My Burger Bar // Fork’n Review

My Burger Bar
http://www.myburgerbar.com
716-838-0997
3061 Sheridan Drive, Amherst, NY

I’m amazed ‘My Burger Bar’ doesn’t have a giant American flag hanging on the walls and a bald eagle in the corner of this very American restaurant. Pumping out country rock’n roll music and the decor of checkered flags and interstate road signs almost beckons a motorcycle gang to come rolling in. The atmostphere is clearly forced in its attempts to be an edgy dive when instead it comes across as a part of a chain style restauarnt with cookie cutter apparel and waiters wearing flare. The wife and I came here for buffalo’s restaurant week and for $20.14 would get: two salads (salad bar), two “huge” burgers, and two frozen custards. Doing some research it did appear to be a decent deal for the cost and I also was aware that this place served “spiked” milkshakes with sealed the deal for me.

 

I ordered the bleu burger, and the wife went with the chicken burger. They gave us the option of white, wheat, or onion rolls which I found a nice touch. Of course we had to also get a spiked shake and so, after a small debate, went with the Glazed Donut. As we waited for our food to be prepared we helped ourselves to the salad bar which was lackluster in all regards. Slightly wilted iceberg lettuce with an assortment of mushrooms, olives, onions, croutons, and a few standard dressings to pair with it – I think Pizza Hut has more to offer in a salad bar than this place! When the burgers were served I immediately noticed they were standing alone without any type of fries or starch you would expect to get paired with your burger, and in its absence was a pool a grease that my bottom bun was disintegrating into. Flavor wise, the burgers were bland with no real spice, heat, citrus to give it a kick and make it sing. Even the onion roll fell short and just felt apart in this one note meal. As expected, the best item we received was the spiked shake. The ‘Glazed Donut’ appeared to be vanilla icecream blended with milk and a solid dose of 360 glazed donut vodka. For $6 it wasn’t a bad item to split but it wasn’t enough to carry the entire meal. Spiked shakes are a novelty, and one I’m not sure will keep this place in business.

My Burger Bar clearly aspires for greatness and, in my opinion, tries far too hard to be something its not. It looks like a chain, feels like a chain, and heck it smells like a chain, but it wants to be a grungy dive with an attitude. It hasn’t quite found its voice yet and in all intents and purposes is still a new and young restaurant that needs to up their game and start finding its footing before it’s too late.