Wildflower Cafe

Burger #1: Wildflower Cafe - The World's Best Burger 10$

 

Well, school starts again tomorrow, so I may as well get a review out of the way before I don't have time for them.  School is the reason I am 8 to 9 weeks behind on writing these reviews from when I actually have the burger.  I am getting to the point that I am scheduling my next 3 burgers for the next 3 weeks and am looking forward to a few delicious ones in there.

Wildflower uses a house as camouflage,
sure fooled me.

This weeks burger was the number 1 best burger in Cincinnati in 2009!  Wildflower Cafe's properly named World's Best Burger was very different from what I was expecting.  I see all of these signs at every restaurant or bar that has a type of food, and it all gets called the "world's best" something or other.  It's like crying wolf one too many times, and we all just become bored of the whole phrase.  This is a more unique restaurant than most in that it's a farm to plate in a few days.  After doing research on their website for this review, I found out that Wildflower does not own a freezer!  What, what, what?  This is the 21st century, we know about health problems and freezing food is good for stopping bacteria, although not so good for taste.  Wildflower is a house made into a restaurant.  I will admit that I completely passed by without even seeing it, there isn't some bright neon sign saying "open" or "eat at joe's" or something.  They actually have a greenhouse out back from which some of the food is made.  A big thing here is having a very low impact on the earth, so you can expect there to not be any air conditioning, if that's an issue for you dress lightly. The owner is also the chef, so you know who's spit is in your burger when you tell them that burger  is for a cop.  hahaha, sorry, just remembering a great movie.

The burger is called the world's best burger on my list but they now have one labeled webb valley farm burger which is slightly better sounding than this one.   The world's best burger was their own grass fed beef on a pretzel bun, swiss cheese, herb aioli , double smoked bacon and fresh greens.  The first part I tried was the bacon, which was the best I've had anywhere.  I for one saw this description and thought, damn...that sounds tasty!  This one had all the makings to be great, and it was really good, just not number 1 burger in the city great.  First, the meat was perfectly cooked medium, and I get medium because I like the juices to saturate the bun, adding to it's flavor.  This meat was extremely fresh, well made and all, but it was too healthy.   Yes you heard me, I just said the meat was too lean.  Second, the pretzel was actually too hard to deal with that I had to cut the burger in half to eat it.  So combine a lean cut of meat, with a dry pretzel and you are just asking for me to put ketchup on it.  A great burger is one that is a combination of ingredients, toppings, veggies, bun, and cheese that does NOT need a condiment like ketchup.  Overcooked burgers need ketchup, but that wasn't the issue here either.  I think a borsin or goat cheese or something with more creaminess to it would have helped with equalize the lean meat.  The aioli should have done that, but there wasn't enough on it to notice.  I think that a different bun would've helped as well.  I see on their website they have changed to an english muffin with double smoked bacon...yes, this new one sounds like it will be great.  On the side, they give you chips or you can sub for a salad or soup.  I opted for the soup which was a moroccan lamb stew.  I was completely blown away by this side dish's spices.  I will say that this is one of the best house made soups I have had and it only cost $1 more than normal.

Even in the bathroom you are not free from the posters!

The rest of the menu has some nice apps and sandwiches.  There is a sustainable fish sandwich that changes daily, organic chicken club, and quiche du jour.  The grilled cheese has 4 cheese with double smoked bacon.  I just copied this from their site because it is fun to see that you have they use a different part of the animal everyday.  "Grass Fed Beef- We raise our own grass-fed beef, and therefore have a various selection of cuts available to us, which we change daily, in an effort to utilize the whole animal.  We humanely raise the animals, on an organically farmed, open pasture at Webb Valley Farm.  Each cut is prepared in a special way to maximize the flavor and composition of the beef.  We serve the beef with sides that pair well, usually house potatoes and wok-fired local veggies"

Nice pic from the web. 

This is not a bad review for wildflower.  I think this might have been a fluke and will be better if I try the burger again.  The rest of the menu alone is more than enough reason to go back.  I highly recommend making the trip to Mason to try this one out.  Oh and try the bacon!