De La Vega's Pecan Grill and Brewery (Las Cruces, NM)

De La Vega's Pecan Grill and Brewery offered a wide selection of menu choices.

The Lava Burger - $11
An 8 oz beef patty stuffed with American an white cheddar cheeses, served on a kaiser roll with charred green chiles and garlic aioli.

S. promptly scraped off the green chiles after taking this photo because, let's face it, that's a lot of spice.  Too much spice for S.  The burger was delicious and and there was still a hint of chile on it.  The cheese inside made for a very moist burger.

A close-up of the lava (aka melted cheese) flowing from the sliced burger.  And it would appear that one diced chile escaped S.'s wrath.

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http://www.pecangrill.com/

Farley's (Las Cruces, NM)

Farley's was a real fun place and our server was very friendly.

The Mondo Hondo Burger - $10.99

A full pound of ground beef in the form of two patties;
pepper jack, cheddar and American cheese; grilled onions; and bacon.

The menu proclaims it to be, "bigger than yer damned head."  It wasn't quite that big, but it was close.  Guest blogger CR   that it was great and especially liked the sautéed onions between each patty. Alas, it was such a big burger, he wasn't able to finish it.  Nor was he able to even think about eating another burger for the next two weeks.

A close-up of the mondo hondo burger.  How does one even take a bite of that?

Nobody in our group was willing to try the Monster Burger Challenge, but oh how I wish someone had.  Maybe next time.

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http://farleyspub.com/

Cafe Espana (Las Cruces, NM)

Cafe Espana is located in the lobby of the Hotel Encanto in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Las Cruces, it seems, is the chile pepper capital of the world.  They put chiles in everything.

Cafe Espana Burger - $9

An 8 oz. ground sirloin topped with cheese and green chile.  You can have it served in a tortilla or a traditional bun.  Guest blogger LW chose the tortilla route.  That's an entire chile in there.   

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http://www.hhandr.com/documents/Hotel-EDinner_000.pdf

Oak Creek Brewery & Grill (Sedona, AZ)

The Oak Creek Brewery & Grill is located in beautiful Sedona, Arizona.  They have two locations: one is at the brewery and they serve beer (of course), hot dogs, and a few appetizers; the other is in the Tlaquepaque area of Sedona and has a full menu.  We ate at the Tlaquepaque location.

The Mushroom Brie Burger - $13.95
A char-broiled  one-half pound Certified Angus beef burger served with brie cheese, sautéed mushrooms, onions, arugula, and steak sauce.

S. asked for the Mushroom and Brie Burger without any Mushrooms.  After getting an odd look from the server, she confirmed that what she really wanted was a brie burger, but that wasn't on the menu.  The server thoughtfully offered to put extra brie on the burger and S. gratefully accepted.  It ended up being a lot of brie.  Too much brie, if there even is such a thing.

The inside of the newly coined "double-brie burger", which was insanely delicious!  The arugula gave the burger a nice crunchy, peppery balance to the soft and gooey brie overloaded on top.

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Oak Creek Brewery & Grill
http://oakcreekpub.com/brewpub/home.php

The McBitchen (Anywhere)

A popular choice for high school and college kids everywhere: the McBitchen is a concoction made from just two items off of McDonald's dollar menu.   All you need is one McDouble and one Spicy McChicken.  And by the way, you added that up right, it's two hamburger patties, one slice of chicken, and two whole buns, all for $2.  A bargain lover's delight.  Guest blogger CR says, "It's a whole lotta burger for $2."  But you probably shouldn't make CR's mistake and eat more than one at a sitting.

Let the deconstruction/reconstruction begin:  First, you unwrap your two sandwiches.  Second, you split the burger in half (between the patties) and place the entire chicken sandwich (bun and all) in between the two burger patties.  Third, you squish it all together and enjoy.  

So, the order is like this:

top bun

burger patty

top bun

chicken patty

bottom bun

burger patty

bottom bun

And mixed throughout is the lettuce and other condiments that come with the sandwiches.  We are equal opportunity burger bloggers, you won't find any burger snobbery here.  

Behold the glorious masterpiece:

Honolulu Grill (St. George, UT)

The Honolulu Grill in St. George, Utah features authentic Hawaiian dishes, like loco moco, plate lunch, musubi, shave ice, katsu chicken, and noodle bowls, just to name a few.

Our theory: just because you throw some pineapple on something, does not make it Hawaiian (we're talking to you, so-called-Hawaiian ham and pineapple pizza).  This burger proves once and for all you don't have to have a slab of pineapple on it to be called Hawaiian.

Because teriyaki beef is such a typical Hawaiian dish, the Honolulu Grill serves a burger with teriyaki beef piled on it.

Honolulu Burger $7.50 (cheese .25 and onion rings .50 extra)

Guest blogger CR is still dreaming about the Honolulu Burger weeks later.  He said,  "The teriyaki beef on top of the ground beef, combined with the teriyaki sauce was perfect.  I liked that the bun offered enough structure that it didn't all fall apart; with that much meat and that much sauce, it was a lot of burger."  In a word, CR says it's ono - the Hawaiian word for delicious.  Now only, if we could've actually been eating it on the beach in Honolulu.  Oh to dream.

Now that's a mouthful.



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Honolulu Grill
706 East 700 South
St. George, UT 84770
(435) 627-1181
http://www.honolulugrill.net/

Daddy D's (Harrisville, UT)

Oh, how I love a locally owned restaurant!  Daddy D's recently opened in the location previously occupied by Moore's Halibut House.  Daddy D's billboard proudly proclaims that they sell chocolate bacon, which was intriguing to me and made me want to try it out.  It turns out they have lots of unique menu items, such as the following appetizers.  And of course, our table ordered one of everything so we could each have a taste.

Fried Pickles with Peanut Butter - $2.99

Who knew peanut butter would work well with a fried pickle?  Not me.....until I tried it, that is.  The two tastes merge together perfectly into a surprisingly good combo.

Fried Twinkie with Berries and Whipped Cream - $1.99

S. has had a fried Twinkie before and she knew she would love this.  And this fried Twinkie did not disappoint.  Guest bloggers BJC and SC voted the fried Twinkie their favorite appetizer of the day.  S. would've preferred it without the berries.

Chocolate Bacon - .99 cents

Oooh, behold the chocolate bacon!  The item on the sign that piqued our interest!  And it is good.  So good.  S. said, "I'm not proud of it, but I like the chocolate bacon."  There's just something about the sweet and the savory combination that just works.  You can buy the chocolate bacon at the drive thru window and S. is tempted to one day order an entire dozen.

We each broke off a piece so we could all have a taste.  Yep, that's a real slice of bacon inside that chocolatey goodness.

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And if the appetizers aren't enough for you, Daddy D's also has some unique sandwiches.  What makes them unique you ask?  For starters, they switch the bun for other items such as a square doughnut or two grilled cheese sandwiches.

Hot Mess Doughnut - $4.99

The appropriately named Hot Mess burger is a 1/4 lb beef patty, cheese, bacon, and lettuce, served on the aforementioned square doughnut.  A hot mess indeed.  So messy, in fact, they serve it with a side of plastic gloves to keep your hands clean.  It's also served with fries.  Guest blogger CR stated, upon finishing the entire Hot Mess, "Next time, I'd order it with two burger patties."  S. shared a bite of CR's Hot Mess burger and felt that the two flavors were surprisingly complementary: "You bite in and immediately get a sweet taste that melts right into the burger taste."  While CR would have added an extra patty to the mix, S. would've added a couple of slices of the chocolate bacon!

A close-up of the doughnut bun.  All kinds of glazed goodness.

And a close-up of the Hot Mess after it was sliced in half.

The gloves provided with the Hot Mess, to prevent sticky fingers.