Critic's Review
Quietly and without any fanfare whatsoever, Smashburger opened last week in Fort Lauderdale, in the space momentarily occupied by Flavor of Peru.
Smashburger's claim to fame is that they use a custom tool to "smash" big meatballs into burgers, rather than just pushing them down. They claim that this results in a better burger.
Red is the official SmashBurger color; the front counter is clearly fast food.
Inside the furniture is less plastic and more comfortable than your standard burger joint; they have big words on the wall, which is the main decoration.
They used to have 3 sizes of burgers, but it seems that they've settled on 2; the small is 4oz and the Big Smash is 8oz (a double). The small is 610 calories, so I didn't need the double. I'd tried their rosemary fries in Coral Springs, so I figured I'd get a shake. Purported to be made with Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
They have personalized service here, but they don't have the big numbers like you get at CG Burgers and some other places. So they just call out your name and you have to raise your hand (remember the 6th grade?), so you don't have to get out of your seat if you're eating in. No tipping, so it's fine with me. They brought out the shake first.
It looks bigger in the pictures; it kind of looked they they didn't make me a whole shake. The point of the dome is for the whipped cream, but this shake was 1/2" short of filling the cup. I wasn't going to have the whole thing anyway, so no matter, really. I tasted the shake and it was good, but nothing spectacular. Steak and Shake doesn't need to worry about this. I wonder how much Hagaan Dazs is actually in there. It tastes a little fast-foodish; probably just enough to fulfill the partnership agreement.
When I got home I opened the burger; this burger had a load of yellow stuff on it. At first I thought it was mustard, but it's the Smash Sauce.
I don't recall having smash sauce on the burger I'd gotten at Coral Springs. The sauce is interesting; almost like a mock hollandaise; it's mustard, mayo and lemon juice. There's no ketchup on the Classic. It's a decent burger, but with all of the fancy burger joints around, I don't see that there's anything special about the burger itself. The smashing thing is clearly a gimmick; this was a slab of beef like most others.
In the ugliest shopping center with the most annoying, poorly designed parking lot in town opens a burger joint. Woo-Hoo.
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