Food Review: The Burger Barn, Somers, NY

At this point, you’re probably annoyed with bad reviews, but I promise an amazing one is coming up next. Wait up for “Exelencia Mexicana” in Mahopac, NY.

So this place has been in my town for over a year now. When I first heard of it, I didn’t hear good things. Someone I knew told me they went there and the fries were burnt, the customer service was a mess, and more. I decided not to go and to give it time.

Another thing that kept me from going was just the feel of the restaurant. Somers restaurants, 85% of the time, don’t have a comfortable feel. Even if you’re a Somers resident, you might not feel like you belong.

First impressions:

The burger barn logo. http://theburgerbarn.com/menu/

Customer Service: Not a huge fan of the customer service here aside from the hostess, who was extremely sweet. You could tell no one wanted to help you out. Our waitress came at the beginning and maybe at the end? I can’t remember but I do remember we went really long without her coming over, even though I could see her standing against the wall for a really long time.

Some info: They apparently make all of their sauces themselves. I’ve had two or three of them and while one was amazing, the other was no good.

yuck.

Atmosphere: I kind of felt like I walked into some cheap cafeteria. The place used to be really high-end so I was surprised to see people wearing t-shirts and writing the server’s names on the paper tablecloths. It’s like they were trying to be family friendly and failed. Whoops.

Menu: Click here for the menu I’m about to discuss. I looked at the menu ahead of time but didn’t look for long. I knew I’d just end up getting a burger… it’s a burger place… Also the friend I was with had been there before so I looked forward to getting some of her suggestions.

Drinks: Okay so this isn’t really a big deal but their ginger ale was disgusting. WHAT THE HELL. I did not want to be one of those people who complained about everything when I obviously was picking it all apart but like it wasn’t even a seltzer or syrup problem, it just tasted bad and cheap.

$$$: Pretty good prices. What you would expect from a burger place. I’m glad they didn’t try to overprice us, which I was worried about because of the town it was located in.

Food: As you can see, they definitely know how to plate their food in a fun way.

Signature Onion Ring Stacker: Just regular onion rings, but I quite liked them as well as the sauce they came with! It was arranged in a cute and fun way.

Truffle Mac & Cheese: Cannot tell if sour or just weird. That’s all I can say. In other news: CAN A BLOGGER JUST GET SOME GOOD MAC AND CHEESE UP IN THIS BITCH?!

Sweet Potato Fries: Okay I’m a bad person, I didn’t take any notes on these and don’t remember HOW I felt. I do remember that they first gave me regular fries and that wasn’t what I ordered. So instead of making me wait and taking back my fries, they just brought me the sweet potato fries as well. What I do remember is that there were very large pieces of salt on the fries and it was so delicious. It made the whole sweet/salty factor so great.

Gigs Bacon Cheeseburger: Bacon: CHECK Cheese: CHECK Burger: CHECK Except. Well. The burger was dry as hell and I’m not about that. I was still okay with eating the whole thing, but I feel like if you have the word “Burger” in the title of your restaurant, the Burgers should be amazing. They shouldn’t be dry. I shouldn’t have anything to complain about. Oh and they let me keep those regular fries but they were gross and I brought them home to my boyfriend because ew.

 

Overall, My food was just okay. I would probably go back and order something completely different but I definitely would not  I would go back to get the same stuff.  At some point I asked for honey mustard and it was like just honey. The chipotle sauce had no flavour to it, it was just spicy. There is nothing to rave about here. It’s a restaurant that can’t even live up to it’s title.

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RATING:

• 3/10

tl;dr

• There is nothing to rave about here. It’s a restaurant that can’t even live up to it’s title.

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Let me know what you think below! Have you tried it? Do you COMPLETELY DISAGREE about the burgers?

For my food reviews master list see below:

BY NAME:

BY LOCATION (MOSTLY NY)

Food Review: Johnny D’s BBQ and Burgers, Mahopac, NY

There’s another BBQ place nearby, I had to try it… I JUST WANTED SOME GOOD SOUTHERN FOOD, OKAY!?

First impressions:

maybe better than Savannah’s Southern house and we don’t have many BBQ places in town, so they might be right. But that doesn’t mean it’s anywhere near great!

Customer Service: The bartender was the server, which I thought would be annoying and difficult but he was so nice! As a brown girl, I am always careful when I walk into a place that looks like it’s “for the locals.” For some reason, this had that look, but the bartender was extremely friendly and even invited us back at the end.

Some info: As I did with the last southern place, I asked if the owners were from the south. It turns out he’s from town, but he’s “just a really good cook.” I wasn’t sure yet whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing, so I just waited for the food to come.

Atmosphere: Like I said, it was a bar-like place. It looked like somewhere the locals go. The inside looked like a rush job, though, they wanted to make it look like a barn but it didn’t look as barn-ish as intended.

Menu: Click here for the menu I’m about to discuss. Here’s why I liked the menu: It was small enough that I didn’t have to take forever to decide what I wanted. What I really wanted was a burger, but I’ve been wanting to try good southern food so badly that I stuck with their more “southern” menu options. What I was confused about was the variety of items. They had burgers, sandwiches, BBQ (expected). But then they also had tacos and quesadillas, and THEN they also had nachos and seafood and some other bar food. I’m sure they were just trying to appeal to a big part of town, but the food just didn’t seem like it went together.

Drinks: Now, I didn’t have anything made by the bartender, but something I realized that was interesting to me is that they didn’t have fountain drinks. All of their beverages were canned or bottled and at first I thought it meant we’d only get one, but he brought us each a refill with no charge, so that was something to take note of.

$$$: Bar/Diner prices, which I was so happy with. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on food I might not have enjoyed.

Food: Here’s the big one, with pics! (I apologize, as some were taken in a rush and are slightly blurry).

Chips with Guac – The guac was spicy and we loved it. The salsa seemed like it could have been freshly made, but you never know these days…

Shrimp Po’Boy with fries. My boyfriend had it, and said it was just OK. There was nothing to rave or write home about, as we put it. At the time, he was only eating seafood, so he was hoping to have something flavourful but was disappointed.

Beer-battered onion rings – pretty good!!

“The Samitch” was alright. I do find myself wanting another every once in a while. My main problem was that there was SO much BBQ sauce on it, that the bottom bun was wet and soggy, and I wasn’t able to enjoy it as a sandwich, I ended up using a fork and knife. I did like it, though.

Half rack of baby back ribs with their “special BBQ sauce” on it. I tasted it and YUCK. The ribs might have been okay but the sauce was sour and absolutely disgusting. I couldn’t even finish the rib because the taste was so bad. I never would have put the sauce on her ribs if I would have known it would be so bad. A BBQ place with bad BBQ sauce? No good!

Once again, I just wanted some Southern Mac n Cheese! I got this sort of cafeteria, watered down version, which certainly wasn’t as disgusting as Savannah’s Southern House in Yorktown Heights (see my master post for more info), but it definitely wasn’t anything I would order again. I could make it so much better at home.

Overall, My food was okay, but the two people I came with certainly did not enjoy their food as much as I would have hoped. I would go back to get the same sandwich and for my friends to try some different things, but I was overall not too happy with the food. Most of the points I gave them were for the customer service and appetizers.

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RATING:

• 4/10

tl;dr

• Only a few things on the menu were worth getting again, but we’re not deterred forever, I’d at least try to come back and try something else to give it another chance.

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Let me know what you think below! Criticisms of my review, anything about Johnny D’s BBQ and Burgers that you liked or disliked if you’ve tried it, ask me questions if you have any, or let me know if you’re planning to go there soon! DEFINITELY send me any pics you may have of the food there or let me know if you had the same dish as me! xx

For my food reviews master list see below:

BY NAME:

BY LOCATION (MOSTLY NY)