Hamburger Mary's - Orlando, FL

110 West Church Street
Orlando, FL 32801
321-319-0600
Website

At the southern part of downtown Orlando, you'll find Church Street, a small subset of the area's entertainment district. Walk past the booty clubs, ignore the enticement of no cover and free booze, cross the railroad tracks in the next block, and you'll be rewarded with a fine burger joint -- Hamburger Mary's.
Hamburger Mary's is a small chain of restaurants with locations in Chicago, Southern California, Kansas, and Colorado, in addition to the Florida restaurant. They serve mostly comfort/diner food, but of a higher quality. I should also mention that the place is gay. Really gay. A real Burger Buster shouldn't care about such things. However, you do stand a chance of having to endure a drag show along with your burger. If you ask me, it's a small price to pay, even if you have to look at this between bites:

Now, on to the burger. Every burger is a half-pound Black Angus patty, cooked on a flat top and served on a buttered and grilled bun. There are several types of burgers available -- mushroom burgers, bleu cheese burgers, and chili burgers just to name a few. I chose the simple Mary burger -- meat, cheese, a couple of thin pickle slices, and a small amount of Mary's sauce (read: thousand island dressing).

First things first, let me commend their kitchen for understanding that condiments should be accents, and not toppings to be served with a ladle. Nothing drives me more insane than a good burger that is ruined with a swimming pool full of ketchup, mayo, or whatever else the restaurant apparently bought in bulk and needs to dispose of before it goes bad. The cooks here understand this, apparently, as the Mary burger came with what would be considered a drizzle of dressing. It is the perfect amount, providing a nice subtle complement to the sandwich. Thank you, gay cooks, for understanding the concept of subtlety.

But I digress... As always, I ordered my Mary burger medium, and they cooked it perfectly to specification. It definitely passed the eyeball test with flying colors. Next comes the important part -- the taste test. Home run. They use pretty quality beef here, and you can certainly taste the difference. The first bite was a superb combination of flavors -- aging, seasoning, and char. The bun was a fresh kaiser, and was buttered (not too much -- thanks again, cooks, for knowing when to say when) and grilled. As mentioned before, the sauce was a light drizzle, and provided a nice counterpoint to the bold aged beef flavor. I ordered mine with Jack cheese (please subdue laughter), which seemed to be the perfect combination of flavor and melt.

Burger Review -- This is a very good burger, and probably even stacks up well against the best of the best. If you can tolerate showtunes on the music system (not kidding) and a fat old guy in drag providing interactive pseudo-comic entertainment, then you will have yourself a good burger experience.

Rating...4 Bites