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(From August 2009) There are burgers that go quietly and then there are those that must be wrestled to the mat with both hands and a pile of napkins. At the top of the latter category sits the green-chile cheeseburger at this little roadhouse ten miles south of Fredericksburg in the middle of beautiful nowhere. This burger is like a roller coaster: You have to hang on for dear life, and you can’t get off in the middle. Scrumptious beef juices drip from the humongous, hand-pressed patty (no two alike!) and mix with the roasted green chiles, cheese, mayo, and mustard to create a kind of divine burger roux that soaks into the cloud-soft jalapeño-cheese bun without ever making it soggy and runs down your hands (both of them) as you bury your face over and over again in this meaty marvel.

August 24th, 2009 at 12:09pm
Hill says:
First, our group arrived at about 4:30ish on a Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t quiet crowded yet. The place is extremely small, crowded, loud, dirty, and very hot. It only got hotter as it started filling up with customers. We kept getting bumped and brushed up against our entire meal. I am not too sure that this place could comply with any type of fire or health codes. It is not in the city limits but someone might want to check on this for safety reasons. When we first arrived, we had to help ourselves to a drink from the cooler. It took a while to finally get a waitress that we had to flag down. As a matter of fact, we were on our second drink before we were able to flag down the waitress to place our order. It was a good think we had already helped ourselves to a drink from the cooler or we would have been dehydrated at this point. By this time, it was swarming with customers. We were extremely hungry and hot. By the time our food got there, we were starving but the one thing I have to compliment them on is it was a fantastic burger. It is a little on the expensive side but well worth the money but not the rude, slow, and unbearably hot conditions. We continued to help ourselves to the cooler and managed to flag down our waitress yet again to place a milkshake order. Once we placed the shake order, a few of us stayed at the table and sent one up to try to get in line to take care of the tab. She never brought us our tab so it took a really long time to wait through the line to pay the tab. Meanwhile, this really rude lady kept emerging intro the dining room inquiring across the restaurant rather loudly about what we are waiting on. Our party informed her a several times that we were still waiting on our milkshakes that we had already paid for and had not received. After this occurred several times, the "rude lady" emerged one final time and standing in front of the entire dining room shouts out "hey" and starts flailing her arms and shouts out, "we need the table, ya’ll gotta move, ya’ll can wait outside for your milk shakes" Now, it was August, it was hot in the restaurant but it was a 102 degrees outside:( I couldn’t believe my ears. The rude lady I was told was the "owner". We were kicked out after they had our money and she didn’t even have the decency to come to our table and address us in a polite manner. It wasn’t our fault that the service was slow. Instead of her "yelling" at her staff, she felt obligated to yell at her customers. Way to go Alamo Springs! I would have understood it a little better if she would have at least walked over to our table and addressed us on a personal level and said something a little more politely like" I am sorry for the slow service but we are really short staffed today and I am really sorry that it has taken so long for ya’ll to get served". "We are really busy right now, would ya’ll mind terribly if I could find another area for ya’ll to wait for your milkshakes so I can seat some of the other customers? Instead, our party was embarrassed in front of the entire restaurant that made us look like we had done something wrong. In our party was one of the owners of a very large family owned successful Texas restaurant chain and they were absolutely appalled . Way to go Alamo Springs, that was really good for your business! We were recommended to this place by a really good friend. I am sure it might have been a great place before it made the magazine but obviously it has gone down hill. He is a very wealthy local resident so I can not wait to give him the feedback on our "dining experience". Way to go Alamo Springs! As far as the milkshake that was $4.25 each, it was melted and not worth $1.25 when we got it. It took 2 hours from the time we entered until the time we left. I probably would only consider take out for the burger but absolutely would not waste my time, energy, or money for another "dining experience" at Alamo Springs Cafe!

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(From December 2008) Think tailgate parties, backyard barbecues, and potlucks, where your best friends bring their favorite dishes, lovingly prepared to impress and please. Now, spiff things up a little and bring them on into the house. It must have been local heroes’ day when we visited, as the place was overflowing with firemen and peace officers, which also brings to mind tailgate parties and . . . but we digress. The locals rave about the burgers, but we chose the chicken patty melt: a juicy marinated chicken breast and grilled onions, served on toast. The plain and simple chocolate pie was to die for. Beer & wine.

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(From October 2009) Think more than plain ol’ burgers when you take a seat in one of the wooden booths complete with oilcloth-covered tabletop. Our favorite? The cornbread cheeseburger with, you guessed it, a cornbread bun. The bread is so good you’ll want to eat it all by itself. Or maybe dipped in a steaming bowl of the fresh vegetable stew.

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(From August 2009) The zaftig beauties you get at this Houston-area mini-chain are gorgeous. The quarter-pound patty, from chuck ground daily, is grilled over mesquite coals. The slightly sweet bun is pale yellow and lightly toasted. Each element is stacked with care. But wait! Before chowing down, you must slather on Beck’s Prime Sauce, a silky, tomatoey mayonnaise. The finalbonus is that Beck’s, though comfy and informal, is no dive; you could take your grandma here.

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(From August 2009) Customizing your burger is the shtick at Big’z, so go ahead and pay a buck to “make it dirty” with a fried egg on top—the warm, golden yolk trickles into the crevices of the steaming Certified Angus beef patty. Other extras—fresh avocado or a sweet jalapeño-cheddar bun—are worth the modest tariff too. Even if you didn’t know that this barny place is owned by Andrew “Le Rêve” Weissman, you could guess by looking at the squeeze bottles of fancy-schmancy sauces and ketchups.

February 13th, 2009 at 3:54pm
Robert says:
Great burgers! Fantastic onion rings. Family friendly deck is a great place to hang out, drink one of their MANY beers and let the kids run wild.

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(From August 2009) If, like us, you have a deep and abiding love of both buffalo wings and hamburgers and have often wondered if together they would not produce something greater than the sum of their parts, this is the burger for you. The tangy vinegar-and-Tabasco sauce is hot but not overpowering, and the richness of the blue cheese is complemented by the thick tomato slices and a delicate spring mix of arugula and spinach. We know that sounds a little sissified, but balance is provided by the sports bar’s pool table, dart boards, waitresses in short shorts, and abundant flat-screen TVs tuned to ESPN.

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(From June 2008) Wall-to-wall TVs ensure you won’t miss a single sporting event, and patio seating is available for those who like to people-watch. Yes, they have wings (bone in or bone out), as well as “frings” (fried onion strings) and hand-cut fries. For the heartier appetite, there’s a vegetable panini with roasted onions, squash, peppers, and mushrooms and a massive half-pound burger complete with bacon and blue cheese crumbles. Bar.

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(From August 2009) A Tex-Mex combo plate on a bun—that’s the way to think of this iteration of a San Antonio bean burger. Slathered with refried beans and stuffed with crisp, salty corn chips, the behemoth is further dolled up with an american-cheddar blend, chopped onions, and sliced pickled jalapeños. Crazy as it sounds, everything coalesces into one glorious, chin-wiping, shirt-splotching meal. Between bites, stare at the array of vintage knickknacks and old license plates adorning every surface of the off-road country cottage’s rock walls.

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(From August 2009) We feared a place called Burger Fresh would be the work of health nuts, the kind of folk who perish if alfalfa sprouts are not made available. Instead we found a classically good Angus burger: hand-formed; kissed by a hot griddle; oozing plenty of artery-clogging juices; carefully but not pretentiously dressed with mustard and a ripe tomato slice above and mayo, lettuce, and slices of white onion below; and resting on one kick-ass sourdough bun flecked with bits of jalapeño and cheese.

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(From August 2009) Sometimes you want a burger that’s just a little bit different, and the Korean owners of this humble restaurant cook up a delicious twist. The tender beef has been audaciously marinated in soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil, but what really makes it unique is that it’s thinly sliced rather than ground. Sure, there might be some grumpy purists out there who insist that ground meat is a constitutive part of hamburgers. To these scrooges we say, your loss is our (weight) gain. The bulgogi sauce is a hot, coral-colored blend featuring roasted garlic and onions. At the fixin’s bar, you dress the shaved meat yourself with fresh tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and homemade condiments.

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