Not bad, despite the misnomer

The irony of a place called Islands, is that it's originally from Southern California. I suppose, perhaps that's not really as ironic as it is perhaps cliched, but I think you get my point. That being said, we stopped over here for dinner on the way home from a retreat. I had seen one of these near where I am in Northern California and was always curious. My SoCal friends said that it was a fairly generic burger chain from their neck of the woods. That being said, it still intrigued me.

Huh, they figured it out...

The mushroom burger is a fairly common burger. In fact, most places have gotten it worked out to some kind of mushroom and a Swiss cheese of some sort. Once you've sauteed the mushrooms and melted the cheese it provides a nice contrast in texture and flavor from the beef. That being said, I think someone's kind of figured it out. Ironically, that someone isn't a burger place. That place, may just be Boudin SF.

Utter Smash

So this place looked interesting. It had all the earmarks of a mid to high end burger chain. I knew it was a chain because I saw one under construction in New York as well as in California. So this time around, it was finally open, and so I decided to give Smashburger a go. It was nice, it was clean, the staff was friendly, the ordering was pretty straightforward, with a handy-dandy screen for you to review your order too.

"Insert something witty about rebirth and heat"

So, last time I was in San Mateo I was told there are two burger places I had to try. Last time I tried one of them. This time I tried the other. Apparently Godfather's draws a lot of comparisons to Jack's Prime when it comes to the age old debate of "greatest burger in San Mateo". I know all of you are riveted by that topic of conversation. Since last time I had Godfather's, my friend decided this time I needed to try Jack's Prime. He indicated that it was perhaps in a more accessible location, and was bigger overall so he went there more often. I, however, being a self-proclaimed burger snob, must then go by the actual burgers themselves, no matter the convenience.

I don't get the pretzel bun

So on a whim, and mostly because my mother had a coupon, we decided, that it would be nice to go to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. Honestly, it's not really because we think Ruby Tuesday is great or anything, more that it was just in a convenient location and everything. I'm not going to go out of my way to criticize it, but honestly if it were another store (i.e. TGIF or Chili's) and my mom had a coupon, we'd probably go there as well. That being said, they have a relatively comprehensive burger selection on the menu so I decided to give it a go.

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

At this point in time this little blog has become something of a novelty to my friends. They know I keep it and thus are always encouraging me to post more, oftentimes going out of their way to recommend burger places to go eat just for the sake of my blog. It's not a bad thing. Frankly, given my love of burgers, I personally don't really mind that much. It saves of thinking of another place to have to go eat. Thus, during another visit to the Bay Area, my good friend indicated that when you're talking about burgers in the San Mateo/Peninsula area two places invariably pop up, generally in comparison to one another. I only went to one, so I can only write about that one, granted in the context of all the other burgers I've had. This place was called Godfather's, named and themed after the hit 1972 Francis Ford Cappola film.

Tex Mex Burger... Interesting...

I'm not sure this really counts, given that even though the place is called a tex mex place, it's pretty much all BBQ. Of course, I'm probably ignorant of whatever it is that makes things either Tex Mex or BBQ. We had stopped by Kettleman City for a lunch break during a drive down from Northern California to Southern California, and decided, that perhaps it would be worthwhile to try out Wild Jacks Tex Mex BBQ instead of In-N-Out. While I have had mixed feelings regarding whether or not BBQ places can really make good burgers, I did opt for the WJ Tex Mex BBQ Cheddar Cheeseburger over the normal BBQ fare. Others ordered the more typical ribs and brisket sandwiches, but I decided to give this a go.