Chili's Old Timer rated 3.0

Chili's Restuarant, the restaurant that can't decide whether they're a Mexican joint, a purveyor of American food (in their defence - would ANYBODY want to go toe to toe with Friday's?), or perhaps a combination of the two (an Amerexican joint?)  They REALLY push their Margaritas.  That always makes me suspicious: why would a server of food really push their drink menu?  Anyway, they offer two sizes of draft beer: big and bigger.  Now, I rarely have an adult beverage anymore; I almost always order a soda with my burger, but as far as I'm concerned beer is the beverage that goes best with a hamburger and Chili's has a great selection of beers.

But I digress; this is after all about the burger.  The burger I ordered was the Chili's Old Timer.  The Old Timer is the closest thing Chili's offers to a regular hamburger.  The Old Timer comes to your table with mustard, lettuce, pickle, and onion already applied by whomever cooked the thing.  I normally find this aggravating, but Chili's does take the time to spell this out in their menu, and it actually tastes pretty good (not great - pretty good.)  What they don't take the time to spell out is the fact that they grill the bun!  Now I have nothing against butter.  At this point in my life I cannot eat it, but I have used it in the past.  I remember putting it on things like mashed potatoes and other vegetables.  I remember dipping lobster and crab meat into a little bowl of butter way back when.  What I do not remember is slathering my steak (or chicken, or pork) with butter!  That being the case, why in the world would I want it on my hamburger?!

Ok (deep, cleansing, breath) the Old Timer also comes with fries and a steak knife (I have NO idea why they serve a steak knife with a hamburger, but they do.)  Chili's fries were salty and tasty; they (like the burger) are pretty good.  Finally, I finished up with a cup of coffee and it, like everything else, was ok.  I ordered my coffee black and it came to my table very hot, but there was little if any flavor; it was very weak. 

To sum all of this up, everything was ok: it wasn't great; it wasn't terrible.  So, the big question, does this get the Cranky Seal of Approval?  Absolutely not, I would say the Chili's Old Timer was better than the burgers I've had at Fuddruckers, but not as good as the one they serve at the Picadilly Pub.

Happy eating,

Cranky