Restaurant Review: Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers

After our ridiculously decadent brunch on Saturday, what could be more appropriate than eating an equally delicious and caloric dinner?

Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers is exactly what the name would lead you to believe- though maybe they should change the name to "Barney's Gourmet Fried Things" because the true stars of the show are the spicy curly fries and deep fried vegetable basket both served with oh so sinfully good house made ranch. The curly fries are always crisp and served in huge quantities (as far as I can tell, the difference between the ½ basket and full basket depends on the mood of the chef) and the onion rings are thick cut, battered in a similarly spicy batter to the curly fries, fried to perfect golden brown and sprinkled with parmesan.

If you still have room after your appetizers, the burgers are also delicious. My personal favorite is the Western Burger- sauteed onions, cheddar, BBQ sauce and crisp bacon. The burgers are made with Niman Ranch beef and are almost always cooked the way you order them. Consistency is the name of the food service game and you can always count on your Barney's burger to taste the same...

Things to Know:

• Don't worry about reservations (at least for the one on Shattuck Ave.) I've never had to wait for a table even with larger parties
  
• Burgers don't come with fries, if you want your fried foods with your burger instead of before you must specify
• Don't sit downstairs at the Barney's on Shattuck, the servers seem to forget you are there- upstairs is totally fine
• A ½ basket of curly fries is usually plenty for two- bring more people if you want to sample the other fried vegetables