729 Chestnut St, Bowling Green, KY 42101
(270) 904-3313 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Menu
Tonight, Mom and I decided to go to Burger and Bun for our weekly dinner date. Neither of us had been there before and it seemed like all the people I talked to said they’d never been because of the prices. And the restaurant is somewhat of a conundrum because of its sudden name change. One day, the sign on the door changed from reading On the Bone Chop House to Burger and Bun. New ownership? Completely new restaurant or same one with a new name?
But, someone who worked at Burger and Bun came into the building I work at to hand out the restaurant’s menus. And the menu looked great! Gourmet burgers? Sounds like a good splurge to me. By the time we left, we both wished that we’d chosen McDonald’s instead…
Parking
While the parking wasn’t as bad as what we experienced at Thai Thai, it was complicated. The little driveway to the left of the building that I used to get to the rear and only parking seemed to be more of an exit than an entrance, but it wasn’t marked.
We left the same way that we came in because I wasn’t sure of how else to leave and the car leaving before me took the same route. But, unlike the care that left before us, we had to sit for a few minutes and wait for a car that was attempting to enter the parking to get out of the way so we could leave. If we’d left a few seconds before, there could’ve been an interesting stand off.
Atmosphere
This was probably the best part of our experience.
When you walk inside, you’re greeted by a big, beautiful, open space full of square and round wooden tables and matching chairs. Our drinks came in glass steins, which I thought was a nice touch.
But, though our table came with a four and steak knife at each setting, the napkins came in the form of a roll of paper towel located at the end of the table with the condiments. It was reminiscent of something you’d find in a sports bar.
Service
It seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong…
When we walked in, a woman seated us right away. The table we were at was directly in front of what I think was a cold air humidifier. It blew directly on mom’s back and into my face, turning both of us into ice cubes. By the time we got outside, we welcomed the 80 degree weather and didn’t bother to roll down the windows of my car.
After we’d been sitting for a few minutes, she stopped by our table to go ahead and get us some drinks. I ordered a sprite and mom order a coke. My sprite was actually nasty, carbonated water because they needed to put new syrup in the machine. ( FYI, I know this from past experience working in food).
The woman returned to our table with a basket of chips (included with every meal), and I explained my soda situation to her. She went to take care of it and offered me something else while I waited. I asked for a glass of water. Meanwhile, we tried the chips. They had an awful, burnt taste. We ate a few, fruitlessly digging in the basket for something that didn’t appear burnt. When my water arrived, I proceeded to put the new straw she’d brought me into said beverage only to discover there was a hole in my star. I understand that this isn’t anybody’s fault, but I was already getting frustrated.
Our server, a man who never gave his name, finally arrived and asked us what we were drinking. I explained my situation and he said he’d check on in before proceeding to take our food orders.
Something that we’d thought was very interesting about this restaurant is the meat choices you can pick from for your burger—ground beef, black bean, ground turkey, or crispy fried chicken thighs. While the chicken sounded tasty, we were both in the mood for a good, beef burger. And that’s a good thing because he didn’t ask us what type of meat we wanted, instead assuming we wanted beef. I also expected him to ask us how we wanted our meat cooked—no such luck.
About 10 minutes pass until he returns to inform me that they’re out of sprite, so I ordered a coke instead.
It took a while for the food to arrive, which is understandable considering the fact that he was the only server in the slightly busy restaurant. The hostess continued helping him, but she had a job to do too and could only do so much.
Our food finally arrived (more about that later). After our sever brought said food, he didn’t once ask how it was, despite the fact that he passed our table while at the one across from ours. Several times.
When he finally did ask how the food was, we were obviously done as we had out baskets of food pushed to the edge of the table. Mom told him the poor quality of our sides and he apologized, taking them off the bill. He also managed to only put one soda on the check.
For one coke and two burgers, our total was $18. Can you see why we wished for McDonald’s?
Food
I’ve already mentioned the poor quality of our basket of chips.
Mom ordered the Mushroom Burger and Onion Rings. Her onion rings were so grease laden that that was pretty much all you could taste. It was one of the those things when, the more you eat, the more you can’t stand the taste. She said her burger was good, but it could hardly be called a mushroom burger as there were only four or five small pieces of mushrooms on it.
Our burgers didn’t look like the picture below. It was sort of one of those expectation meets reality moments.
I had the Bacon Egg Burger and Dauphine Potatoes. The latter were described by our server as basically deep fried mashed potatoes, like a potato cake. While the wonderfully seasoned mashed potatoes on the inside were great, the crust was greasy and burnt. We both ate a few of these after peeling off the crust.
My burger was good, nothing like I expected, but good. The bun was little over buttered and burnt (though I did appreciate the fact that they obviously toast their buns). The burger wasn’t the medium that I would’ve chosen, but it was tasty and moist. The bacon was limp (under cooked in my opinion), but had a great maple smoked flavor. The fried egg, at least, was cooked perfectly—the whites were done and the yellow ran its deliciousness on the rest of the burger. The “house burger mayo” my burger was supposed to come with was overwhelmed by the rest of the flavors. And, when I peeled the bottom burnt bun off, I found what I was assuming to be the mayo spread thinly on the bottom. I also couldn’t taste the gouda cheese my burger was supposed to have on it.
When we got to my car, both of us felt like giant grease slicks. I frantically dug in my purse and found both of us a peppermint to try to get the flavor out of our mouths. When I got home, I downed a Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bar and I’m currently working on a 7Up 10.
The grease is still coating my mouth.
Return Trip?
I don’t see a return trip in our future. If we ever do go back, it’ll be a long time from now before we feel like giving them another chance.
No Penny Required 