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| - If there's anyone on Yelp who should be set up to not like Smashburger, I'm the guy. I'm a huge burger fan, but I'm a minimalist and a traditionalist. Give me a nice, simple burger with some lettuce, pickles, a little onion, some barbecue sauce and maybe a little ketchup and I'm over the moon. Once you start throwing around words like jalapenos, goat cheese, hot sauce, etc. (in my opinion) you're unneccessarily messing with a good thing, and to be fair Smashburger didn't do much to change that opinion... but that didn't stop me from loving it.
With most of the burgers were a little "too much" for my simple taste, the BBQ Bacon Cheddar burger was A - F***ING - MAZING! Not only did it have the same high quality beef and fresh ingredients as the rest of the burgers here, but it had one of the best barbecue sauces I've tasted ANYWHERE (and trust me, that's one ingredient that can make or break an entire business for me, so this is a HUGE deal.) This was my absolute hands-down favorite (and I've now tried 3/4 of the burgers there).
For vegetarians, they make black bean patties for their burgers which, while I didn't try them, other people I was there with were raving about, and salads. Are you a meat eater, but not a burger fan? They've got chicken sandwiches as well.
Honestly, what stole the night for me were the sides. Smashburger takes a simple thing like fries and does them a way I've never had in a burger joint: cooked with olive oil, garlic, rosemary and seasalt. They're familiar enough as fries to not be off-putting, but have a distinct taste to them that's unlike anywhere else. They also do poutine (apparently ONLY in Calgary), and lightly fried and salted fry-like veggie baskets they call "Veggie Frites" (thin cut, fried and salted carrots? Strange but DELICIOUS!), and my personal favorite: FRIED PICKLES! I swear I could binge for an entire meal on just these amazing little things. Sooooooo good!
All in all, this isn't exactly my perfect establishment: a few too many options that seem to try and stick a few too many different strange flavors into a burger... but all things considered this is absolutely 100% worth checking out - if for no other reason, then to try something completely different.
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