During a visit to Las Vegas I was staying at Mandalay Bay and Hubert Keller’s Burger Bar restaurant is located right inside the hotel, so it was pretty obvious for me to try out their burgers.

They carry burgers from around $12 to a whopping $60! The $60 version has Foie Gras and Truffles which really doesn’t belong on a burger.

Huber Keller has published the book Burger Bar with all the recipes for his burgers and fries and his standards are so high that I was excited to try his creations. My expectations were high. Would I finally find a perfect 10 burger?

The restaurant was a long bar with tables and chairs along side the bar. I was actually here twice so I could try two different burgers.

The first order was a Angus Beef burger with American cheese and skinny fries. I wanted to keep it simple for the first burger. As expected I was asked how the burger should be cooked. Medium rare, please.

The wait was less than 10 minutes before I was served the burger. It looked pretty plain I must say. The fries were not homemade and the bun was store bought. The meat was really well grilled but I encountered a hard piece of something in my burger at the very first bite. I was not sure what it was but it was not pleasant. The rest of the burger was fine, but not anywhere near the quality I would expect from Hubert Keller. I would say the burger was above average and the meat was the only thing that really tasted of anything. The meat was cooked perfectly medium rare though. The fries were regular fries, nothing special.

The second day I tried the Black Jack Burger. It was Angus Beef, pepperjack cheese and tapenade on a ciabatta bun. This time I ordered the Fat Fries. The burger was again ordered medium rare. This burger was better and the meat had no flaws like the first one. The ciabatta bun was a boring store bought bun. The meat was again the star of this burger. The pepperjack could have been any cheese because it didn’t taste of anything. The fat fries were pretty soggy and not very good.

I was very disappointed. I expected the best burger and I found an above average burger. That’s just not good enough for a celebrity chef like Hubert Keller. Maybe he can fool the tourists coming to Las Vegas, but he can fool a seasoned American burger lover like me. That was a petty. Good meat is not enough to impress. The rest needs to be high quality too.

Las Vegas Vacations