I have been looking forward to eating here for YEARS. Seriously. I drive by it all the time but they are usually closed (I believe they close at 5 on weekdays and are not open at all on the weekend). This place, along with Sam’s Classic Burgers on Riverside, was actually one of the bigger influences in me deciding I was going to do this blog. I think Nubbin’s is probably fairly well known though I doubt if I anyone I know would be familiar with Sam’s, but I digress. Noon came around quicker than I was expecting today at work, and I wasn’t particularly hungry, so I figured it was a perfect opportunity to hit up Nubbin’s on the way home for an early dinner before they closed. The weather being gorgeous certainly helped. As I drove closer and closer to Nubbin’s I started to worry that I had built it up over the years and might be disappointed.
I was greeted through the window when I walked up as the only customer at about 4pm. Checking out the menu I saw it was you’re typical drive-in selection, burgers, corn dogs, shakes etc. My stomach was not putting up with any delays so I quickly settled on a double bacon cheeseburger basket (fries included) and a Dr Pepper (one thing I’ve always loved about this place is the Dr Pepper logo on their sign)
I grabbed a seat at one of their covered outdoor tables, prepped my camera and enjoyed the weather. A few minutes later I heard my name being called out from the pickup window. My meal awaited me.
Don’t let the wide angle here fool you, this is a good sized basket, lots of fries and the burger was not as small as it seems. The fries were crazy hot, clearly just out of the fryer. With just a bit of salt on them (as they came, I didn’t add any) they were really good! I had asked for some ketchup packets but didn’t even end up using any. That’s the sign of a good fry, in my opinion.
The burger itself was great! I opted out on the pickles but left everything else on (onions, tomatoes and sauce – a kind of thousand island sauce is my guess). The comparison I immediately thought of when I started eating was a McDonald’s Big Mac. It has a similar taste, but I’d pick the Nubbin’s burger over the Big Mac. It was fresh (in the sense that it was cooked to order, not like In’n’Out’s never-frozen kind of fresh). The cheese had a good presence and the bacon was thin but good. The Dr Pepper was decent in strength and had that crushed ice that I love.
By the time I was finishing up more cars were pulling in and they looked to be at the start of a last rush for the day. Despite my concerns of overly high expectations for a simple drive-in burger joint, I left pleased and full. I’ll be sure to visit Nubbin’s again whenever the timing works out.
You really need to have some sort of rating system here (stars, thumbs up, full tums, etc). I read these reviews aloud to Pete, and I always want to end with some sort of rating.
I’ve been on the fence about doing ratings, I’ll give it a shot next post and see how it goes.
Sean… Nice article. I published an article a few months ago on my web site about Nubbins… I ate the double cheeseburger and fries just like you did. Good food! I love how 1960’s-retro this place is. They do seem to keep somewhat irregular hours, but they’re always open on weekends. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you on facebook.