A cheeseburger doesn’t get much more unappealing than the one we had yesterday at Grind.*
Overcooked. Tough. Under-seasoned. Stale tasting.** On a day-old bun with a minimum amount of cheese underneath the meat.
Get it? They put the cheese underneath the burger. That’s so you’ll know how cool and different they are.
But they’re neither. It’s just a low rent, over-processed slab of ground meat masquerading as something it’s not.
And what it’s not is in the same league with Burger Bar, BLT Burger, Stripburger, In-N-Out, or any number of better burgers around town.
It costs $10.
Just thought you’d like to know.
GRIND BURGER BAR AND LOUNGE
360 East Tropicana Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 89169
702.262.9181
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* Neither does a turkey “burger”. We at ELV found it as atrocious as the beef — dry, under-seasoned, also served on a stale bun, and flavorless. The half “Buffalo” chicken was juicy, but so far from spicy as to be almost dull. The chopped salad was okay, and at least tasted like what it was, and the edamame beans were edible. On the plus side, they give free, unlimited refills on all sodas.
** A good hamburger should taste of deep, dark brown, sweet and savory caramelized flavors. Of minerals, iron and the earth. Of umami. This burger tasted like the color grey.
Ugh, the pictures make it even less appealing than the review!
ahem ;)
http://www.orbitz.com/blog/2009/11/top-10-las-vegas-burgers/#more-2297
food looks awful. its always amazing to me when new place opens with terrible food and that the chef and owner think the garbage is good and the place is ready to go. Serving your slop to friends and family before you open doesnt help, whats your mamma gonna do tell you it sucks? If you are going to open a place that only serves 1 thing (burgers, tacos, hotdogs, etc) you have got to strive to be the VERY best at making that 1 thing and you have to make sure every component is perfict. There is no way ANYONE who has eaten there or who works there or cooks there could say this.
Gee, EC Gladstone, a top 10 burger list. In November. Think you missed the boat on that one by a half a year or so. Not only that – your rankings suck. Please don’t use a real food blog to push your mediocre crap.
Why be such a dick, Will? That list was professionally done, even if you disagree with it.
Will-
Don’t be a jealous biotch. EC Gladstone is a pro. And while I may not always agree with everything he says, just as I don’t always agree with Mr. ELV and Mr. Max, I respect their knowledge and wisdom as real food pros.
Mr. ELV-
I also tried this place earlier this week, and I was totally unimpressed. I was hoping to find a good place near UNLV for good veggie burgers. Instead, all I found was disappointment. Oh yeah, and the prices are WAY TOO HIGH for a place that doesn’t serve as good quality as high-end burger joints like Burger Bar and LBS (since the prices at Grind really are that high).
Sorry to offend all the soft hearted out there – but EC Gladstone is not a food pro, not a good one anyway. He’s not even a Las Vegan though he claims to be one on the Orbitz blog where he writes – he lives in California. And isn’t this the place where one can express thoughts in the food world and not be censored? I not only disagree with the list, I question its timing. Everyone and their mother have done a burger story this year – most of them in the summer – so he’s either a slow writer or just doesn’t keep up with the trends.
atdleft – this isn’t jealousy – it’s being irratated by a fake – he’s not a real food pro.
Just wondering who censored Will? Everyone thought he was rude, but no comments were deleted. I really don’t get his issue with Mr. Gladstone. Someone please explain.
grind SUX, went there the week it opened and it was horrific!
i gotta agree with elv here.
Will-
I must second bwdining here. No one’s censoring you. We’re just wondering when your articles will start appearing in VEGAS magazine, Las Vegas Magazine, and Las Vegas Weekly alongside this guy you’re unfairly badmouthing.
clue-
OMG, you & Mr. ELV agree on something??!! I’m shocked. Let me check to see if Hell froze over. ;-)
No really, Grind didn’t impress me. I guess I’ll still have to go to The Strip or Summerlin for a decent burger in this town.
How do two professional food critics get two such totally different views?
See the following:
http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2009/11/19/eat_and_drink/dining/iq_32510385.txt
It appears that Mr. Curtas went to Grind with a predetermined opinion. The pictures he shows above are not like anything I have seen while eating there. This review proves to me that this critic is not qualified to write about food or even take a picture of the food. This review was total garbage not the food at Grind!!
gosh, now i have to defend ELV here!!!!!! (who would of thought huh!!)
grind is horendous!, the service is terrible. and the food is gross. let me cut and paste my yelp review of this HASH house!!
hit this place up yesterday for lunch. it was empty, and from what i can tell’ good reason!!!!
there were 3 of us, service was not so good, although it is the first week, the menu is so confusing, that the server had to spend 5 minutes walking us through how to order and what some of the items were.
we started with onion straws and calamari, both were terrible. onion string were very greasy, flour dredge had no seasoning, the calamari was a cheap frozen product as it was super chewy and again no flavor. they tossed the calamari in some sweeit thai chili sauce, bad move made it soggy and even worse then it already was.
the burger catergory is nuts!! not in a good way, you choose everything you want on it, but you only get 2 toppings included??? so if i wanted lettuce, tomato and onion you would have to pay for the 1 addition items, so the cost builds up quickly.
the sauces are interesting they offer, all are served on the side. got the avajar and garlic mayo’s, neither had any salt or vinegar to make them taste good, rather bland and un-inspiring. nice idea poor execution. so after filling out the card and handing it to the server, we were asked if we wanted fries?? so the 14 burger i just built with only a few toppings doesnt even come with fries???? so we ordered one of each fry to see what it was about, sweet potatoes, steak cut and shoestring, but it couldnt be that easy, the menu had code names that no guest would know, again the server had to explain.
so out comes the food!!! fries, all cheap frozen products, for 4 and 5 bucks you gotta be kidding me, they werent even large portions!!
the ciabatta bread, again appeared to be a frozen product, not that that frozen is always bad, but again poor execution, it wasnt even warmed up or toasted, was cold and dry….blahhhhhh
cheddar cheese was crappy, and not even melted, lettuce was shredded and barely any on the burger, tomato was thinly sliced, again almost non-existent. they label the menu having nueske bacon, not a chance!!!! this was a super thin and over cooked run of the mill smoked bacon, definetly not nueske!!!!! now they dont even take a cook temperature for your burger, they all come out near welldone??? i want my burger RARE!!!!!!!!!! especially if it quality meat, but i guess its not here….the patty appeared to be hand formed, not seasoned at all and unfortunetly overcooked, as were everyones at the table.
so in summation….bad apps, run o the mill cheap frozen fries, noone knows how to use salt and pepper, confusing menu, uncomfortable chairs and its not cheap!!! out tab was 75 bucks, ok we had more then the normal group would (we sure didnt eat it all, wasnt worth eating) i would say for a burger fries and soda and splitting an app would run 25 bucks. NO THANKS
so ELV im sure you were right on par with this review!! good job
clue-
Good on you. I know you got a rough reception here at first, but you’re proving to be a knowledgeable (if contrarian at times) commenter here. :-)
Really-
“How do two professional food critics get two such totally different views?”
Ummm, it just happens ALL THE TIME! Haven’t you ever tuned into “The Fork & The Spoon” on KNPR every other Friday to hear Mr. ELV and Mr. Max air their disagreements out on the open airwaves? Perhaps Al Mancini enjoyed this place, but we didn’t. There’s nothing wrong with that… Either way.
john curtis
you try way to hard to lead people to believe you know what your talking about. for someone that knows your history regarding how you review…. no real surprise. short story short…… you’re a certifiable jack ass.
JB you work there or own Grind and DUE???
because buddy they are not good.
take a read of this recent article from las vegas luxury, maybe you can pickup some pointers!!!
http://luxurylv.com/2009/11/features/3450
has a clue,
What restaurant do you own or operate? Its pretty easy to pick apart everyone else when you do’t have the balls to put your own money into opening your own restaurant. You too seem to be a certifiable jack ass!
i actually have a few and i have had my share of bad and good reviews!! but at heart i am more a diner then operator!
i know what attention to every detail is, and obviously you dont!! id advise you to get a new person to run your kitchen and make the food taste good, cuz after the ballon of the near naked lady is pulled down from your front door (by the county), and the confusing menu, there is all that really matter, THE FOOD. if food is great, patrons forget about all the other stuff.
certifiable jack ass…….is that your cartch phrase????
I’m fairly certain that Grind Burger and/or Preferred Public Relations (their PR company) have employees who search the net to comment on stuff like this. They are constantly posting whatever positive reviews (no matter where they are from) on their Facebook page.
Elizabeth-
Sounds right to me also. I just popped on their Facebook page and noticed someone complaining about them deleting negative comments. Hmmm, are they “pulling an Andre/Paymon” on us?
who cares about a facebook page! PR companies and social networking dont make the food taste good!!!!!!!!!!
then again, hire karine bakoum, she can make shitty places seem great!!
Has a clue,
So what you saying is that Jon’s opinion and his friend Max’s opinion don’t really mean anything, so people should probably go check it out for themselves and make up their own minds.
sure, if they want to waste their money on shitty food!!!
if you take 100% of what a critic says for fact, then you are an idiot, but when there are always true points within a criticism. but when several people say it sux, then it probably sux, but there is only one way to find out, and thats trying it. what ELV says here has NEVER swayed me from not trying a place, I like to think that I am able to formulate my own opinion
clue-
Definitely agreed. While I respect Mr. ELV’s extensive experience with the Las Vegas food scene, I’ll try a place if I’m curious enough no matter what he or you or any of the other folks here say. I like forming my own opinion, just like you do… And that’s just fine.
What really irks me is when a restaurant’s employees and best customers all come here to try to shut down something even as mild as some constructive criticism. They may think there’s nothing wrong with the restaurant, but we think otherwise and it’s our right to air our opinions and suggest what needs to be done to fix the problem(s).
If John Curtas can handle criticism of his own reviews here, then these restaurants need to learn to grow thicker skin and address legitimate concerns that we bring up here.
We ate at Grind burger and built a chicken breast sandwich on ciabatta roll and added peppers and onions with honeymustard dressing and our second choice of dressing was barbeque sauce. We had some wedge fries on the side as well. Our service was absolutely fabulous, the staff was extremely, and they took good care of us. We have to tell you that we will be going back again. We’ll let you know what happens when we try their burgers.
Doesn’t anybody else think it’s just a tad disgusting to advertise burgers with a practically naked woman marked up to be cut for meat like a cow? And not only disgusting, but insulting and inappropriate. I know we live in a city that’s filled with all sorts of portrayed sexuality and scantily clad women, but it’s a bit different from giving women the status of nothing more than kine. It’s quite disheartening to see the lack of disapproval of this establishment.