The quality of gourmet burger you get at Red Robin is very consistent. The burger is prepared to your liking, and there are many choices on the menu. Whether you’re craving beef, buffalo (a personal favorite), chicken, or tofu, there’s a burger for you. French fries that accompany burgers have unlimited refills. Although RR is a chain, my wife and I like this particular location because it’s within minutes of both movie and shopping destinations.

I recently moved to the area and tonight I went to Red Robin for the first time. From the commercials that I have seen, I expected it to be an Applebees or Fridays-type, sit-down fast-food place. I actually found it to be more like a Friendly’s than an Applebees; but one can argue that all of these restaurants are, essentially, the same. The place was not packed, but there were quite a few families there this evening (in other words, a LOT of rowdy children) and the staff was singing birthday songs to select customers seemingly every two minutes.

The menu was a single laminated sheet and did not have not that much to choose from when compared to the menus at similar sit-down fast-food chains. There were a handful of appetizers, entrees, and salads as well as some tasty looking milkshakes and other frozen novelty and/or alcoholic drinks. It was clear, however, that what they wanted their customers to buy into were their gourmet burgers.

Red Robin offers not only traditional beef burgers, but chicken, turkey, and pot roast(!?) burgers as well. There is a burger for every taste, essentially: southwest, spicy, Italian, classic, etc. with toppings such-as guacamole, marinara sauce, chipotle mayo, onion straws, hickory-smoked bacon, etc. I did not see a “build your own burger” section, but I am sure that it is possible to choose ingredients to make a custom burger. Red Robin offers Boca and Gardenburger substitutes, available in place of a beef burger on almost any of their gourmet burgers; but aside from these, I did not feel that the menu offered a lot of other options for vegetarians.

The burger that I had (reviewed below) was a flavourful combination of ingredients. I was thrilled that they remembered to sub in a veggie burger in place of the beef burger (most places forget.) I didn’t have dessert this time, but the next time I will probably try a milkshake or a sundae.