The Abbey Burger Bistro – Baltimore, MD
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It was a road trip for the wife and I. We were DC bound to meet up with some family for the weekend. It was a great opportunity to stop at the Baltimore harbor for some sight seeing and burger eating. WORD!
Finding a good place to eat out of state is a crapshoot. You can comb urban spoon, yelp, and open table, but I prefer google. I figure if they can create enough chatter on the web than they must be doing something right. Trolling various keywords led me time and time again to the Abbey Burger Bistro.
Now this is a good lesson about perception. If you look at there website, not only does it suck (sorry guys ☹), but it looked like a kids place or the lobby to Medieval Times (which could have been cool). This not only made me nervous because I was about to drive 4 hours to try what could be a medieval chucky cheese, but I also had to sell my road trip partner on the fact that we should try this joint.
Luckily I learned a good lesson that day, which was stick to your guns. This would also be a good lesson for the entire weekend, which I will write about as soon as I get all the reviews in. Anyway, after circling the streets in the area about 10 times and our nav system “recalculating” on every turn, we decided to park and walk around. Following the directions we realized that the Abbey Burger Bistro was in a side alley, which was blocked by a delivery truck. As we walked up it was apparent that this was a bar and not a 7 year old’s social event.
We walked in, sat at the bar, and looked through the menus. Beer and burger options were a plenty as I looked at burgers like the bayshore burger and the peanut butter burger. Yup a peanut butter burger. I wasn’t feeling courageous, nor do I ever judge a place on a “specialty” burger. Plus, the create-a-burger menu had a checklist. Way too much fun to pass up. I was to be Lord of the burger making on this day.
** My partner in burger crime (my wife) had a set and looked to try the Peanut Butter Burger. Check back for her write up on this salty and savory experiment.
Tasty Burger
I typically go for the house burger but this time I decided to mix it up. They have a whole form you could fill out for creating your meat masterpiece. Seemed like a way to combine the elements of each burger on the menu that sounded delicious. I had a variety of meat selection from your standard Cow to Bison and even Elk. I like all types of meat but for a review I had to go traditional. I ordered Ground Beef medium rare on a pretzel roll. I opted for cheddar cheese (always), BACON, sautéed mushrooms and onions. All pleasantly sitting on a bed of shredded lettuce and pickles.
The burger was perfect! The pretzel roll was fantastically awesome call, I highly recommend having a burger on a pretzel roll. Not Bready at all and quite sturdy. The burger was juicy, well-seasoned and delivered medium rare as ordered. The BACON was crisp and delicious. My real only issue with the burger is I put to much goodness on it. Between the onions, mushrooms, lettuce, pickles cheese BACON and meat itself my burger was bound to break apart at first bite. Luckily I had plenty of napkins on hand.
I'm sure it's no secret to the Baltimore area but if you're headed south definitely stop in for a burger.
Bang for your Buck
Looks
Sides
The Joint
Conclusion
The place is great. I wish someone could tell me how it was during a sporting event or a weekend night but the place seems like somewhere I would frequent often. It is an establishment worth a Burger Mayhem recommendation. I mean come on! I had an 8oz burger with cheddar cheese, BACON, sautéed onions and mushrooms with lettuce on a pretzel roll accompanied by fresh cut fries and a Dog Fish 90 minute IPA all while watching sports center not 5 feet away from me on a 46in flat screen. That's a meal that contends for a "last meal" nomination.
If not for the price and up sale for fries the place would be a 5. Definitely make it a point to hit this place up if your driving to Baltimore or through to DC.
This place is a favorite of mine & I am so happy that I live nearby so that I can hit it up as often as I want to. I do have to admit that building your burger & having a brew or two can add up so unfortunately on that note my visits aren’t as often as I’d like for them to be. I do think that they, (the burgers) should come with a side plate so that you can put your chips to the side to keep them from getting soggy if you like your burger as we do, med or med rare. Glad that you found & liked The Abbey & the write up was super….Can’t wait to see what your wife thought of hers..