Las Vegas is full of great places to eat. For all of the great restaurants, one of the growing trends in Las Vegas the last few years has been Burger Joints.
It seems they have been popping up all over town, from simple to gourmet. The explosion has even brought celebrity chefs to the burger business, and that’s where we are going with this week’s review.
Recently I was heading down to Harrah’s to check out the NFL season win totals with handicapper Bryan Leonard, and after picking up the sheets in the sports book we decided to grab some lunch. We headed over to KGB: Kerry’s Gourmet Burgers.
KGB is the creation of celebrity chef Kerry Simon – best known for winning the Iron Chef competition on TV.
We started our lunch with Waffle Fry Nachos. This was a good size plate of waffle fries topped with Sloppy Joe meat, cheddar cheese and jalapenos. The nachos were good but the waffle fries lacked crunch, and I much prefer nachos made with tortilla chips.
For our burger choices we had a pretty extensive menu. KGB has a section of burgers called “Simon Sez” and these are Chef Simon’s creations. These specialty burgers offer something for everyone. They had a Cali Chicken Burger, which consisted of grilled chicken breast, avocado, red onion and tomatoes on a wheat bun.
There was a Thanksgiving Turkey Burger with stuffing, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy on a white bun. In the mood for lamb? They have a Lamb Burger served on an onion roll.
Bryan went with the Stuffed Spicy Burger as our waiter highly recommended it. The burger was stuffed with roasted jalapeno and Jack cheese. It had crispy onions and a spicy mayo served on a jalapeno-cheddar bun.
But I wasn’t in the mood for spicy food so I went with the Cheddar Cheeseburger. With this burger they take four slices of cheddar cheese and fold it all around the burger like you were tucking the burger in a blanket for a nap. Doing it this way gave the cheese just a little crunch on the outside but it was still hot and gooey inside.
My burger was cooked just the way I like it – medium with pink in the middle. If you like your burger cooked more, be sure to tell your waiter as this is the normal way they serve their burgers. What put this burger over the top for me was the bun.
Yes, the bun. You could have the best burger in the world and if you put it on a dry bun you ruin the sandwich. The bun can make or break a burger, and this was one of the best I have had in town.
If you want to create your own masterpiece burger they have BYB@KGB, which stands for Build Your own Burger.
You pick your patty first from either Angus Beef, All White Turkey or Chicken Breast. Next, you pick your bun followed by running it through the garden and finally pick your cheese. They also have a selection of premium toppings like Fried Egg, Wild Mushrooms and Short Rib Sloppy Joe just to name a few.
KGB also has a big selection of Milkshakes, Malts and Floats. Their most popular milkshake is the Captain Crunch. They also have fresh made-to-order cotton candy on the dessert menu.
If you are on the Strip and craving a burger, head to KGB in Harrah’s. I give KGB a rating of 3.50 Forks out of 4.
Marco D’Angelo is the senior handicapper at Pregame.com. He co-hosts FIRST PREVIEW every Thursday at 10 a.m. on ESPN 1100 AM/98.9 FM. Follow him on twitter: @MarcoInVegas. Contact him at [email protected].