My First Smashburger Experience

"Smashed fresh. Served delicious"

Greetings to all! I'm very excited to tell ya'll of an awesome experience I got last Wednesday. 

If you didn't hear, they're building the first Smashburger here in Austin down on S IH-35 and Slaughter Lane. I was lucky enough to get invited to a preview tasting right before they officially opened and all I can say is, wow.

Smashburger is better than I expected.

Like a lot better.

Smashburger started in Colorado, founded Tom Ryan, and has since grown to many more states throughout the US. 

I'm always skeptical about chain restaurants, especially burger chain restaurants, because the first thing I think is Mcdonalds. Cheap "food", low quality served in mass amounts. Not my kind of thing. But Smashburger was better than that. Their burgers are made with real beef and real veggies, and the quality of everything was really great. We got to go back into the kitchen to with the founder to see how they make a smashburger, (they make meatballs and "smash" the meat right on the grill, and after he cooked it we tried just the meat itself. Mmm, you could eat just the meat by itself, it was that good.

They gave us samples of all their burgers, sides and some of their shakes as well. Let me just say, that was my lunch and dinner.

Truffled Sweet Potato Fries
(These were my favorite sides)

Veggie Frites

Baja Cobb

Haagen Dazs Shakes

Not as good as a Blue Bell shake... but still delicious! 

We tried strawberry, mint cookies and cream, and nutter butter. Heavenly.

Hot Dog

All of their burgers

Buffalo Chicken Sandwhich

Blue cheese, buffalo sauce, tomatoes and lettuce.

Veggie Burger Spicy Baja

Fresh jalapenos, guacamole, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, onion and chipotle mayo on a spicy chipotle bun.

Avocado Club

Fresh avocado, applewood-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, ranch dressing and mayo on a multi-grain bun.

Texas Burger

Bbq Bacon & Cheddar Burger

BBQ sauce, applewood-smoked bacon, cheddar and haystack onions on an egg bun.

Truffle Mushroom Swiss

Truffle mayo, sauteed baby portabella mushrooms and aged Swiss on an egg bun.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Chicken Sandwhich

Classic Smash

American cheese, smash sauce, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion on an egg bun.

I honestly couldn't decide on a favorite burger, they were all very good in their own way. I was very excited about the spinach and goat cheese chicken sandwich though, not many restaurants offer goat cheese as an option on their menus, so I was very pleased to see it. I also very much liked their veggie burger, as they didn't try to make it taste like meat. It had a very distinct black bean taste which I loved. No faking.

Whether you eat at fast-casual restaurants such as Smashburger or not, it's nice to see more places focusing on better ingredients and healthier options.

Over all, I was very pleased with the food, and very honored I was invited. It's always so fun to go to foodie events like this and meet other food bloggers here in Austin. Hopefully i'll get invited to more and become even more involved in the Austin food scene.

Until next time, have a great week!