99 All Star Steakburger rated 4.3

Tonight I went to the 99.  Ok, I understand this is a Friday night, and I understand that I went there smack dab in the middle of their dinner rush, AND I understand that I was in a party of 9; however, they told us the wait would be thirty to 45 minutes.  The wait turned out to be almost 90 minutes.  That is terrible.  Fortunately I was with a bunch of my very best freinds and that made the wait bearable; nonetheless, there is no excuse for a 90 minute wait.  I saw parties of 4 come and go.  That quickly becomes very irritating (the Service rating reflects this.)

When we finally got seated, they did manage to sit all of us together.  That was nice.  Our waitress' name was Tanya and she was excellent.  She was very attentive without being over-bearing.  In fact, she is the only reason they got three pickles in the Service rating.  She gave us the menus and that is when I got my first look at the drink selection: 9 beers on tap!  And one of them was Bass Ale!!  The 99, like Chili's, has two draft beer sizes (big and bigger) and the only thing better than a large draft Bass Ale is a larger one.  To all my soda drinking buddies (and I am talking especially to the two guys who hang out with Tim), the Pepsi family was well represented.  In fact, the Pepsi family was the ONLY soda family that was represented, so if you want diet you had better like diet Pepsi.  Mrs. Cranky doesn't go much for soda so she had a mango margarita (I think it was mango.  It may have been tangerine.  Whatever it was, it was a girly-drink.)  I had a taste of her drink and I am not afraid to say that it was an ex-QUI-site drink.  It was fabulous.  This is the kind of drink (as one of my friends said) that you wish you could make at home.

But enough of all that, on to the 'meat' of my post.  On the recommendation of one of Mrs. Cranky's colleagues, (Mrs. Cranky likes to refer to her as the Phantom Pickler) I ordered the All Star Steakburger.  This is a burger that comes with lettuce, tomato, pickles, carmelized onions, cheese, and a 'special' sauce.  I ordered mine medium, no cheese, and that is exactly how I got it.  Not only was it cooked exactly to order, it came with its own paper wrapper to catch all the bits that can get away from you when you're eating something like this.  I found the paper wrapper annoying, but I can see where some people would really appreciate it.  This burger came on a bun that defies description.  According to the menu, they make the bun themselves and one of the ingredients is Sam Adams Lager!  I believe it because that bun was wonderful.  The topppings were fresh and crisp and I could even taste the carmelized onions; not enough to overpower the burger, but they were there nonetheless.  The french fries were excellent.  This burger also came with coleslaw.  I'm not all that crazy about coleslaw (honestly, is there ANY way to really make cabbage tasty?), but as coleslaws go, this one was fine.  The only negative things I can say about this burger is that I never tasted any special sauce, and it was a little pricy.  I finished my meal with a cup of coffee (black, no sugar) that was hot and flavorful.  I wouldn't say the coffee was on par with the rest of the meal, but it was pretty good.

So, what does all this mean?  Does this burger get the Cranky Seal of Approval?  Absolutely.  This is a burger I would drive out of my way to get.  On a Friday night at dinner time, I would normally expect a restaurant's food to be at its worst.  If I had this burger at its worst, then I can't WAIT to try it at its best! 

Happy eating,

Cranky