Culver's

Burger #X5: Culver’s – Triple Bacon Deluxe – $16  ???

This review is from my Wisconsin favorite I had on Christmas Eve 2011.  Culvers is a chain and is hard to come by here in Cincinnati since all of the good beef, sausages and cheese is up north.  I have tried the Culvers that is located in Mason, but it doesn’t even compare to what it is I had back home.  I added this as the fifth restaurant I had to use to fill up the burger places that went out of business on my list, and is the 36^th review I am doing.  4 more to go!!! 

The menu has one of the most diversely unhealthy menus I’ve seen.  Most things are deep fried, have a lot of cheese that is deep fried, have ranch dressing, or are custard related.  I’m always a fan of these things, but since I am doing the half marathon for the flying pig this year, I have to take in moderation.  Luckily their website has the nutrition info for their food, sadly it’s not numbers you want to actually see.  Speaking of unhealthy, one of the specialties there is the homemade custard, which I love!  You start with a regular vanilla that is made daily IN the restaurant then add like 40 things in it, or have it in shake or malt form.  The north Atlantic cod is the best fast food fish I’ve ever had, by far.  It’s actually huge chunks of fish that falls apart, not because it processed to shit either.  They have a sweet chili that goes great on their chili dog or on their crinkle cut fries.  The onion rings are huge beer battered rings, soooo much better than Walnut Street Grill at a lower price point, and you get a lot of them.  Culvers also makes their own homemade root beer, which does a great root beer float with their vanilla custard.  I haven’t had a place like this in cincy that does so many things great, but I’m always open to hearing about them.

Triple Burger and cheese curds!

Burgers are Culvers specialty.  To start you choose a burger or a melt.  I recommend a bacon deluxe or a Wisconsin swiss melt to start.  Then you can choose from a single, double or triple patty.  If you want a side you have a lot to choose from, but chili cheese fries, mashed potatoes, onion rings, or cheese curds are what you want.  I went with the triple bacon deluxe, 911 calories and 120% daily saturated fat, which is 3 patties to get 3/4 pounds of meat, then bacon on each, and cheese on each.  In the burgers use beef from the Wisconsin area that is never frozen, as well as Wisconsin cheddar on each patty.  They only cook it well, so it isn’t pink in the middle, but the meat is juicy and has a grilled tasted to it.  The tomatoes and onion were fresh and the bacon was amazing when its grease goes into the very buttery toasted bun.  Toasting the bun is one of those simple things every burger should have!  This was one of my favorite burgers of this entire quest, the only downside was it’s a chain restaurant.  For my side I had the cheese curds, which are un-aged yellow and white Wisconsin cheddar that they bread then deep fry and you dip them in ranch or whatever after, and they have 670 calories and 75% saturated fat.  Add to that the homemade root beer at 240 calories and I probably almost died that Christmas Eve day.  This meal counted for 1820 calories and 195% of my daily saturated fat for my day, which is probably a lot more then most sedentary people should eat in a day.  Oh, then I went out to eat for pizza later that night!  I swear I am a fat guy who found his way into a skinny guy’s body.

Cheese curds I bought in a store.  One is dill the other is Garlic and herb.

This used to be my perfect fast food burger.  I hope someone will go out and try it after this review since everyone up north has had it.   I tried Cincinnati chili, zips, quatmans and goetta many many times, so the least you can do is try my favorite place from home.