Tonalli's Burgers

Yesterday, I went in to a place called Tonalli's that is right down the street from a friend's. It's located on the corner of NE MLK Blvd and NE Killingsworth in Portland. They serve a wide variety of foods besides burgers, including mexican, breakfast, hotdogs, and ice cream. I really just wanted something small so I got a deluxe bacon burger for about 5 bucks. And I was unfortunately in a bit of a hurry so I got it to go. Despite that fact, it was still delicious.

I'd say my only complaint was the meat. It wasn't grill style meat, but then again, Tonalli's isn't really a sit down restaurant. That being said, the burger was awesome, it had pretty much everything you would want on a bacon burger (lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard, ketchup, mayo, cheese, bacon), and everything else tasted fresh and good. I give them a 4/5 for deliciousness and also the handy wrapper that their to go burgers come in.

Mcmenamin's Blue Moon Tavern

Today I went to Mcmenamin's Blue Moon Tavern. Mcmenamins is a chain that exists around various locations in Portland, and this one is located off of 21st avenue in Northwest. The place was empty because it was only 2:30 but the building was nice. There were three pool tables, some interesting decorations, and a dimly lit room for a nice relaxing ambient feeling.

The Mcmenamins menu consists of mostly pub fare, some dinner specials, and soups and salads, but all of the items are cooked with quality ingredients. I ordered the Captain Neon burger which is 1/3 pound burger with thick cut bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and bleu cheese. It was cooked perfectly and tasted amazing. The fries were definitely made with house-cut potatoes, but they were a bit soggy...

The Rubinator Beer, service, price range, and everything else was awesome, and the burger was absolutely delicious. All in all I am going to give this burger experience a 4/5 but only because the fries were soggy.

Local Eatery & Pub

Today, I went to Local Eatery & Pub.  The restaurant just opened in February of 2011. I’d never been there before but I could not wait to come home afterword to write about this place!  Local is located at 146^th street and Grey Road in Carmel, Indiana.  It didn’t really look like anything special from the outside but inside was awesome.  Everything was so open, the tables and booths were huge and the bar was enormous with four flat screen TV’s right in the middle.  The ceilings were tall and the place was so clean!  Everyone working, from the host to my server/bartender, Teresa, was so nice! 

My favorite thing about this particular restaurant is all the Local organic food and drinks.  They had different beers and bottles of vodka made in Indiana and their ingredients mostly came from local farms.  They had their main menu which included salads, sandwiches, and classic restaurant dishes.  Then, they also had a special menu which Teresa said they change every couple of weeks. 

I ordered the flame broiled burger.  It came with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, a special house sauce, and I added havarti cheese to the mix.  The burger was amazing!  The freshness of all the ingredients made it so tasty!  The burger was cooked perfectly and was very tender and juicy.  The bun was nice and soft!  You also get to choose between fries or tator tots.   My server suggested the tots and I was pleasantly taken aback to find that they were so fresh, fried, crunchy and delicious.  I am happy to award Local with 5 stars! 

Portland Sports Bar and Grill

A sort of impromptu need for sustenance led me (Dan) and my brother to a bar around the corner from the place we were staying. We were on our way to a Timbers game and wanted to grab something quick beforehand. A small sports bar blandly called "Portland Sports Bar and Grill (http://www.portlandsportsbarandgrill.com/) was really close, so we decided to take it for a spin.

The atmosphere of the bar was nice, although there was nobody else in there except for the bartender, my brother, and I for a little while. There were sports jerseys hanging from the ceiling and random beer ads and posters on the walls, and a big screen TV. The menu was pretty typical of a sports bar, but they did have a special house burger that caught my eye. It was called the Rose City Burger. It was a single patty burger that came with an egg, cheddar cheese, special sauce (mayo, thousand island, and bbq), lettuce, tomato, and onion.

Overall, the idea sounded great, but the taste did not match my expectations. The burger itself didn't have much taste to it, and the special sauce, which there wasn't much of, wasn't that special. There was nobody in the bar and the fries were even a bit cold when they came out. Even though I ate the whole thing, I would rate this burger a 2/5. The burger wasn't that great, it was really greasy, and the service wasn't too great either. But the burger looked good and the place was clean. That's two stars for you Portland Sports Bar and Grill! Maybe if they step their game up a bit in the burger department I will return for a rematch.

Broad Ripple Brewpub

For my second burger test, a friend suggested I go to Broad Ripple Brewpub.  It’s located on East 65^th street, again right off of the Monon.  The inside was pretty big, with old wooden interior.  We sat outside because it was one of the first nice days of the season here in Indiana.  There was quite a bit of traffic and even though it wasn’t the main strip in Broad Ripple, the area was very busy with a lot of cars and people walking by.  There was also a restaurant/bar across the street where a live band started to play later in the day.  If you are looking for a calm and relaxing place to enjoy your meal, I’d suggest sitting inside. 

My server never did tell me her name.   The beer selection was great and there were several different burgers on the menu to choose from.  When I asked my server which burger was the best she went about telling me what she didn’t like about each burger which lowered my expectations a little.  I decided to go ahead and get the Smoked Brisket Burger anyways. 

The menu describes the brisket burger as, “In-house smoked beef brisket chopped and piled onto a bun with a healthy smear of pimento cheese then topped with applewood smoked bacon, sautéed red onions, and our southern style beer bbq sauce.”   The burger actually tasted really good!  It had a very smokey flavor and the bbq sauce was very flavorful.  There did seem to be an awful lot of fat in the meat.  It was also pretty messy because the chopped beef brisket kept falling off the bun.  It wasn’t the cheapest menu either.  With all of that being said, I give Broad Ripple Brewpub 3 stars out of 5.