Square Burger - A Year Later

Where to Find It?: 115 N. Kentucky St, McKinney, TX 75069

The Grade: A+ (a one up from last year)

Food Group: Burgers

How Much to Fork Over: $$

The Faves: Mushroom Border Burger, Panko Fried Herb Goat Cheese Salad

The Peeves: 36 beers on tap and not really an inviting place to hang out and drink

The Jibba Jab:

So it’s been a year, pretty much exactly on the nose, since I last wrote about Square Burger, so I thought we would have a revisit on Halloween weekend again.  Everything from the food to the atmosphere to the beer is still quite the same.  Not in the mood for beer, then opt for a glass of wine because despite their small selection, you can’t really go wrong.  I had a glass of the Pinot Noir and loved it enough to order another….or maybe that’s just because I love wine…..and to drink.  The Panko Fried Herb Goat Cheese Salad is a great share salad.  One tip though.  Beets are the type of food that need something else to compliment its flavors, so don't eat them alone.  Instead befriend it with a little arugula, goat cheese, and butternut squash, and then you will find yourself becoming a Beet Lover!  Also, it's quite a large salad, so if you are by yourself either have it as your meal or go for the house salad instead, it’s just as delicious, cheaper and smaller.  Now, for the burger.  This was the first time I’ve tried the Mushroom Border Burger and I have to say that it was dang delicious!  It was so spectacular that I’m going to put this one on the “My Favorite Burgers” List.  Yep, that good!  Watch out Twisted Root and The Grape because Square Burger is fierce competition.  It was incredibly juicy, flavorful, and had the perfect bun to burger ratio.  The beautiful soft and glistening golden brown brioche bun, which I hear are made from Dallas based Empire Bakery Co., was the ideal partner to soak up the juices from the grass-fed beef patty.  Also, they usually ask you how you would like your burger cooked, if they don’t or you don’t say otherwise the chef will cook it medium, but I suggest how we always get ours cooked, which is medium rare.  Now don’t get scared that you are going to get food poisoning or something worse like mad cow disease.  It’s perfectly fine.  They get their beef delivered every day from Genesis Beef, which is in the McKinney area (you can also order their beef from The Local Yocal Farm to Market located on the Square), so that basically means it’s super fresh and you are supporting your local economy even more!  Basically, whatever they are doing behind those closed doors, they are doing it right and I want more Burger!!  I am so glad that it’s still as amazing as it was last year!!

Panko Fried Herb Goat Cheese Salad

Mushroom Border Burger

Mushroom Border Burger - Inside Cooked Medium Rare
YUM!!

The Commissary

 Cyberspace: www.thecommissarydallas.com

Where to Find It: 1722 Routh Street Suite 102, Dallas, TX 75201

Food Group: Burgers

How Much to Fork Over: $$

The Grade: B-

Faves: Sangria, Outdoor Seating and View

Peeves: Buns, Pricey for Burgers!!

The Jibba Jab:

Expensive rent and burgers and booze to pay for it.  There is no arguing that The Commissary has a great view of downtown, but do the burgers live up to it?  Not quite, according to my perspective.  Yes, the Grass fed all natural beef with no hormones or steroids is appealing and sounds great, but I wasn’t really impressed with neither the outcome nor the buns that they came on.  Yes, I probably need to make another visit, but with their prices I really don’t want to spend another $8 (plus $2 for the spicer greens instead of fries) for one 6oz Dallas burger, which is about the size of one of those plastic ramekins that serve salsa at a Mexican restaurant, or pay $10 for the 8oz, but our other selection, the Tandoori burger was $13 (one size fits all), which was served on pita bread…..What??  This is a burger, not a flipping healthy sandwich, and to top it off The Dallas sesame seed bun was stale!  Come on.  Really?  That’s the easiest part!  As for the meat in the middle, well it was good.  Not worth the price though. 

On the other hand, we ordered the Summer Sangria, which was exceptionally refreshing in the 90+ degree weather at 9pm we were experiencing, but once again the price tag was astounding….a whopping $40 for a pitcher.  (By the way, Café Izmir on Greenville has $25 pitcher and $15 on Wednesdays!)  We also opted for the $6 Avocado Fries because our bartender at Five Sixty said they were amazing….not so much, and I am an avocado fanatic.  I don’t know if it was a bad batch of oil, but the frying took away the lush creamy texture and buttery flavor of an avocado.  It absolutely ruined it.  I couldn’t finish even one. 

I really wanted this place to be great, but it just didn’t stand up to the One Arts Plaza standards and the exceptional view that encompasses it.  I do hope that they change for the good.

The Dallas Burger
Can you tell how small it is?

Tanoori Burger
On pita bread???

Avocado Fries

$40 Pitcher of Sangria

Twisted Root Burger Company – Burgers to Dream About

Cyberspace: www.twistedrootburgerco.com

Where to Find It: 2615 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75226

Food Group: Burgers

How Much to Fork Over: $$

The Grade: A+

Faves: Burger….hands down!

Peeves: Waiting in line

The Jibba Jab:

Clever Careless Cheesiness. Ok, so I recently stated that The Grape had an amazing burger, but I knew that something better was still lurking out there in the land of Dallas….well I’ve already found a better burger and this is going to be hard to beat!  Twisted Root has been at the top of my list for places to try for quite sometime, so on our way back home the family lake house in Burnet, TX we decided to stop at the original location in Deep Ellum for a bite to eat. 

From the “Sofa King” sign (you will understand what I mean when you visit this place) to the name of their Homemade BBQ sauce, and most likely to the point of chuckling from hearing the celebrity names being called out when an order is ready, you will know that any sort of a snooty or somber attitude is basically not allowed on the premises.  This is my kind of place! 

20 Minute Mojito

After glancing at the menu, my eye and stomach were focusing on something spicy and blue cheese.  I am a blue cheese lover and it is my favorite cheese on a burger.  It’s pungent and stinky, but then it smells incredible while melting.  I love the flavor and boldness that it brings to beef, so I opted for one of their Specialty Burgers, the Blue Cheese and Jalapeño burger with an addition of mushrooms (another must on a burger).  Some of the other choices were the Peppercorn Ranch & Bacon Burger and The Classic Swiss-Mushroom Burger.  And then we had to add a side salad with the Deep Ellum Goat Cheese and an order of Hand-Cut Sweet Potato Chips and French Fries.  Our Celebrity order name given to us was Harry Carey and now we made our way to the bar for some adult beverages.  MT ordered a beer and a Cape Cod for another patron.  I saw a sign for Mojitios, so I just had to have one.  The first drinks came promptly, but the bar tender took 20 minutes to make my mojito!  If I would have known that I would have ordered something else because I was quite thirsty from our long trip.  He did redeem himself though, once I received the drink….He put quite a bit of rum in it!  I was feeling pretty good after finishing it.

Onto my favorite part….the Burgers!  I nose-dove into my burger immediately and kept going after the first bite….almost like the Pringles commercial “Once you pop, you can’t stop”….well I couldn’t stop eating this burger!  The Oompa Loompas had it right.  It was absolutely mouthwatering scrumdiddlyumptious.  The Grape burger completely disappeared from my mind after this amazing piece of God-like food.  The beef was flawlessly cooked with juice running down my chin, to my fingers, to my arms….the blue cheese was so creamy and had just the right amount of contrast to the spicy jalapeños and meatiness of the beef and mushrooms…..I was flabbergasted!  Everyone else at the table had the same expression on their face as mine, which was a look of ‘This is the best darn thing that I’ve tasted’?  Have you ever seen that look or experienced it?  I should have taken a picture.  Next time I will.  Now, everything else we ordered didn’t really have much of a chance after these burgers.  I wasn’t really impressed with the French Fries and Sweet Potato chips and the salad was definitely a disappointment, except for the Deep Ellum Goat Cheese, which was delicious.  I must know where they get their cheese…..the Mozzarella Co.?? 


So now I’m going to get down to business and state that currently Twisted Root’s Burgers are at the top of my Top DFW Burgers list.  Is their some place out there that is better?  I heard Maple and Motor has a good one, so that might be next on my burger destination!!

Blue Cheese and Jalapeno Burger (with Mushrooms)
AMAZINGNESS!!

Peppercorn Ranch and Bacon Burger

The Classic Swiss Mushroom Burger

The Salad.....ehh

French Fries and Sweet Potato Chips

Square Burger

Square Burger

Rating: A

Location: 115 N. Kentucky St, McKinney, TX 75069

Category: Burgers

Pricing: $$

Favorites: Lamb Burger, Sweet Potato Fries, Draft Beer!

Comments:

McKinney has been in dire need of a good Burger and Beer place, and now it has finally arrived! Square Burger has been open for a little while now, and No it hasn’t taken me this long to eat there….let’s just say I went when it first opened and was fascinated by the beer selection (36 beers on tap!!), but not so much with food, therefore, I did not want to write about it. I figured that they needed a few months to work out a few kinks before I could truly judge what they had to bring to the table.

Well, last night MT and I ate there, and the food definitely made a turn for the best! It definitely cleared up the former trip I had there. We ordered a couple of beers, the House Salad, Sweet Potato Fries and the Lamb Burger to share. Of course, the beers were cool and refreshing; the salad was fresh and delicious using apple as one of the main ingredients, naturally suitable for fall, the fries were crisp, salty with a hint of sweetness….MT couldn’t stop eating them….but the grand finale was the burger…WOW! I was the one who kept going back for more. The lamb was incredibly juicy and the tzatziki sauce was such a complimentary accompaniment for it….so delicious!! Although, we didn’t order an actual beef burger, if they can get lamb right then I’m sure they can get the beef right. I won’t hesitate to go back and taste the other burger selections!




Mmmm....Beer!

 



Sweet Potato Fries



House Salad

Lamb Burger