burgers

When you think of getting a burger, what do think of? What do you think of for a causal lunch or dinner? Where would you go for family dining that everyone will love? How about fresh, handmade good food?  What if I told you there’s a place that covers all of that! Welcome to Fuddruckers.

We went out to the newly renovated Fuddruckers in Reading, MA this past weekend. It was a great fun family dinner for us. Really great food for all of us. Plus, toy vending machines for Autumn. ha!

The restaurant is located in the big Jordan’s Furniture. It might sound weird to hear that it’s located in a furniture store, but there also is an IMAX movie theater and a ropes course and zip-line activity center called, Beanstalk. It’s basically a place for the whole family to have fun from watching a movie to buying furniture to zipping through the air, above sculptures made with jelly beans, no less!

All of that activity is sure to make you hungry, so the Fuddruckers is the perfect way to refuel you!

Their extensive menu includes burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, fries, rings, and shakes. The decision might be tough but you’ll just have to come back for another delicious creation or take something to go (like how my husband took a brownie and didn’t even share it with me!!!).

Once you have figured out what to order, the fun begins!

The Shakes: Hand-mixed shakes are made to order with rich ice cream and milk, and then are topped off with whipped cream and a cherry. They are served in tall milkshake glasses along with the metal cup that they are made in since they are so large that they would overflow the milkshake glass!

I highly suggest treating yourself to a shake. There are big enough to share so it would be fun for a couple to enjoy together. They also offer kids sizes, but Autumn just enjoying taking some chilly sips of our Strawberry Nutella Shake. And I loved just how great it tasted with the fresh strawberries and Nutella mixed in.

The Meat: Fuddruckers has beef burgers of many sizes, cooked to order, and are always “100% USDA All-American premium cut beef.” They even have ‘exotic’ meats so you can create a burger with Buffalo, Elk, or Wild Boar. All of their game burgers are all-natural, free-range, grass and grain-fed, as well as 100% antibiotic and hormone free.

Price was adventurous and tried the All-American Burger with Elk meat which he said was noticeably different than beef but very lean and tasty. I went for the bacon and blue with beef. I loved it as the flavors all married really well together. I really enjoyed that the bacon was cut up as I find it really disappointing when I take a burger and a big strip of bacon comes with it, leaving so much burger behind with so little bacon. Bacon struggles are a real thing!

Both of us chose to have our burgers cooked medium rare, and guess what? They were! I know that might sound unimpressive, but more often then not we either get them very rare or medium-well, so it was refreshing to actually get a burger cooked to order.

The Bun: The scratch-made buns are made every day at every location. The bun was full of air and even had the butter and sesame seeds on top. They were puffy fluffy book ends to the giant patty between.

The Toppings:  So what shall you top these wonderful meat patties and and buns with? Oh, how about whatever your heart desires?!?!?! These is a large topping bar to create your own “best burger in the world” each and every time you visit.

The entire bar was stocked!!! Shredded lettuce, leafy lettuce, sliced onions, sliced tomato, jalapenos, pico de gayo, banana peppers, and on and on and on… Plus there are so many sauces, including bbq sauce, ketchup, yellow mustard, and their signature honey mustard, plus so much more!

While Autumn is pretty adventurous with her palate, she is still 2 and would be happy living off Mickey-shaped waffles, yogurt, and her daycare teacher’s soup. So we just selected mac and cheese off the kid’s menu and hoped for the best. Some days she loves mac and cheese, and other days if you suggest it she looks at you like you’re crazy for suggesting it. Kids…

She really wasn’t into dinner as much as she was with all the excitement around her, like the quarter claw games with the blinking lights or the lobby full of yelling kids on the zip-line or the water fountain choreographed with music. But she ate the mac and cheese for lunch the next day and we had to break the news to her that there was no more and she kept asking and asking. She was a big fan.

And we were as well… yeah, we tried it too, oops! If you get something for your kids, you want it to be healthy, even when eating out. The mac and cheese was an excellent choice. The cheese was a white cheddar mix, not that neon yellow orange stuff. And it didn’t taste like it was loaded with salt either, which is really important for healthy kid’s meals.

 

While we were enjoying our burgers, Price and I noticed a few things at Fuddruckers that we hadn’t seen or noticed at many other places. First, you get in line to place your order, with drink cup in hand you head over to fill up and then find a table. The seating is first come first served which gives off a weird sense of organized chaos. A family was just leaving as we were walking by so we scored by not having to wait at all for a table that already had a highchair.

As soon as people leave there is a flurry of activity at the table as staff swoop in to clear the table and wipe it all down. Luckily there were plenty of workers to help with the task so no table remained dirty for any amount of time which was good because the line was out the door and spilled into the lobby for the majority of the time we were there.

You are given a buzzer that then notifies you when your order is done. A quick walk over to the kitchen and you are able to grab your food on a well organized tray.

The good quality of food, affordable price point, and fun aspect of personalizing your burger makes Fuddruckers a desirable place to grab a meal. Plan ahead if you are planning on grabbing a meal before a movie at the IMAX theater as it can be busy!

You’d think the line and overwhelming amount of people already seated would be difficult to manage but the staff but they just kept on pace and kept on smiling.

I spoke with the owner, Jim Boland, and general manager, Haley Davies, before and after our meal to learn about Jim’s 4 locations and what keeps both of them so happy and passionate about Fuddruckers. Jim’s genuine excitement about bringing families and friends together over a good quality meal is great to see. He wasn’t just another manager or owner happy to see a restaurant being successful, he was happy to see everyone being happy there. Shoot, they both were very hands on, even by helping clean tables. Not often you see managers, or even owners, helping the staff like that but you could tell with Jim that he liked what he did, liked his employees, and enjoyed that people enjoyed his restaurants.

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Fuddruckers is located across the US and internationally. Scattered across 35 states and 10 countries, you will find a restaurant near you.

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While our meal at Fuddruckers was complimentary, all opinions are completely my own.