Lonnieburger Baskets: Oakley Pub & Grill

And with this one, I'm all caught up.

It's the Oakley Pub & Grill in historic Oakley Square.

At the top of the restaurant's website is the tagline "Voted #1 Best Burger in Cincinnati", and I don't know that I'd necessarily agree with that, and I'm thinking that they need to provide some sort of citation for that.

Let's see what I did think about the Oakley Pub & Grill.

That's right, I stole the photo from Google maps.  It was dark when we visited the Oakley Pub & Grill, so I didn't get an outside shot.  Deal

Burger

• The first and most notable thing about the Oakley burgers are the spices.  This is a tasty, distinctly spiced burger patty.  The Girl and I tried to guess what the spices were but to no avail, so we asked our waitress (who earned extra points, by the way - more on her later).  She didn't know either, so she passed the question along to the cooks.  Apparently the mysterious spices are garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Man, I don't want to say that I doubt the people in the back, but the burger's spices seemed too tasty and complexly tasty to just be those three, but I'll take their word for it.
  
  The burger is excellent, nicely fried, excellently well spiced (not overpowering, not hot, not strong, just distinct).  No dark crust is about the only complaint that I had.  Burger - 8 

Toppings

• Cheese melted - that's always a good thing.  Everything else was fresh enough, and the bacon was well fried - if not as crisp as I might have wanted it.  Nothing special here, just solid toppings.  Toppings - 6

Fries

• Plank fries.  They're good but not great.  No spice, need some more salt.  No breading or anything.  Nothing much to see here.  Fries - 6 

Ambiance

• The Oakley Pub is a lot smaller than we initially thought.  Their parking lot suggest an inside that's much larger than what we got.  Not a problem, just a little surprising.
  
  It's a pretty standard bar - booths along the walls, tables for four, then a bar with stools.  There were a half dozen flat screen tv's around the place - all on three college football games on the Saturday night we were in (LSU lost to Arkansas as we were getting our food).  Jerseys and pennants hang up around the place, mostly local.  It's not a sports bar, however, but is actually a local bar with a sports thing going on.  Ambiance - 6

 Cost

• $7.95 for a burger and fries + $1.75 for a diet coke = $9.70 total.  That's right in the middle of the range.  Cost - 5

 Other Stuff

• Our waitress was outstanding.  She was chatty here and there without being officious.  Plus, in a gesture that won over the hearts of The Girl and me, she noticed that I took my straw out and put it off to the side, commented on it, and promised not to bring any more straws (which she remembered to follow through on.)  It may seem a small thing, but I've been taking my straws out and setting them to the side for decades, and this had to be the first waitress to ever notice and stop bringing me straws.  Plus she asked the cooks in back what was in the burger for us.  +2
• As the name might suggest, the Oakley Pub and Grill is a full bar.  +1 

Which gets us to a total of 34 points.

The Oakley Pub and Grill is another in our list of places where you can get a good burger.  Sadly, it's not a place where you can get a great burger.

• Terry's Turf Club - 45
• Cafe de Wheels - 44
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36 
• Roxy's - 36
• VanZandt - 34
• Gabby's - 34 
• Oakley Pub & Grill - 34
• Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
• Graffiti Burger - 27
• Sammy's - 26
• Arthur's - 26