Grubstake 2.0

Today I decided to head down the street to Okinawa Teriyaki for lunch.  I've never been there before, but it's got decent reviews and I was craving some teriyaki.  Unfortunately after walking all the way down the hill, I found the place closed - a regular ghost town in there.  And it was only 1:50, what the hell?  I don't know if there's a remodel going on, or if word got out that I was on my way and they shut off the lights and hid, but I was disappointed. 

Quickly formulating an emergency contingency plan, I looked around and saw that I wasn't far from The Grubstake and started heading in that direction.  Both Kris and Brian had claimed that the burgers were actually sold at the fish bar, but since it was Kris and Brian I was skeptical.  I mean, who would trust either of those guys?  As luck would have it, however, they were correct and before long I was waiting on my order.

First of all, it took them about 10 minutes to make my burger.  I'm not sure why, the only possible explanation I can think of being that it came with jo jo's and maybe they didn't have any prepared.  But when you only have 45 minutes for lunch and you've just walked 10 minutes to get there and it will be another 10 minutes back, that's a significant delay.  Anyway, I always prefer jo jo's to frys since they have a more favorable potato to grease ratio and was please with the offering, except that they could have used an extra minute in the fryer as they weren't thoroughly cooked.  Still edible though.

What I first noticed about the burger is that it was huge.  Big enough that I had trouble fitting it in my mouth.  This was problematic because, in conjunction with the added level of difficulty of eating while walking back to my office (thanks to the 10 minute wait), the burger was impossible to keep together and not only were bits falling out all over the place, but the bun got completely shredded before it was half eaten.  I ordered the bacon cheese burger, and it came with an abundant amount of lettuce, tomato, and onion.  So much onion in fact that it brought a tear to my eye while eating it.  Either that or the 40 mph winds blowing in my face were causing my eyes to water, but I'd like to think it was a combination of the two.  In the future I would prefer less onion, or better yet, some sauteed onions.  But I digress.  As I was saying, with a salad inside the burger, I consider that my portion of vegetables for the day and think of it as health food.

The hamburger patty itself was very big, I think the sign said half a pound.  There was also ample bacon.  Still I found the whole thing a little dry, as Brian also mentioned, and I also think it could have used more cheese.  This is where some condiments would have come in handy, but since it came wrapped in paper and I feared that unwrapping it would result in a catastrophic mess, I didn't add any.  All it came with was mayo, and if you've ever seen The Whole Nine Yards, you know that mayo is unacceptable on a burger.  So should you order one of these burgers be sure to tell them to hold the mayo and then add some ketchup and mustard yourself.  And take about half the onions off. 

So, for $6.99 you get yourself well on your way to a coronary bypass with this big burger, but you'd probably be better off walking one pier over to Red Robin and grabbing something there, although the wait will be even longer and it will set you back a few more bucks.  If I worked closer I might return, but as it is I probably won't make that trip again for a mediocre burger.