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Saturday, May 29, 2010
Burger joint will leave diners starry-eyed
By Andrea Lin
For the Journal
It seems that great burgers can be found all over New Mexico, many of them in smaller cities and tiny hamlets otherwise lacking for seriously good eats. Even the recently crowned best green chile cheeseburger lies tucked away in a casual cafe in Grants.
Further north in the mountainous foothills, Taos has been home to Five Star Burgers for two years, serving locally sourced meats to nearby acclaim. Now Albuquerque has been chosen as the second location to experience its tasty burger creations.
Starting with an elegant space, sparsely decorated and augmented by a bar along one wall, the restaurant is both inviting and casual, usually full of couples and families around the dinner hour happily having that most American of meals. On my visits the service was generally quick and always friendly, even if the kitchen was busy with orders piling in from hungry diners.
Any sandwich you order needs to be accompanied by a Mixed Cart of Fries ($3), a duo of regular and sweet potato fries with crispiness to rival the best fast-food fries you already know, but at Five Star you're spreading the local restaurant love, something I heartily endorse.
With Five Star Burgers' name, you'd best try some of their specialties to see what the fuss is about. Starting with an Old Timer ($7.25) and its basic burger condiment trinity of tomato-onion-lettuce, you could then branch out into more exotic fare like the 5 Star Burger ($8.25) smothered in gorgonzola and smoked bacon. Each juicy bite of the hand-formed patty is snugly held in an egg-tinged brioche bun that never grows soggy against its hefty contents.
My favorite by far is the Taos Burger ($8.25), decadence by the fistful with pepper-jack cheese and green-chile mayo topped by crispy fried strips of green chile, a recent discovery of mine that rivals bacon in sheer deliciousness as a burger topping.
Any of the above burgers can be built with a chicken breast alternative. For a truly different approach, Five Star Burgers is getting well known for its other meat sandwiches like the light and flavorful 5 Star Turkey Burger ($8.25), overflowing with mildly spicy chutney and aromatic sage — in the nonbeef options, this is a flavor combination not to be missed. Finally, both the Lamb Burger ($10) and the new Buffalo Burger ($9.95) offer that subtle gaminess I adore about exotic meats, but order them medium-rare or medium at most to ensure juiciness in the lean patties.
Vegetarians and the bread-averse have several tasty options, from fancy grilled cheese to portobello burgers. A trio of composed salads fulfill the urge to have both your meat and veggies in the same entrée. I enjoyed the option of a Shanghai Chicken Salad ($9), though its not the best I've had here in town.
Five Star Burgers
LOCATION: 5901 Wyoming NE at Academy
HOURS: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, noon-9 p.m. Sundays
BEER AND WINE
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