I know there has been a LARGE gap between my soft opening review and now. Please forgive me, as I know several of you have been waiting for the “Official” review.

I have to admit I’ve been to The Abbey Burger Bistro a few times prior to this event. It always seemed though I was there for just drinks, or dessert, or even worst of all, I didn’t have my camera.

Well this time around I planned ahead, and was prepared. My father-in-law decided he wanted to celebrate his birthday at The Abbey and I was very happy to hear it. Six of us arrived on a Sunday afternoon (before pre-March Madness) around 2:00PM. The bar was half full and so were the tables downstairs. The staff was happy to put together two tables for us to accommodate our party of six.

We decided to start out with some appetizers, and ended up ordering the Waffle Fry Nacho’s and The Original Wings. I have to start out and say that I am biased when it come to waffle fries. I love waffle fries, and could eat a basket of just them, but add nacho toppings and I was in heaven!

When the wings arrived, I was half expecting average wings, but was pleasantly surprised. They had your traditional buffalo style sauce, but ALSO had a slight flavoring of Old Bay! Though it wasn’t described on the menu, I swear I tasted Old Bay.

For dinner, we of course had burgers. I daringly opted to try the Peanut-Butter Burger, and Nathan ordered the Lamb Burger. We opted to each have half of each others so we could taste more than one burger.

I was very nervous about ordering the Peanut-Butter Burger, what if I didn’t like it? Nathan had tasted it before and kept assuring me it was good, but sometimes our tastes differ……severely.

The Peanut-Butter Burger came with Roseda beef, smoked bacon, creamy peanut-butter on a classic bun. Nathan advised me to order it on the medium-rare side to add juiciness.

The Peanut-Butter Burger was surprisingly tasty! It had a great combination of sweet and salty, and not too much peanut-butter to over-whelm. I do suggest, if you order this burger make it medium or rare. If you order it cooked any more the peanut-butter combined with the beef may leave it a little dry.

Next to the Lamb Burger, I have had this burger before and once again it was awesome. The Lamb Burger is very Greek styled with cucumbers, onion, herbed yogurt, lettuce, and of course lamb on all on a toasted pita bun. It was a nice cool and refreshing taste and of anything with lamb, I’m all for.

Nathan and I both ordered Sweet-Potato Fries with out burgers, and happily devoured them. If you have never had them, once again I encourage you to PLEASE try sweet-potato fries. Once you have those, you will never go back to regular fries, well, unless they are waffle fries.

For dessert Nathan had a home-made Chipwhich, and I a Banana Split with pistachio ice-cream. ( please don’t judge my pistachio obsession).

The Chipwhich is an ice-cream cookie sandwich made on home-made cookies. Nathan opted for vanilla ice-cream on his.

So once again, I challenge any other place in Baltimore to make a better burger than The Abbey Burger Bistro. I love The Abbey for its uniqueness, creativity, and oh yeah the large massive amount of craft beers they offer. I’m not sure, but I possibly may just be in burger-love with this place.

There is nothing better in life than a good burger and a cold beer. I am very excited about the Abbey opening up and by the looks of the crowd Friday night, I think there are also a lot of other people who are too. If you are wondering where the Abbey is, it’s where the Sky Lounge used to be in Federal Hill. They officially open up this week, however Nathan and I stopped by Friday for a sneak peak.

We walked to the Abbey around 6:45. The decor was warm and inviting. We were able to grab two seats at the bar, and there was only one table down-stairs left. By 7:30 all the seats in the house were taken, and it was becoming standing room only.

In regards to the food, they offer any combination you can imagine to make a burger by using a unique “check-list” menu. This is where you fill out a piece of paper that almost looks like a survey, picking your meat, bread, toppings, sauce, and cheese. You also get to pick out sides too. Nathan went with a lamb burger on pita, with cucumbers and a Greek style yogurt. It also came with a side of home-made chips. I went with an Angus burger on a regular bun that had cheddar cheese, a spicy sauce, and Fois Gras. I will say for all you Fois Gras lovers out there, they give you your fill. And all controversies aside, it was good…really good. I also had a “La Chouffe” which was a Belgian Strong Ale. It was quite tasty, and complimented my burger well. I ordered a side of regular fries with my burger, which was topped with a garlic stuffed olive.

Nathan and I were both very happy with our choice of food, and were actually very full. We noticed they had several milk-shake varieties that all offered some sort of alcohol in them. But since it was just a soft opening, they weren’t serving them yet. They also opened up the up-stairs bar around 9, and that helped ease the crowd.

The kitchen is open till 12:00 AM, so you can get your late night burger crave on. They also have a few TVs downstairs all tuned into an ESPN channel, so you can get your burger, beer, and football fix all at the same time.

We will most definitely be back, a week or so from now. Then I will share some pictures and an official review. So for now, you will just have to check it out for yourself. If you are wondering What’s To Eat in Baltimore, the Abbey is the place to check out. This is Baltimore’s only fully customizable burger bistro. Move over 5 Guys, The Abbey is grilling up fresh local burgers with creative flare and unique toppings… and ohh yeah… beer.

Where to head for a birthday? When trying to get together for a birthday people always try to head to a new place that no one has been to. A great pick would be The Abbey Burger Bistro. This welcoming joint is tucked in a small alley, so look for the side walk sign.

If you are like Wimpy and love burgers then this is the place for you. They have burgers of all sorts- from bison, veggies, lamb, etc. They have very creative toppings on the different burgers. You can even build you own burger. All the burgers are served in black-and-white-checkered-waxpaper-lined baskets. They also have an impressive beer list with a variety of domestic and international beers available on draft and in bottle.

One burger to try is the harry’s bistro burger- Roseda beef, bacon, sunny side egg, lincolnshire cheddar on an english muffin ($9) and added sweet potato fries ($3). My first bite was a bit of heaven- the muffin mixed with the beef and the egg makes you go Mmmmmmmm! Eggs have been served on burgers before but not like this one. The beef was perfectly cooked to order. The fries, oh the fries- they were the best sweet potato fries I ever had. They were perfectly cooked and seasoned.

Another great try is the peanut butter burger—Roseda beef, smoked bacon, and creamy peanut butter on a bun ($9). You may be questioning this combination of toppings on a burger. I was offered a bite and I must say I was impressed and enjoyed it. When you hear about this burger the first thought that could could to your mind is of a PB & J sandwich that sticks to the roof of your mouth but it didn’t do that. The peanut butter was a nice addition to it in the moderation that was on it. It wasn’t over powering.

Some of the other burgers that were tested and tried were the lamburger—cucumber, onions, herbed yogurt, lettuce and toasted pita ($9) and gunpowder bison burger—onion rings, point reyes blue cheese, bib lettuce and tomato, mayo on a bun ($9). My Husband built his own burger (starts at $8). Everyone was very please with their choices and all agreed that the sweet potatoes fries were out of this world!

The service was perfect and the atmosphere was welcoming and fun. The food was very satisfying and original. Next time you’re in Federal Hill try a Abbey burger!