Charlie’s Grind and Grill: Getting Away with Murder

About 2 or 3 years ago when I first visited Charlie’s¹, I loved the place!  Good food.  Good-sized servings.  Well-hidden.  What’s not to love? Well, the burger. Wait… Don’t these guys serve one of the meanest burgers in town? Well, yes and no.  Let me explain.

There are plenty of things to love in Charlie’s. You can go for the Buffalo Chicken Wings², served with bleu cheese dip, carrot and celery sticks.  The Hot sauce isn’t too spicy, but the Nuclear version is more than tolerable.  Wings aren’t bad at all, but there are certainly better ones out there.  Good size, though.  A bit on the greasy side as I tasted the oil on some bites.

The Cerveza Negra Fish and Chips isn’t bad as well.  As the name suggests, batter is made from beer.  Pretty coated, but you do get a good chunk of dory.  They serve it with tartar sauce and those hand-cut fries that I love. The’yre one of the few places that offer you malted vinegar, which I think is a must.  I wish they used a bigger slice of lemon.  I wanted to squeeze something bigger³.

You can’t go wrong with a side of Chili and Cheese Fries, too.  Best chili, by far. And they serve a mean set of hand-cut fries.

A couple of things I’m not a fan of: Clam Chowder on Sourdough Bread Bowl is nothing to write about.  Bread was hard, soup was OK.  That’s all you really need to know.

And the Gourmet Chicken Burger served with white cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and a raw onion. Just not a fan of this sandwich.  Didn’t work for me.  The raw onion was too overwhelming, among other things.

Their best seller is the Black Angus Burger with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. I’m just not sold here. It’s pretty good value, considering they use USDA beef and it’s pretty considerable in size. My issue is really how they make the burger.  There’s a hint of BBQ sauce and some hickory flavor to the beef that kind of covers up the beefy flavor.  And I think that’s an absolute no-no in any burger because the point is to highlight the beef — not murder it and cut it up into pieces, right?

So what’s a good alternative to the Black Angus Burger? Go with the Kitayama Wagyu Burger! Comes with a Russian dressing, but I always ask them to take it out.  It’s a big more expensive, but you taste a lot more beef.  Not bad at all.

Don’t go for the San Miguel Beer Wagyu Cheeseburger, though. Too much going on here and we want the beef, remember? Grilled mushrooms, bacon, baked onions, cheese, mayo, SMB BBQ sauce — yeah… Just.Too.Much.

Their Cheesesteaks aren’t bad.  Comes with sauteed beef, grilled onions, bell peppers, rachero sauce and jalapeno peppers topped with Cheezwiz.  Pretty large serving, so the Hungry size over the Starving should suffice.  You have your choice of Black Angus USDA Select Rib-eye (more expensive) or Batangas AAA Sirloin for the meat.  The Sirloin should do IMHO.  There are better ones, but not bad.

My favorite alternative would probably be the Chili and Cheese Snapdawg.  Comes with mustard, diced onions, cheddar cheese, and that awesome chili con carne. Great beef taste to their hotdogs, which goes well with the chili.  They run out of these from time to time, though.

The snapdawgs don’t come with fries, but I pretty much get them anyway.  Like I mentioned, they serve a mean set of Fries.  One of my best in the Metro IMHO.  Hand-cut, properly blanched, properly seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. What’s not to love?

I do think this place has good comforting food but at expensive prices. Save for murdering the Black Angus Burger, the other items are pretty good.  Good enough to get away with murder, in fact.

Charlie’s Grind and Grill: Getting Away with Murder 2011-07-28

bout 2 or 3 years ago when I first visited Charlie’s, I loved the place!  Good food.  Good-sized servings.  Well-hidden.  What’s not to love? Well, the burger. Wait… Don’t these guys serve one of the meanest burgers in town? Well, yes and no.  Let me explain. There are plenty of things to love in Charlie’s. …