EO Burgers = Extra Ordinary?

There’s another new high-end fast-food-like burger in Dayton, Ohio, called EO Burgers, which stands for Extra Ordinary Burgers. This follows Five Guys and Smashburger. The restaurant is located at the Green shopping area, and touts being more than just another burger joint.

I was there early on a Monday evening, and my first impression was that the place needed to be cleaned up a bit. I don’t recall anything in particular, but there were straw papers on the floor, and it just looked like it needed to be swept up a bit. A plus, though, was the full bar that was located inside, and the large outdoor eating area.

EO Burgers is set up for ordering at a counter, then food is delivered to the tables after it’s ready, and the food is made to order. I ordered a Kobe burger, which comes with bleu cheese and grilled onions. I also ordered a basket of fries and onion rings, and a sweet tea.

The sweet tea was the first thing I got, and it was Fuzion tea, whatever that means. Ok, I did find out what it meant… Fuzion means bad sweet tea! This was really not good stuff. I know I’m in Ohio, but there’s enough good sweet tea around now that this was obviously not good stuff.

I sat outside since it was a great April day, and my burger came out in a few minutes. I was looking forward to a gourmet-style burger, but I was again disappointed. the lettuce was just iceberg lettuce, kind of just put on top of everything. It really did not look good at all, so I took that and the not-good looking tomato slice off the burger. What was left looked great… Grilled onions on top of bleu cheese on top of a thick, handmade burger.

Along with the burger came the basket of rings and fries. The fries looked good, and were double fried, making them crispy outside and fluffy inside. However, there were a lot of bad spots on the potatoes that should never have made it to my table. I’m talking about a dozen spots on fries that I had to not eat.

The rings, however, were VERY good. Very crunchy, very tasty… If I go back to EO Burgers, I will gladly have the rings again.

On to the burger… The burger was juicy, and tasted fine. For a Kobe burger, it wasn’t anything spectacular; I’ve had much better. Overall, with the lettuce issue in particular, this burger wasn’t worth the $9.99 they charged me. Smashburger, while an ounce smaller, is $3.00 less, and, in my opinion, a much better burger.

So, all in all, I’ll be surprise if EO Burgers lasts too long. It’s just too expensive for something not that well executed. Oh, and if you want a simple soft serve (they call it custard to make it sound fancy) milkshake, it’s $4.99. There’s a Coldstone Creamery right across the street where I’d much rather spend my ice cream money.

I’ll have to think twice before going back, unfortunately. I really did want to like EO Burgers but I think they’d be better named O Burgers. Oh, and one more thing… I emailed the restaurant from their website on Sunday, asking simply if they could tell me where they source their meat. I still haven’t heard from them. Any answer would have been fine, but just ignoring me wasn’t very impressive.