A sampling of Vegas’ burgers

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 | 9:06 a.m.

We recently visited a single location of five casual chain restaurants in order to compare their hamburgers. What is reported here reflects that experience, and hopefully, the experience is close to the same in whatever location you visit (all listed restaurants have multiple locations in the Las Vegas area):

Chili's Grill & Bar

Chili's has a large, eclectic menu, but the chain started in Dallas as a hamburger, chili and margarita joint. The roots still show. The burgers here get top marks.

Chili's on South Decatur Boulevard has a pleasant atmosphere with tiled tables and a subtle Mexican theme. Its original Texas-sized fresh-ground hamburger is fresh for sure, but Texas-sized turns out to be a four-ounce patty, nothing special there.

Everything else about these burgers is, though. First, have your burger on either a sesame seed or whole wheat bun; both are good. Then, there is the option to have your burger either medium, medium well or well done, a choice not offered at most chains, a policy triggered by the E-coli problem.

The $5.99 Swiss-mushroom burger, topped with fresh sauteed mushrooms, is a real beaut, and when you have it medium, it is nicely pink in the center. It's an excellent value. The Old Timer, $5.49, comes with mustard, pickles, tomato, onion and lettuce, and the vegetables are crisp and fresh. Further, the burgers come with top-notch fries, so how can you go wrong?

TGI Friday's

The hook at TGI Friday's, a coast-to-coast chain, with such decor as Tiffany-style lamps and lots of wood, plus a huge, eclectic menu. Burgers are popular in this restaurant, and they are huge, 8-ounce jobs, frozen and preformed.

What's nice about eating a burger at Friday's is you can build your own; there are six cheeses, vegetarian toppings such as guacamole or jalapenos, and a variety of spice mixtures to choose from; $6.95 buys you up to four toppings and it is forty cents for each additional one. What's more, if you don't fancy beef, there are burgers made from turkey and vegetable products as well.

Perhaps the best burger Friday's serves is the $6.99 peppercorn burger, which comes with a nice cracked black pepper crust, a slice of melted Colby cheese, three onion rings and lots of mayo. But because it came to the table well done, shrinkage made it seem smaller than a half-pounder. And though the bun, tomato slice, and pickles were fine, the meat tasted less beefy than a burger cooked from a fresh patty.

Fatburger

Fatburger uses U.S.D.A. choice beef, never frozen, in 5-ounce patties, and the beef is lean and tender. The Sunset Road restaurant, like most Fatburgers, plays real jazz on the jukebox, and offers you a choice of having your burger either grilled or charbroiled. Grilled is a better choice, because you taste the gas broiler sometimes when you order charbroiled.

Burgers are a low-priced $2.89, and though purists might snort, some of us like the fact that you can get one topped with a fried egg for another 40 cents. A Fatburger is big and sloppy, pretty hard to eat. It comes wrapped in waxed paper, and the toppings -- tomatoes, onion, relish, mustard and pickles -- fall out when you bite in.

The one complaint is that the kitchen has a tendency to overcook the burgers. When they do that, you can hardly tell that the meat is fresh, which kind of dampens the whole idea. But in general, these are good burgers, and well worth the price, which is why there is often a wait beyond the seven-minute cooking time.

In-N-Out Burger

There is no denying that the phenomenally successful In-N-Out Burger owes its success to fast turnaround, low prices and high quality. Hamburgers are $1.45, and the chain's famous Double Double, which consists of two patties, 2 ounces each, and two slices of processed American cheese, is $2.68.

The burgers come with fresh iceberg lettuce, a tomato slice and pickles, plus the chain's homemade spread, which is similar to a Thousand Island dressing. The bun here is the second-best of all I tasted, slightly chewy with good flavor.

These burgers are always well-done, cooked until the center of the patty reaches 165 degrees, according to a spokesman from the company. They are cooked on a flat metal grill. Sliced or grilled onions are optional.

This is a good burger, but obviously, there is less meat, although the Double Double is a reasonably big sandwich. The caveat here are the unusually long lines. The company spokesman said that the chain aims to move a car in one minute. To anyone who has braved the drive-through at one of these places, the idea seems like pure fantasy.

Outback Steakhouse

This busy, Aussie-themed restaurant opens daily at 4 p.m. and served a 6-ounce burger broiled just as its steaks are. The burgers come with Aussie chips, a big pile of French fries that are crisp and tasty.

The Outbacker, $6.49, is the standard burger, and it comes with lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard and onions, plus the option to have cheese at no extra charge. But for only 50 cents more you can order the No Rules Burger, which affords an unlimited choice of toppings.

We ordered a burger with bacon, grilled onions, sauted mushrooms and BBQ sauce, and the toppings were delicious. The beef itself, although fresh meat, could have had more flavor, and the fact that it came to the table well-done when ordered medium was daunting.

Still, this is one of the few chains in town where you can get your hamburger medium rare. Just be prepared to wait up to 15 or 20 minutes for it when the restaurant is busy. This ain't no fast food joint.

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