First Friday of my Spring Break, and what else would I do but go searching for a cheeseburger? As most of the burgers left on the
Cincinnati Magazine list are a fair drive down I-75 into the Bluegrass State, The Girl and I went searching for other sources of recommendations (what we found is tomorrow's post).
The most promising for the evening was found on
BaseballAndBurgers's review of FlipDaddy's in Mason/Symmes Township. The guys over at the BaseballAndBurgers blog has FliDaddy's as the third best burger in Cincinnati (though they've only been reviewing officially for three months now, so there are a lot of places left for them to try.) That's enough of a recommendation for us to make a visit to
FlipDaddy's.
The Girl went with a burger with beer cheese (available as an appetizer but not officially on the toppings choices) and a pretzel bun with pickles and lettuce. I went with the standard cheddar and bacon, onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles on my burger. We both got fries. I got a Diet Coke, and The Girl went for a beer. I'll ask her which beer it was as I can't remember.
The Girl's burger - pretzel bun and beer cheese
My burger - cheddar, bacon, tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles
FlipDaddy's website burger image
Burger
- My first bite of the burger suggested a very nice, tasty, spiced patty. None of my other bites had that same flavor, so I'm guessing something dripped onto my burger on the griddle. The patty were fairly standard and regular. If they were hand formed, those hands certainly had some serious training or equipment assistance. Patties of such regularity is more of a negative than a positive.
The meat was moderately flavorful with minimal but certainly present spicing.They were a bit thin meaning that any sort of medium cooking is largely lost, and it was reasonable for the waiter not to ask for our cooking preference. Both burgers were cooked to a medium-well and without crust on the meat. The burgers themselves are fine but nothing to write home about. Burger - 6
Toppings
- That's some serious bacon. The menu claims that it's Applewood smoked bacon, and I fully believe. Of course,at $1.25, it'd better be. The chipotle mayo wasn't anything to write home about, though it did have a nice, little kick to it. The pickled were long cut, always a nice novelty. So far, good stuff. The onions and tomato were passable but not spectacular. The lettuce was chopped and limp, big negative.
The Girl's beer cheese was flavorful but without the horseradish kick that the best beer cheeses offer. The waiter forgot her lettuce and pickles until she asked for them a second time.
Topping is a little tough this time. Bacon - big plus...pickles - little plus...onions/tomato - neutral...lettuce - negative. I'll go slightly above medium and give them a little more because the menu offers a huge variety of toppings including a dozen different cheeses and just about every sauce possible (green chili/jalapeno compote, chimichurri, Guiness reduction, teriayaki). This isn't Terry's assortment of toppings, but it's pretty darn good. I can't give them full credit because I didn't try any of those, but it's certainly enough to get me to go back and give some of them a try. Toppings - 7
Fries
- These are some seriously outstanding fries. They were serves piping hot and crisp. The Girl thought them a little over salted, but I appreciated the strong flavor including a little extra garlic spice on them. There was the lightest of breadings - possibly just a quick dip into cornstarch that coated a few of the fries visibly. Great stuff. Fries - 9
First three photos by me...
Ambiance
- I dig the place. The restaurant had a sort of vacation home vibe with darker wood flooring, bead board half walls dividing the space, rich colors on the walls, and big, bright windows. They also offer outdoor seating that we didn't take advantage of because of threatening skies. There are televisions tunedto sports around the place - particularly around the bar, but I was okay with that on this day as Djokovic was playing, and the waitstaff was kind enough to switch that on behind The Girl. The central bar area looked friendly enough, and there was a lot of room between the tables in our seating area - enough that I wondered why they didn't nudge some closer together to fit in another table or two. They don't offer any two-person tables, something that surprised me a little bit as I saw five tables with two people occupying them while we ate, but they were happy enough to give us a four-top instead.
Admittedly, the feeling was closer to very nice, mid-price, suburban chain restaurant than to neighborhood dive bar, but at this point in my life, I'm okay with that. Ambiance - 8
Cost
- Ah, there's the rub, eh? The basic FlipDaddy burger in $7.99. Lots of the sauces and toppings are free, but cheese was 75 cents, and bacon another $1.49. Fries were included (for an extra buck you can swap to sweet potato fries, asparagus, or onion rings). The Girl's pretzel bun was an extra buck, as was the beer cheese on top of her $6.99 Build Your Own burger. My drink was $2.25. For my total, that was $12.49 - kind of expensive. Cost - 2.5
Other stuff
- FlipDaddy's has a very extensive assortment of beers, and pints are $3.50 during happy hour (until 6). +1
- Our waiter, Eric H according to the receipt, was entertaining, thoroughly conversational when The Girl wanted to customize her burger with something not officially on the menu. +1
- The option of outside dining was excellent and something we would likely have taken advantage of if the skies hadn't been ready to open up upon us. +1
Gimme a second while break out the abacus...1+1+1+2.5+8+6+7+9 = 35.5 That's a pretty good score for
FlipDaddy's...great fries, very good assortment of toppings, decent burger patty, nicely decorated and inviting place. I like it enough to feel good about FlipDaddy's being the 8th best (of 26 we've reviewed) burger place in town.
- Terry's Turf Club - 45
- Cafe de Wheels - 44
- Senate - 43
- City View Tavern - 40 (scaled from 32/40)
- Stuffed on Vine - 38
- Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36
- Roxy's - 36
- FlipDaddy's - 35.5
- VanZandt - 34
- Gabby's - 34
- Oakley Pub & Grill - 34
- Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
- Troy's - 32
- By Golly's - 32
- Wildflower Cafe - 31.25 (scaled from 26/40)
- Sidetracks - 31
- Virgil's Cafe - 28
- Tank's Bar & Grill - 28
- The Pub at Rookwood Mews - 28
- Smashburger - 28
- Habits Cafe - 28
- Graffiti Burger - 27
- Arthur's - 26
- Sammy's - 25
- Skinny Legs - 25
- Gordo's (Fairfield) - 20
Tomorrow I'll be back with a few other recommendations that we'll be trying in the next while.
