www.bullyranchrestaurant.com
The Order: The Definitive, medium rare. Angus beef topped with candied bacon, blue cheese butter, and crispy onions, on a challah bread bun.
Side Order: Comes with fries.
$17.50
Drink Order: Water
Burger Menu Rating: 8.5/15
This past weekend, some friends and I took a trip to Vail to go to the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival and to go snowboarding/skiing (of course). The festival was at the Vail Cascade Resort Hotel on two floors with a bunch of delicious beer to try, and they weren't lying about being big beers; most of the beers I tried were above 8% ABV. Having tried something like twenty-five beers, and feeling a little buzzed, I decided (for both myself and my friends) that it was time for a burger dinner (this also should explain why I had water with dinner).
Vail resort is full of restaurants, from pubs, to upscale dining and everywhere in between. I, of course, was looking for the best burger, and spent some time looking for the top rated burgers in the area. There were a few honorable mentions, but the one place that stood out was Steve Topple's Bully Ranch because another reviewer said it had "easily the best line-up of burgers" including burgers with buffalo and elk. Steve Topple is the Executive Head Chef at all four of the restaurants at the Sonnenalp Resort at Vail (as well as the casual lounge King's Club).
The first thing you notice when you look at Bully Ranch's menu is the huge list of sides available for $3, and that at the top of the list are the Truffle Tots. Truffle Tots? Sign me up! Or wait, no, everybody else at the table noticed that as well, so I'll have the fries. But seriously, all of these sides are probably pretty delicious (ignoring the Caesar Salad, the House Salad, and the non-descript 'Fruit') and the fact that you can swap any of them out for your fries is amazing. I asked our server what the recommended burger was and where the hell the elk and buffalo burgers were, and, to our unfortunate surprise, they no longer serve burgers made with anything except for ground beef (the buffalo meat is still listed on the website for some reason, but then again, the prices on their website are wrong as well). For Shame! According to our server, the Definitive burger (that's quite the statement there isn't it) is the most popular on the menu. Ok, easy decision.
The Definitive arrived open faced.
When the burger arrived, I was apprehensive. A pre-formed patty that appears to have been cut from a hamburger log, in my experience, isn't a good sign, and definitely not a sign of the highest quality ingredients. Notice, also, that the bacon is merely draped over the top of the burger, and not arranged in a way to have delicious bacon in every bite (this will be important later!).
The Definitive burger, looking pretty after some prep.
I placed all the appropriate ingredients onto the burger (there was a piece of lettuce, a tomato, a slice of red onion and a pickle, as well, that did not make it on there) and took a look. Now this looked more like it. And what kind of bread is this? Challah bread? Delicious, I hope.
Cutting the burger in half reveals a pretty good medium rare, and a slightly less than medium-coarse grind. The bun is light and airy with a fair amount of compression, great for absorbing juices. But enough with looking at the burger. Unfortunately, in the first few bites, this burger already does not stand up to the glowing reviews mentioned on various forums and in previous reviews. The meat was under-salted and lacking in flavor. The blue cheese butter only made a brief appearance. It was tasty, buttery sweet with just a slight bit of that blue cheese tang, but I could only taste it in a bite or two. Perhaps there wasn't enough of it, or it wasn't spread out over the burger, but it needed to play a bigger part. Or perhaps because they were adjacent to the crispy onions, which also lacked in flavor, the butter was lost amidst the oiliness of the onions.
The first few bites, however, were the prologue. Suddenly I bit into the candied bacon, and my eyes lit up like a little schoolboy's when he sees a brand new toy. How could I have forgotten that this burger had this magical ingredient? Not only candied, but also spiced with a little bit of cayenne (similar to, but not as good as, the bacon on the burger at Hamilton Tavern) the bacon is definitely the star of this burger. Without the bacon, this burger is nothing. It shapes both the taste and the mouthfeel around its magnificence. I could eat a plate of just this bacon for dinner. So I recommend, when you order it, get extra bacon. Or make your own burger, as my friends all did, but keep in mind that the candied bacon is not on the build-your-own list and must be asked for specifically. Maybe think about candied bacon, and a fried egg on your burger for the ultimate in decadence and deliciousness.
The fries were delicious, and plentiful. Spiced with Rosemary and Thyme, with a great small-medium cut, they were delicious on their own, or with ketchup. They weren't overly salty, or else they would have been more of a balance to the burger, but still a solid side. The Truffle Tots were also delicious (having stolen some from nearby plates). This was one of the few instances where you could really taste the truffle oil, and there was a hint of spiciness as well. Overall, they were good, but I think a bit overwhelming in taste. They might be good to split (nobody finished their sides of Truffle Tots).
Other items on the menu looked good, but the general consensus at the table was that the food was affordable, average fare. I would try something other than the burger here, or make my own next time. Unfortunately, the Definitive is not the answer to the question of burgers.
Cooked Correctly: 4.5/5
Plating: 1/3
Design: 1.5/4
Value: 1.5/3
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