\"Can a three-Michelin awarded celebrity chef, a generally angry Scottish/English guy and successful psychopath, pull off the great American classic?\" What a world we live in that we have to ask ourselves that kind of question. BurGR is, however, an attempt to give us an answer.\n\nThe verdict? Nah, not completely.\n\nBurGR is situated near one of the Planet Hollywood's entrances that face the Strip. You're greeted by giant arcs of unnecessary pyrotechnics as you wait in line, with Ramsay's scowling face and merchandise staring back at you as you mingle amongst the other people that are interested in the same question you are. Peeking into the restaurant, you can catch glimpses of the wait staff-- dressed like they're in an upscale Hooters-- and the open kitchen with guys working the line like they're still hoping to make it big someday. \n\nAnd you know what? Sometimes, the dress does make the person. Or something. Because on my visit the floor staff was unbelievably lackadaisical, riding the coattails of the restaurant's name cause there's a bunch of suckers, including me, lined up wanting in There was no urgency anywhere... except, interestingly, by the background crew: the chefs. Only until I got a seat near the open kitchen, already berating myself for waiting a full hour just to get a burger at this place, that it became clear to me that there was a definite disconnect between the folks in the kitchen and the kids waiting the tables. The kitchen is a picture of efficiency-- guys have their heads down, calling out orders, making sure shit is right. Their movements are careful, but there's urgency-- they want to get you your food ASAP before the orders start stacking up. Just as any good restaurant should be.\n\nThen you have the wait staff. I really don't know what BurGR is aiming to be, but there needs to be better training somewhere. I was literally served by the sous chef working that day (it's written on his name-tag) simply because he kept calling for \"hands\" and no one would get the goddamn order out of the kitchen. \"But HC, the staff must be swamped! Cut them some slack!\" If they were, I wasn't seeing it. I saw wait staff flirting back and forth with each other in that kind of creepy incestual way. I saw a lot of unfilled waters. I saw a lot of food waiting on the line for longer than they probably should have been there. Are any of you folks that ate here wondering why your food was lukewarm/cold? Uh, that's probably why. Granted I'm not a professional at this shit but I do know that if the restaurant is, at the moment, as successful as it is you really want to at least pretend to give a damn. I really should have asked if my tip was going to the sous chef instead of the waitress, cause she sure wasn't serving me my food and outlining what I had ordered.\n\nBut I digress. We're here to talk food, aren't we? BurGR serves, as the name implies, burgers. You can get the classic cheeseburger but there's lots of interesting little twists. For my visit, I went with truffle fries and a medium rare Farm Burger, which has duck bacon and a fried egg. There's really a lot of fries so one order can easily be split between two people, and you'll want to-- despite being cut into wedges (which is already kind of a bastardization of what us fat Americans want thank-you-very-much), they had a lot of flavor and the house ketchup really evened things out. Solid.\n\nThen there's the burger.\n\nSometimes there can be too much of a good thing. (Don't look at me like that.) When I was ordering this burger, I was excited. Squirming in my chair, even. Not that hard to act like that after waiting so long to try the goods. But the problem with this particular burger is twofold: there's no real texture and the patty itself is pretty underseasoned. It's soft on soft on soft on soft-- soft and airy bun (tasty), soft patty, soft (and flavorless) egg, and limp (bordering soft) duck bacon. I really didn't get a strong beef taste-- I got a mild, distinct duck flavor. \n\nAnd... that's kind of it. \n\nThe patty was woefully underseasoned and lacking a strong upfront presence. And isn't the burger meant to be the star? Did these Brits bring their underseasoned food here as well? Cause to me, biting into a burger should be an experience. When you bite into that patty, you want that hit of char and salt on your tongue, beefy fat dribbling down your chin and on your fingers, the other ingredients lending texture and cutting richness. Right? Was it strange that I thought In-N-Out does a better burger than this? Is it blasphemous to say that? Cause screw it, I will. The burger was lacking in soul, ingredients be damned. The whole is more than the sum of its parts and all that. \n\nIf you want a solid burger there's other places to hit in Vegas. BurGR's worth a try for certain if you're willing to brave the wait, but if you're thinking you're about to bite into the best burger of your life... eh, you can do better.
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