Bobby's Burger Palace

Plaudits: None
Neighborhood: K Street/Foggy Bottom

The Setup

Needing a quick bite in the Foggy Bottom area, and with long lines all over the new Avenue compelx, I popped by Bobby's Burger Palace.

The Vibe

One of the more recent additions in the chain burger restaurants to land in D.C., Bobby's Burger Palace is brought to you by the eponymous Chef Bobby Flay's and offers a bright vibrant and borderline-amusement-parky vibe that you would expect from a celebrity chef's casual outpost. Maybe it's the whimsical S-shaped countertop that winds its way along one wall, striped in shades of brown with a complementary printer ribbon-esque lighting fixture above it. Maybe it's the preponderance of bright colors in the rainbow color scheme, taken from the colors of a clip art burger: fifty shade of brown, a lime green, a bright orange-red, and a dull orange-yellow. atmosphere. Maybe it's the series of modern floating orb light fixtures or the myriad tableaus of burger ingredients. But all of it combines to make the space feel like the midpoint between a mid-century modern/pop art installation and a restaurant at Disneyworld.

The Food

While the menu obviously lacks variety in dishes, you can't say the Burger Palace lacks variety in the type of burger you can consume. There are at least ten burgers with multiple milkshake choices, most of the former attaching themselves and their ingredients to an American city: Dallas, Philadelphia, L.A., Miami. On this trip, I sampled the Napa Valley, appropriately topped with goat cheese, watercress, and a lemon honey mustard, and ordered a vanilla caramel bourbon spiked milkshake.

There are a lot of jokes to make about Food Network stars and their restaurants these days (see: Wells, Pete and Fieri, Guy). But this burger was actually pretty decent, with a nice portion of goat cheese on top of it, and a nice match of tart and mellow and juiciness. It almost made me feel a little bit guilty that I liked this burger, from a celebrity chef with scores of restaurants pressed into obligatory "grill guy" service, as much as I have liked other burgers from more local restaurateurs. Though, on the other hand, the milkshake was just okay, since more punch would have been nice (if that comes with more bourbon, that'd be okay by me).

The Verdict

Not bad, Bobby Flay, Not bad.

Food Rating: ** 1/2 (out of 5)
Date Rating: 2.5 Hearts (out of 5)
Dress Code: Casual
Bar Rating: Frat House
Vibe: Chatty
Cost: $ (out of 5) (less than $25 for two)