The diner was quite literally a hole in the wall, with only 5 small metal tables and 3 stools at the window counter. When I first walked in, all the seats were taken and there was a line waiting for their orders. This was past 2:30 PM. I had purposely gone at an off time so I could snag a seat, but I almost had to take my food to go. The man at the register assured me that there would be tables open by the time I get my food though, so I agreed to dine in.
My order: 1/2 lb buffalo deluxe burger with American cheese and bacon, “Springs”, and mandarin orange shake with malt. I originally wanted to try the Kobe burger, which was an extra $3.99, but I just had to try buffalo meat once in my life! Also, I read good things about their bacon, so I couldn’t pass that up, but with all the extra fat, I figured I should go for the buffalo meat since they claimed it was leaner. Plus it was only around $2.50 extra. “Springs” is a half-and-half order of crinkle-cut sweet potato fries and onion rings. I really wish more places would do this, because I hate to choose one and not be able to try the other.
Does that burger make your face melt or what? Just looking at it now makes me hungry, and I already ate lunch. This is the only photo I took because, frankly, I didn’t want to wait any longer to dig in.
The buffalo patty was thick, as expected for a half pounder, but not quite as juicy as I like my burgers. Of course, it is supposed to be lean, and less fat means less juicy goodness, so I can’t fault them on that. The vegetables make an abundant pile, made more awesome by the fact that they are all organic, as is everything else cooked up at the diner. The real highlight here is the bacon – they are not thin deli slices of wimpy half-meat-half-fat what-have-you’s; these are what I can only describe as the manliest bacon I have ever seen. The piece of meat you see on that picture sticking out the front and side of the burger is actually the bacon, not the patty. They are almost 2 inches wide and very thick and meaty, but still crispy on one side, and flanked by flavorful fat on the other. Normally, I avoid eating bacon at all costs because the greasiness turns me off immensely. This bacon though, I would eat even without the burger!
As I mentioned, the “springs” is a half-and-half combo of sweet potato fries and onion rings. They also offer “frings”, which is regular cut fries instead of sweet potato. This is the first time I had crinkle-cut sweet potato fries, usually they’re just regular cut. They were perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, simply delicious, and I’ll leave it at that. The other greasy food I avoid, aside from bacon, is onion rings. They are usually good for the first two bites, then the smell of oil and grease overwhelm any taste left on the limp broken mess of frying batter and onions. The first thing I noticed about Pearl’s onion rings is the thinness of the batter. The second thing was the delightful crisp crunchiness. Even with the largest rings, the batter stuck to the onion and the ring maintained its shape – nothing was limp or falling apart. They also were not as greasy as expected, or at least the smell did not overwhelm me even after the food had cooled down a bit.
The icing on the cake was the mandarin orange shake with malt. It was one of their “special shakes” of the day, which can change anytime and are slightly more expensive than the “regular” shakes. There were many other flavors such as “Black Forest” and many sweet-sounding ones, but being a person who does not like sweets very much, I went for the citrus. It actually came before my food did, in a tall paper cup with a huge straw. I took a sip and almost died of happiness and absolute bliss. The consistency of the shake was not too thick, but certainly not watery. The sweetness was subtle, with just the right amount of mandarin orange and milky flavor. Some people may complain that it is indeed not thick enough (compared to McDonald’s triple thick shakes, for example, this would seem very diluted) or the flavor not strong enough, but this is just how I like my shakes. It was perfect.
