Red Boot Drive-In (closed): 3.2/5

Fatboy $5.10 - Score: 3.4

Cheeseburger $4.25 - Score: 2.9

Bacon Burger $6.10 - Score: 3.6

Chili Burger $5.95 - Score: not rated

1866 Ness Ave

“Nice picnic tables and buns.” Perhaps because they’re both round? Those were the nicest comments about today’s burger.

Burger Club had a big turn-out with 15 diners eating under the sun today. There were a few brand new burger reviewers, and several newbies representing the under 18 demographic.

The Red Boot, like all the burger shacks we’ve been to so far, has a vestibule across the front with a door at either end for efficient flow though ordering. Inside, there are two windows for ordering and pickup. It’s a fairly big space and has some nice stools while you wait for your burger to be prepared. Dani commented “Was impressed that they served our food in the same order that we ordered our food.” We managed to stall the system a bit though when showing up with 15 people at once.



Big Boot

We needed some of the burger choices explained, like the “Jims, Boot and Canada”. Even so, a good portion of the orders were messed up despite the order taker appearing to take notes and clarify modifications. For mine, I asked for no pickles and onions (which is how it came) and no lettuce and tomato (which I got anyways). I’m not complaining - it still tasted good - it just made an already messy burger even sloppier. There were a couple of minor incidents though - one diner who really doesn’t like cheese found it on their burger, but noticed and a replacement was quickly prepared. Another mistake was more serious though - Russ asked for bacon and when he sat down to enjoy his much anticipated burger, found the bacon absent. Russ was very sad. This is the first burger shack offering bacon so he was really looking forward to it. Some other diners that ordered single burgers received doubles.

Bacon Double Cheeseburger

The prevailing comment about the burgers was how messy they were. There was also some discussion about what the “distracting taste was” and the consensus seemed to be curry in the chili sauce. Brett though it “Tasted of cinnamon (and elderberries)”. There was some variation (as there always is) on how the burger tasted. Some enjoyed it, thought it was good sized and tasty, and loved the patties - which were thin but juicy. A couple of the burger club apprentices weren’t terribly impressed though. Neither was their mom. Other comments were that the burger itself was “just okay” and the bun was the best part. For me, there was lots of very tasty bacon on my burger. Another diner experienced structural issues when his burger fell apart 3/4 way through eating it. The bun was pretty fresh, soft and not too bunny - it didn't break apart. It got pretty soggy though from the chili though.

After bunless Brett’s incident last week with finding a bun hiding in his chili, he decided it was “Easier to peel off my own buns.” Nelson observed that Brett “pulled a Mr. Pitt”.

  

Frings

Dani had a banana shake which she said was really good and had chunks of banana in it. It meant that “Dani had to suck really hard on the banana” though. For some reason this observation made it on to several of the diner’s review slips.