A picky eater with lots of allergies reviews The Vanilla Bean Cafe Burger
Basic Burger
No Sprinkles Please
As always, I ordered a burger. There were several types of burgers to choose from Cheese to Turkey to Bison to Elk, but I ordered the Basic Burger. Plain. No toppings. Medium well. Ketchup on the side. It is important to note that I have ordered lots of hamburgers at lots of restaurants throughout my life. I always order them the same way. Basically beef on a bun and nothing else. I have never run into a problem, so I was very surprised that when my burger was served it had all the garnish laying on an open bun. My first thought was ick – vegetables. But then I explained to the server that I have allergies and had ordered the burger plain. Without hesitation, the server whisked away the tainted burger and I sat patiently waiting for its replacement while my dad slowly enjoyed his meal.
Skip the Sprinkles
My dad and I disagree about the next order of events, but here is my version. Within a minute or two of the server bringing my burger back to the kitchen, the manager appeared at our table scowling. As an overly sensitive introvert, I don’t handle scowling very well. To me, her tone was gruff as she asked what the problem was. I explained that I had ordered my burger without toppings and before I could even mention allergies, she cut me off stating the burger comes with toppings. I noted again that I had ordered it without and she looked confused and restated that the burger is served with toppings. She shook her head and then verified with me that I did not indeed want any toppings. “Not even a pickle?” she asked. I cringed and shook my head. She hustled off and a fresh burger appeared in front of me about three minutes later. My dad believes it was all a simple misunderstanding, but like I said, I’m overly sensitive and not just to food. I felt so horrible about the entire exchange I was still playing it over and over again in my head a week later.
Sprinkle Free
The burger was pretty good. I was skeptical about how quickly it was served and wondered if they simply removed the vegetables and returned the original burger to me. A sensitivity to raw tomatoes would have let me know in about an hour after consuming my lunch, but my stomach remained quiet so kudos to The Vanilla Bean for doing the right thing. The burger was thick and exactly the same size as the sesame seed bun – beef with every bite! It was very tasty and not overly dry which was amazing because medium well is usually pretty dry. The meal came with a bag of generic kettle chips which were too salty for my liking, but the burger filled me up so I didn’t feel like I needed them.
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