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Morris Tap and Grill – Randolph NJ

MTG_Baconator
4.4
"1/2 Bacon, 1/2 Meat, 100% Awesome!"
Staff
Steve Frederick
"Put bacon on it."

It was my wife’s hmm hmmth birthday and she wanted to have a hang at the Morris Tap and Grill. I have never been there but she went with her girlfriends along with my compadre Rudy. They all had high remarks for the place and insisted a few times that I go. They raved about the bar scene and the veggie burger (patty). I wasn’t down for the veggie burger but the place sounded good. I grew up in Randolph and the last thing I knew of the MTG building was when it was a sneaker store turned into Denny’s.

I pulled up at Friday at 6:30 and pulled right out. The place was packed and no parking was available. Luckily my madre lived a block down the road and offered to drive me over. Perfect! The wife could get plastered (success!!) and I would only have to deal with one car.

I was afraid going in that it was going to be a tight squeeze in the bar due to the lack of parking. To my surprise, my wife had a commandeered a section of the bar with roughly 15 friends and had broken out a small break dancing contest. Just a backspin or robot, nothing fancy. It’s not like I could have pulled a windmill off or busted out the worm.

So it was dinnertime and I was hungry. The beer menu was overwhelming so I stuck with a Ying draft to start. I combed through the food menu and saw that I had two options. The MTG and the MTG Baconator which is where our story (review) begins… cue dream sequence music.

Tasty Burger

The Morris Tap and Grill serves two burgers, the MTG Burger and the MTG Baconator. So, it was the choice of the house burger or the house burger with bacon so lets see uh.. I got the Baconator (surprise, surprise).  This was no average burger with bacon. Oh no, the MTG baconator is a 50% ground applewood smoked bacon / 50% ground beef, lettuce, tomato, onion & pickle plate of awesomeness. You have the option to order a fried egg, which in retrospect seems like a killer idea but I wanted to keep the eye on the prize that was 50% meat and 50% baconlicious.

I order the burger medium rare and it was delivered medium. Normally I wouldn't be thrilled but don't be deceived, a burger mixed with ½ bacon is not going to take on the same color as a straight burger. Regardless, it was one of the best burgers I've had. No lie, it was really that good. Besides the burger itself the other highlights included the wonderfully caramelized onions and the roll.

The roll was a great choice. It was delicate like a straight potato rolls yet it had a nice buttery crust. Not to firm yet strong enough to keep this beef blessing manageable from the first to last bite. With lettuce and tomato it was a phenomenal burger one of the juiciest buttery burgers I have had.

On a side not it was impressive that the burger didn't come with cheese. I love cheese but this burger was so good I didn't miss it for a second.

Bang for your Buck

The burger goes for $14. A good price for a ½ bacon burger and well worth it but with some of the other burgers we reviewed I think $12 would have made it a 5. Still, it's 100% worth ponying up 2 bones for it.

Looks

The burger was served open faced, which as you may know by now I prefer burgers to be served assembled. I just think it looks cleaner. It also feels like your being presented with this amazingly crafted burger, which a master plated with pride. Open face just feels like I'm receiving an expedited plate of meat. A burger served open usually feels more like a diner burger than a gourmet showing.

In the case of the MTG Baconator, once I assembled my burger the plate was heaven (cue music again).

Sides

Served with fries and a pickle, you couldn't beat MTG's fresh cut fries seasoned with sea salt or the crispy deli pickle. The delicious fries were addicting, just ask the two ladies "Mrs. Russo and Ms. DiMarco" circling my plate like I was a wounded antelope in the safari. So yeah, they were great.

The potato spears of glory were a nice thick-cut, skin-on fry, which weren't greasy at all. Morris Tap and Grill is rotating their oil often because on a Friday night these fries were "golden new" not a "hot fried chicken batter" tasting mess. You can always tell when everything is fried in the same oil. Nice job MTG!

The Joint

The place is fricken awesome! The bar is long and the area around the bar has some room. I felt like there was plenty of space with all the other people at the bar and our group of 20 or so friends. Service was on point. I never had to wait long at the bar for help and our waitress who was like Pookie runnin' drinks for Nino Brown (she was fast if you didn't get the reference). The final tip of my cap goes to the beer selection. I could right a whole post on the options they have but lets just say there beer menu is as big as the food menu.

Conclusion

This is a joint! It's a find and one of the reasons we started Burger Mayhem. The place had an awesome bar, room for a hang, a sick beer selection and an "Off the Hook" burger. Run, don't walk, to Morris Tap and Grill or next time you lookin' for a place to hang go there.

Nice job Morris Tap and Grill, you really have a great environment at your pub/restaurant. Now lets see you hit us with a few more burger options on the menu.

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