Jiffy Burger at Red’s Old 395 Grill

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Restaurant Info

Burger Breakdown

The Visit

Visited Red’s Old 395 Grill for lunch on a Wednesday. This is a big place and it was busy. Reservations are not needed. They had a seat available for me. But I'm thinking that during rush hour or at dinner time or on a Friday, this place would be packed and you might have to wait.

Red’s has both indoor and outdoor seating. The place is very rustic with a log cabin-like or more barn-like feel. It has a full bar, which would be a cool place to hang out. They have wagons, old horse-drawn fire trucks, and memorabilia on the walls. Things like bear traps. mounted elk and deer and all sorts of stuff up on the ceilings. They also have a very nice outdoor patio with an old wooden beer keg, waterfall. The seating outside has both shaded and sunny areas so you can choose what you like.

This is a big place, nice big high ceilings. Six televisions in the bar area. I was seated at a four up high top, which is nice, plenty of seating around. There is seating at the bar. They have a little souvenir section which I'm gonna have to check out later.

Red’s is a table service restaurant. They have a greeting station up at the front. I had to wait there a little bit while one hostess was doing something on the computer and the other hostess was on the phone. It was only about two minutes until they finished doing what they were doing and then I was seated right away.

After I was seated, the waitress came up straight away, asked for my drink order, and quickly returned with my soft drink.

I planned on ordering the Jiffy burger. Before I did that, I double checked to make sure that the burger came with lettuce, tomato, and onions.

So...tell me about your burgers.

Red’s has six different burgers on the menu. I ordered the Jiffy burger, which is a burger with pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, peanut butter, and, of course, bacon. I ordered it with a side of coleslaw, which came in a cool red tortilla shaped bowl, like a mini taco salad. Nice, big, crispy pickle alongside.

The price is quite affordable for such a unique cheeseburger - $17.99.

Let's See What We Have Here

The Cheeseburger came to the table fully-assembled. Looking good, too. The cheeseburger was stacked high and tall. It's a monster of a hamburger patty. It has an awesome tasting peanut butter sauce, barbecue sauce, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and crispy fried onions strings. It looked good. The side of coleslaw came in a mini red tortilla cup. Quite edible and quite delicious.

Have you tried the bread?

The bun was barely okay. It's toasted on the inside and perhaps heated with a heat lamp on the outside. This made the bun crisp and very dry. Also had a bit of a stale taste. The bun definitely needed to be toasted a little bit. It could have used some butter and a toast on the outside of the bun to soften things up. More on this later.

Let's look under the hood of this baby.

Burger patty was covered with peanut butter sauce. It was kind of hard to just get a feel for the burger patty because the sauce is all over the place. This is definitely a two napkin burger.

The lettuce and tomato on the burger was nice and fresh. The fried onion strings were good as well as they added a nice crunch. The Jiffy Burger came with a slice of Jack cheese, which was on top of the peanut butter, separated from the hamburger patty. So the cheese wasn't melted, which was kind of strange. I would have assembled it differently.

The order of assembly was bottom bun, lettuce, tomato, onion strings, burger patty, peanut sauce, barbecue sauce, cheese, bacon, and then the top bun.

I ordered my burger medium. Unfortunately, the burger arrived cooked well done and very dry. Pretty tight grind of beef. Since the burger fell apart while I was eating it, I ended up eating it with a fork, and it was kind of difficult cutting through the hamburger patty. By itself, the burger patty tasted good. It was seasoned well. But, it was definitely overcooked and dry. Couldn't determine what method was used to cook the burger patty.

The toppings and the sauce made a for a pretty precarious setup. It would have fell apart if I started digging around. Plus, the peanut sauce was covering everything up so I could not see any grill marks or determine if it was cooked on a flat top.

The cheese was not melted, as was placed on after the burger was taken off the grill. The bacon was nice and greasy and nicely cooked; not fall-apart crispy and not rubbery.

So, who are your your friends here?

So, with the burgers, you get a choice of fries, side salad, coleslaw, beans, or potato sweet potato fries. I opted for the cold slaw, coleslaw. It's pretty good. Nothing spectacular about it. It had a nice flavor. A nice crunch. But it could have been pre-made and pretty much like any other coleslaw that you could get at a deli or another burger joint. But it was tasty and added a nice, creamy alternative to the Jiffy Burger.

It's a Wrap

Overall, the Jiffy Burger is an excellent burger. All the components work well together. Unfortunately, the bone-dry brioche roll and the overcooked beef patty brought it down a lot. I could have added ketchup and mustard to give the bun a little bit of moisture, but I think it would have masked all the other flavors.

I would have to give the Jiffy burger a two stars out of a five star rating. The dry bun and the overcooked patty really brought the cheeseburger down.Plus, having the cheese separated from the patty by the peanut butter was strange to me.

The flavor combinations were great together. But, the overcooked patty and the dry bun brought the overall rating down. While I was eating the cheeseburger, the bun actually fell apart. It didn't just get all soggy and mushy, it actually broke apart because it was so dry. I ended up eating the rest of my cheeseburger with a fork. The burger patty was dry and tough, it was difficult cutting it with a fork. If they were to resolve those issues, the bun and the over-cooked patty, this cheeseburger would be a rockstar.

For $17.99, it was an ok value considering the failures. All the flavors were there. It was more of a process issue than a creativity issue. Plus, you get a side of fries or salad, whichever you choose.  I ordered a soft drink to go with my meal and it was not overpriced. Two bucks and some change is well worth it. Free refills. Certainly fills you up.

I'm not sure if I would come back here again. The two breakdowns on that burger were HUGE disappointments for me. I drove about 30 miles just to get here and to try the burger because it sounded delicious. Now I have to drive another 30 miles to get home. Don’t think I will be returning.