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| - OK, so I've been yelping my eats for almost a year now and have stayed away from posting myself but after BLT, I simply had to start!
I was on the strip yesterday and needed to grab lunch with a couple colleagues and we had heard that there was a new burger bar at The Mirage and figured we would try. All 3 of us prefer food to just about anything else so it was a leap of faith to go to a new place without yelping first (please hold the....serves you right comments)
BLT is a new boutique burger and shake restaurant at The Mirage with an acclaimed chef, Laurent Tourondel.
We were seated pretty quickly but given a table toward the back of the restaurant by the kitchen so didn't really get a great feel for the décor, but then again we came for the food. 3 hungry guys mid day for burgers and shakes, what could go wrong?
The waitress was attentive and helpful but based on some small talk; she is a bit disappointed in the crowd and mentioned the slow economy and hoped it would pick up. After ordering drinks and burgers and some fried pickles, we were all excited for the food. The shakes and soda took about 10 minutes but came and the shakes were decent. The Twinkie Boy was tasty but tasted like a vanilla shake with a touch of Twinkie, wish I had gone with the PB&J shake that went by....that looked yummy.
The pickles came and wow! They were tasty; juicy, crispy and all around great when dipped in the spicy ranch dip. For $5, would have expected more than 8 pickles slices (about a half pickle total) but they were awesome which really helped my rating.
On to the main course.....our burgers and sides come and we are psyched. We made sure to get 3 different sides so we could experience them all...
1)Onion Rings- greasy by any standard and way too much batter
2)Waffle Fries- good but cold...must have been waiting for the burgers!
3)Skinny Fries- hot, cooked perfectly, though a bit salty.
Now the reason we came...the meat!
Burger 1- The Kobe w/ Swiss and grilled onions- Not mine, but the headline from Raf was "pretty good but just a burger"
Burger 2- The Classic w/ Cheddar, Bacon and their "BLT sauce"- Again...burger was fine, but the exact words Paul uttered were....."Would prefer a double-double from In-n-Out"
Burger 3-.....This was mine and the real reason for the post/rant
I ordered the Classic with Grilled Onions, Lettuce, Tomato and their Vermont Cheddar. Now; my burger had been ordered Medium so when it showed up with an "MW" toothpick in it, I began to get skeptical. It's a burger and since I don't think I have ever sent back a burger, I figure I will try it. One bite tells me that this thing is Well Done....Gray all the way....the only red/pink I could find would be my ketchup....so, I showed the waitress and with her eyes she told me that "it happens all the time and this place really sucks to work at!" She took it back while my friends began their burgers and I snacked on the cold, salty, greasy fries.
She told me that they chef looked and said it was Medium but would make me another.....was she kidding? Not only did it have the wrong toothpick in it and no pink but this is customer service for a brand new place charging almost $20 for burger? Whatever....
So, everyone finished their burgers and mine shows up....boy did the chef show me. How about some guesses for what toothpick held the bun together this time?????
Obviously, it wasn't the Medium one I would have liked; it was MR, for their Medium Rare. I pointed it out as she served it and she shrugged. So as I get ready to take a bite, I notice that it does have the grilled onions but also has raw red onions....really, if you order your onions grilled should you have to tell them to leave off the raw ones?
Well, I can tell you that the toothpick with MR was wrong...Should have said R, for Raw, not for Rare. No exaggeration here, it was still cold in the middle.
At this point, I clearly was done with this joint and had the manager come over. When she saw the burger, she actually agreed that it was undercooked for Rare and not even close to Medium and took it off the bill graciously. (they've been open for a month but she has already mastered the..."I'm sorry, let me take this off the bill for you!") Again, this is the first time in 20 years of eating out at least 10 times a week that I refused to pay for something.
Chances are
A) This place has way too many issues to get it fixed quick enough
B) The waitress is probably already looking for a new job
C) The Mananger seemed beaten in less than a month of being open.
D) The chef should thank the folks that acclaimed him in NYC and go back to the concepts that he must have found success in since this one will likely not cut it.
E) In a city with as many food choices as freaks, I can't imagine anyone eating at this place more than once.
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