lower and it COULD be have been even Lower, but I was REALLY hoping this was a great burger! New score: 6.0

Day 3: Burgers-n-Cream - Mary's Notes

Today was Higgins' choice and he picked a franchise place in Cool Springs. Although we are mainly Nash-centric on this, we will occasionally investigate chain burgers for you. And us.

Apparently there's a story behind this fast-casual-style restaurant and I'll let Higgins tell you about that, if he chooses. I'm here to tell you about the burgers.

Juiciness - eh ... what's that? Typical of what you'd get in a fast-food place. It wasn't dry, it just wasn't juicy, but there's a reason for it: your basic BNC burger is actually what you'd get when you order a double at BK or McDs or Sonic. That said, it wasn't exactly dry. 3.

Flavor - Actually, it was very tasty and beefy. It probably helped to have all that cooking area (two patties) exposed to the grill. 9.

Attractiveness - 7, and the lettuce was done right. Not pre-shredded, not wilting. Something I want to be anal about, here: lettuce should go on the top when there's not a tomato in the vicinity, in my experience. A number of places increasingly put lettuce on the bottom of the burger, which is great when you don't need your toppings sliding around on the cheese, but I think a lot of places copy the action without understanding the reasons for it. Just sayin'.

Atmosphere - I didn't really care for the set-up and decor, it was like eating in a cafeteria. It was clean-looking, I'll give 'em that.  5

Digestivity - Unfortunately, I can still taste my burger a small bit, five hours later. The good news is that at least it did taste good. 5

Overall experience: 5. I would return, if I was with someone who insisted. The set-up is similar to places where you place and pay for your order at the front and a server brings it to you later, while not exactly waiting on you. Considering that, I'm not sure this is what I'd expect of a $6 burger. Seems if you're going to pay that much, you ought to be able to get a margarita or a Yazoo to go with it.

on edit: I'm taking it down to 4 and here's why: Higgins' cheeseburger didn't come with cheese. Ordinarily, when a restaurant — even a fast-food place — messes up your order, they will take it back in the kitchen and fix it. Instead, BNC brought the cheese slices to us and Higgins had to insert them, himself. Poor form.