Maribelle's Tavern

Burger #17: Maribelle’s Tavern – 100% Natural Beef Burger   10$

Lots of outdoor seating.

 

It’s Sunday and I have some extra time while watching dog-sitting my friends 2 foster dogs for a few hours.  This is the second burger review of the day, but I am still pretty far behind in my reviews.  My travels took me to Maribelle’s Tavern on the beautiful day of Wednesday, June 11^th.  This week’s review   was number 27 on the list, but the 17^th burger for this year.  For a Wednesday night it seemed exceptionally busy, but we didn’t have to wait for seating by any means.  You can find it in the East End of the city on Riverside Dr.  This is a fairly empty street that you can drive past the place, as I have done, and not even notice.  It’s an upscale restaurant, but it’s just lonely out there by itself.  My 2 friends and I were seated upstairs on the second floor because the temperature outside was too hot for sitting out there.  It also turns out that we happened to get there on half price wine night.  Too bad none of us were having any wine.  

The 4 cheese flatbread.  It's like a piece of art!

Maribelle’s is definitely the opposite end of the spectrum from the other burger review I did today of Friendly Stop.  Most things on the menu are easily 2 to 3 times the price but the quality and experience is well worth it when you want a fancier meal.  We started off with the 4 cheese flatbread appetizer which came with the look that this was almost a piece of art.  It’s cool to see the difference in the small things like the appearance of your appetizer you get at this establishment.  Being a Wisconsin native, 4 cheese anything is always the way to get on my good side.  The flatbread was topped with goat, mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan cheeses as well as arugula, tomato and a tasty basalmic reduction.  I would definitely get this again.  I had a quiche from Findley market that had a similar reduction that hits your salty taste buds perfectly.  If I weren’t getting the burger I would’ve tried the lamb sliders too.  

That is really how beautiful my plate looked.  

My burger was called just that, “burger.”  Not too much description, but you do get to customize it with 2 toppings of your choice.  It was a half pound burger with tomato, lettuce, onion, and I added bacon and sautéed mushrooms.  This is one of the small things that make a burger great.  The add-on of awesome bacon can be the key to making an average burger top notch.  It was cooked with just enough pink in the middle and not overly greasy but not dry.  The egg bun was soft and fresh, which can also kill a burger when it isn’t.  This burger is definitely at the higher end of my great burgers in the city.  I opted to add brussel sprouts as my side since all of the fries I’ve had are sinking into my mid-section.  These were the best I’ve had at any restaurant and will definitely get them again.  I know, I hear all of the non-adventurous people out there crying about how they have hated brussel sprouts since they were little and blah blah blah.  I understand you’ve had bad ones, but now you need to try good ones.  I have now converted 2 of my roommates into brussel sprout eaters just from a simply sautéing them for a black coating that brings out a completely different flavor than just steamed or boiled.  But I digress…on with the review.  One of my friends ended up getting the baked cheese sandwich with truffle mustard, goat cheese, muenster, tomato, and arugula on a baguette.  If you don’t dig on meat, then this would be the next best thing for anyone.  Hell even if you like meat, have a friend order it just so you can try this sandwich.  My other friend had the Scottish salmon with lemon, tomato, fried caper, dill, and red bell pepper which I did not enjoy as much as the rest, but he thoroughly did.  We went on a try everything spree here as is usually the case when I go out with these 2.  We also had the sweet potatos with honey, goat cheese, and pecan as well as the jalapeno cheddar grits which were phenomenal.   

I am going to say that Maribelle’s is definitely on my list of places to hit again after my burger quest is done.  While the price is higher than a lot of other restaurants on the list, the quality, taste and presentation were fantastic.   And try brussel sprouts!