Looking for a restaurant with an amazing burger for a decent price? If so then Portillo's just may be your place.
Just this past Monday January 14, 2013 I recently took a visit to my local Portillo's with a group of friends. While there we learned some valuable information about this restaurant. For example, it is a great place to take a date if you don't want to spend a lot of money.
Portillo's is just in between a sit down restaurant and a fast food joint. It gives you the aspect of a fast food restaurant by having you go up to a counter and order your own food and grab it. Aside from this factor the Portillo's does have a bar which is not in any normal fast food restaurant and sets it aside from that category. The next thing I noticed while dining at this restaurant is that it gives a nice restaurant feel. I could actually say that I felt as if I was in an actual restaurant.
Now since I was craving a burger and I'm a sucker for bacon I had to go with the double bacon burger. Right off the bat I was satisfied with my choice, because for $7.50 the burger was priced right. Although if you are someone who makes sure they get what they pay for and nitpick everything about a restaurant I will have to say this may not be the burger for you. While I will preach to you that this was on my top list of burgers I've ever had, if you are picky you will notice that for a double bacon burger at that price it did slack on the bacon. Before I could even start eating I had to break down the box it came in so I could get a hold of it. Now let me tell you that if you've ever heard of love at first site, this was love at first bite. This burger holds a certain perfectness on the scale of how juicy a burger is. When you bite into this creation from god you notice how your meat isn't all dried out and burnt, but it isn't straight off of the cow. While this was a pretty big burger I can also say I didn't have any problems keeping it all together while I ate.Now I just couldn't have this awesome burger alone, so I ordered myself a fry to go along with it. The fries had the perfect amount of salt, while having a good thickness. When eating my fries though I noticed that they were not soggy and were just the right crispiness.
During this wonderful trip to Portillo's I couldn't just go alone so I brought a group of friends along. We all ordered different items off the menu and tried a sample of each other's food.
Since my friend Zach and I each ordered a burger I didn't sample his, but I did interview him on it. When asked what he liked about it he commented that the size of the burger and the patties were all very well sized. His complaints on this burger were that his toppings were bland and his buns got soggy. All in all Zach liked his burger, but he has had better burgers previous times he was at Portillo's.
Another item I got to sample was my friend Becky's grilled yellow fin tuna sandwich. In my past experiences with tuna I have only had it out of a can, so this sandwich was different for me. It came on a bun, which Becky commented got too soggy while she was eating. The sandwich comes with lettuce, tomatoes (she didn't eat them because she's allergic), onions, and homemade tartar sauce. When I tried the sandwich it was different for me not being used to eating fish, but it was a good different and was a good sandwich. The fish had a good fresh taste along with the tartar sauce not tasting like it had been sitting out. The onions on the sandwich tasted freshly cut, and had a good crunch to them. Up to this point Becky and I have no complaints about this sandwich, and the ones we do are very minor and tolerable. The complaints we had were that the bun got soggy while eating the sandwich and the lettuce didn't taste fresh, or in Becky's words, "It was wilted."Now before I finish this and give you a rating, let me mention that I have an obsession with McDonald's. So while I will summarize this whole experience and tell you that Portillo's was a great restaurant to eat at and take a girl out to, McDonald's will always be number one in my heart.
Burger: 4/5
Fries: 3/5
Service: 4/5
Overall experience: 4/5
I believe all these ratings are very fair. I feel this way because I felt I got what I payed for and wasn't being ripped off to make a profit.
