Gut Reaction | BurgerFi is a restaurant in between high-dining and fast food

Setting the Table

Walking into the newest burger joint in Surfside Beach might be unremarkable aesthetically but when the smell of cooking meat hits your nose, nothing else matters. You can admire those Big Ass Fans (literally) keeping the interior cool and smelling edible later, because you have a burger to eat.

BurgerFi is a restaurant in between high-dining and fast food. The franchise is known for using real and healthy ingredients, such as using fresh vegetables and hormone-free beef. As such, you can make your burger as healthy or deliciously bad as you want it. The menu offers easy options for a quick pick, but it’s also easy to make a creation all your own.

Even though the company is known for its fresh burgers, they also provide hotdogs met with the same high standards, plus a veggie burger (or even a veggie and meat burger). Their hot fries can come plain or decorated, or even with a mix of onion rings.

Lemonade will quench the thirsty, or a soda you can make your own. Better yet, for guests of age there is the option to choose from a variety of craft beers and wines.

Down the Hatch

Once all the difficult decisions have been made, it’s time to take a number and wait. There is plenty of seating indoors, but if the weather is nice enough, being on the patio makes an excursion to BurgerFi more like a picnic.

As per their standards, the food is cooked fresh even though it probably has to be cooked in big batches when the restaurant gets busy. Their famous Concretes stood up to their name as well, when the layered custard dessert was turned upside down and didn’t budge. But when the dessert became soft enough to indulge in, putting it down is hard to do.

For a regular burger (two angus patties with lettuce, tomatoes and BurgerFi sauce) plus a regular order of fries, the amount of food was plentiful. All those fries, even without ordering the large, are easy to share. The parmesan and herb topping might have been a bit too strong on the parmesan side but they’re still some delicious fries.

It also would have been nice to taste a bit more BurgerFi sauce on the burger. Nonetheless, the high standard of the meat is obvious and each patty was cooked perfectly.

Check, please

BurgerFi makes no secret about their focus on quality ingredients so they are equally frank about the cost, which differs at each location. These are not cheap burgers, nor are they the most expensive, but for what is being offered, the price is fair and the food is good.

A BurgerFi burger with parmesan and herb fries and a decadent Concrete was around $18, but the large portions could probably have made two meals.

As the BurgerFi location in Surfside settles in, a consistent amount of business would be unsurprising. The prices won’t discourage too many families, especially with the good location in this part of the Grand Strand, near a number of campgrounds. So here’s to another delicious burger on our streets encouraging everyone to try some better.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 1:45 AM with the headline "Gut Reaction | BurgerFi is a restaurant in between high-dining and fast food."