Fat Boy

Come on now... That's mean.  You thought this was an autobiographical post. Haha.

So a few weeks back, my wife and I put the boy down for bed and wanted to grab a late dinner.  We were both sorta tired and decided that we didn't want to drive far to get our meal, at the same time, though, we didn't want a let down; we had been looking forward to a dinner out for the past few days.  We decided to go out on a limb, and boy oh boy did this one pay off big for us.

Several times as I had driven down Charleston I had noticed an ad at the bus stop on Charleston and Lamb.  Of course, you have time to notice ads at Charleston and Lamb bus stops because you are almost always waiting at that light for one if not two light rotations as you head to the freeway.  So I had noticed an ad for a restaurant called "Fat Boy."  The add was rather unassuming: it had only the name of the restaurant, a picture of a basket with a burger and steak fries, and "Stewart and Lamb" beneath the photo.

So that night as we drove, debating where to eat, I started my way to Stewart and Lamb, pulled into the strip mall parking lot, and parked in one of the many open spaces.  It was the moment of truth: "You wanna try it?" "I dunno, whaddya think?" "Oh gosh, Cam, don't make me make these decisions, you know I can't handle it." "Let's just try it." "Yeah, we'll never know if we don't try it."  And we walked in.

The first thing you notice as you open the door is the distinct smell of pizza in the oven.  It turns out that the Fat Boy has more to offer than burgers and fries, but also pizza, wings, burritos, philly's, etc.  We grabbed a couple menus and sat down to decide.  When I went to the counter to order, I asked the guy what he recommended and he had a puzzled look on his face when he said, "What? You've never been here before?"  I don't think he was assuming that a ton of people go there, rather that those who did come were regulars and knew exactly what they wanted.  For me, that is a good sign.

In the end, we each got a cheeseburger (I added a fried egg to mine...thank you Red Robin for the introduction), an order of chencho fries to split, and a chocolate milkshake to wash it down.

The burgers:  what's the right word?....  PERFECT.  Honestly, I use that word carefully, but it is fitting here.  The meat was juicy.  The mayo is a chipotle mayo that gives just a little extra zing.  The veggies were crisp and fresh and were each cut down to the perfect size.  Relish comes standard on the burger, which I appreciated; it adds a little sweet undertone to each bite.  And then, the bun...Oh, the bun.  It was fabulous.  It is toasted better than any bun I have ever had.  It was crunchy for EVERY bite.  Seriously, even my last, savory bite offered that crisp on the outside as well as pillowy soft bread on the inside.  It was simply a perfect cheeseburger.

Not my pic.  Didn't have this blog in mind at the time.  Thank you, Urbanspoon.  See the toasted bun?  YUM

The chencho fries: I was a big fan, Lauren, not as much.  The chencho fries are covered in green sauce (almost Cafe Rio style), a little shredded chicken, onion, and lots of stringy cheese.  I thought the flavors were great and something new aside from normal fries or (chili) cheese fries.  Lauren's complaint, which is completely legit, was that the sauce made the fries a little on the soggy side.  She doesn't do any kind of soggy (one of the reasons she LOVED the bun, like me) so the fries were just "meh" to her.  If you don't like wet fries, stay away from these.  We sorta wish that we would have tried the normal fries to give them a fair review.  But still, I am a fan.

The shake: it was a simple, quality chocolate shake.  For me though, I am not sure I have ever had an AMAZING chocolate shake, you know.  As long as you don't completely screw it up... I mean it is ice cream, chocolate, and milk.  How could it be bad.  One thing I did appreciate is that it wasn't so thick that you can't use a straw.  It wasn't overly priced and it came with some good whipped cream on top.  A good way to finish the meal in my book.

Overall: let's put it this way, if I could choose any burger in town it would be this one.  In-n-Out??? Puhlease. 

I am excited to try this place again to try some of their other menu items.  It is gonna be hard for me to pass on a perfect burger though.  Maybe I can take my younger bro and sis and bait them into experimenting.  I always find a way to score a bite.  Win, win... win!

Give this place a try.  Leave me a comment with your experience.