By Mike Thayer
I recently completed a pizza challenge, sampling 19 local/regional pizza joints and finding the 10 best in the Wichita area.
It’s time for a new challenge: Burgers
Who makes the best burger in the Wichita metro area? I’m going to find out, sampling all the local/regional burger joints to see who crafts the best burger.
During the course of this challenge I’ll be sampling classic cheeseburgers, straight forward beef and American cheese goodness with the typical toppings. The way I see it, if you can’t put together a classic cheeseburger and do it well, then there’s no reason to sample a burger joint’s other burger options. So there will be no mushroom & Swiss, no on BBQ & onion strings, no on jalapeno & pepper jack cheese, etc., versions of burgers
Being evaluated on a point system scorecard will be a plethora of categories that includes but is not limited to the appearance, meat, bun, meat to bun ratio, how the burger is dressed (that means the assortment of veggies, sauce and/or condiments for those of you who live in Valley Center), service, time to order and more. Weighing most heavily in the score of course, is TASTE and depending on the size of the patty, I could be sampling a single or a double, there’s a quarter pound minimum. After scoring the burger, the point total is then broken down into a star system, 1-5, with 5 stars being a top rating. I’ll post all the numbers for each burger joint and their offerings in the final report.
No national chains will be included in this challenge, no Five Guys, no Red Robin, no BurgerFi, no Freddy’s, etc…. Only the local, regional burger joints qualify. Besides, when it comes to burgers, McDonald’s is most everybody’s last resort, Wendy’s is nothing extra special with their square patties and Burger King, well, isn’t a king at all.
Nice looking basket! Boatload of fries!
Today’s Burger Challenge is a review of Walt’s East, another Wichita icon, serving Wichita with cheers and beers since 1947. This bar & grill is the fifth tasting in this challenge of 28 burger joints to review.
I ordered the Walt’s Classic which is a fresh ground beef patty topped with mustard, pickles and fried onions on a butter toasted bun. You can have your choice of cheeses, but I stayed classic in ordering American. And how can I go wrong on a Saturday night, with a burger, fries, cold beer and some good basketball on the big screen!….
Walt’s makes a solid burger. I got a good sized patty, it was seasoned decently, not over-cooked – it was juicy. The meat to bun ratio was a bit on the too much bread side, but that butter toasted bun was nice and ‘pillowy’….. making it easy to overlook the bit too much bread thing. The combo of the mustard, pickles and fried onions was spot on in flavor, but generous on the pickles and not so much with the fried onions? What’s up with that? Walt’s scored 52 out of a possible 63 points on the spreadsheet. If there’s a knock to be made on this burger, it’s that there’s nothing that puts it over the top in the yum department. Like I said, it’s a solid burger and the fries were quite tasty, but to be honest, of the five burger joints I’ve reviewed so far, Bionic Burger makes a better classic Cheeseburger.
Walt’s East is located at 7732 E Central Ave #110, Wichita, KS 67206. The service for my eat-at-the-bar order was initially very polite, fast and professional. I think my burger and fries was served up in less than five minutes, I hardly had time to enjoy a few swigs of beer and make a Burger Challenge post on Facebook! But I did have to ask for a second beer and it took too long to settle up after letting my server know I wished to do so. I get it, it can be busy at Walt’s on a Saturday night, but it wasn’t SO busy at around 6pm that my bill couldn’t be rung up in a more timely manner. Stop texting on your phone ma’am… Costing me $8.99 for the burger and fries, I’m giving Walt’s East and their Classic Burger 4 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars. It’s worthy of a repeat buy. I’m told the Garlic Butter Burger is really good!
I look forward to the next burger joint tasting!
Here’s my list of 28 restaurants that tout burgers, more joints are to be added, I’m sure I missed a few when putting this challenge together.
- The Anchor
- Big Larry’s Burgers
- Bionic Burger
- Bomber Burger
- Braums
- Broadway Burgers & BBQ
- Buster’s Burger Joint
- Calvin’s Hamburger Haven
- Chicken N Pickle (Yes, really, a chicken place that does burgers!)
- Deano’s Grill & Tapworks
- Dempsy’s Burger Pub
- Dog N Shake
- Emerson Biggins
- Fizz Burgers & Bottles
- Harry’s Uptown
- The Hill Bar & Grill
- Lotus Leaf
- Oasis Lounge
- O’Malley’s Irish Pub (1/2 pound burgers!)
- Side Pockets
- Spangles
- Sport Burger
- TJ’s
- Two Brother’s BBQ
- Ty’s Diner
- Walt’s East
- West St. Burgers
- Yo-B Yogurt & Burgers
Doing this in the name of “Food Science” (cough), I’m looking forward to finding the best locally crafted burger! I’ll eventually whittle this list down to the 10 Best Burger Joints in the Wichita Metro.
Stay tuned and $pend Wisely My Friends…..
$pend Wisely My Friends…
Enjoy this post?
If you appreciate the article you just read and want to support more great content on BachelorontheCheap.com, you can help keep this site going with a one-time or a monthly donation. Thank you so much for your support! ~ Mike
Burger Challenge: Who makes the best burger in the Wichita metro? Is it Walt's East? – Bachelor on the Cheap
By Mike Thayer
I recently completed a pizza challenge, sampling 19 local/regional pizza joints and finding the 10 best in the Wichita area.
It’s time for a new challenge: Burgers
Who makes the best burger in the Wichita metro area? I’m going to find out, sampling all the local/regional burger joints to see who crafts the best burger.
During the course of this challenge I’ll be sampling classic cheeseburgers, straight forward beef and American cheese goodness with the typical toppings. The way I see it, if you can’t put together a classic cheeseburger and do it well, then there’s no reason to sample a burger joint’s other burger options. So there will be no mushroom & Swiss, no on BBQ & onion strings, no on jalapeno & pepper jack cheese, etc., versions of burgers
Being evaluated on a point system scorecard will be a plethora of categories that includes but is not limited to the appearance, meat, bun, meat to bun ratio, how the burger is dressed (that means the assortment of veggies, sauce and/or condiments for those of you who live in Valley Center), service, time to order and more. Weighing most heavily in the score of course, is TASTE and depending on the size of the patty, I could be sampling a single or a double, there’s a quarter pound minimum. After scoring the burger, the point total is then broken down into a star system, 1-5, with 5 stars being a top rating. I’ll post all the numbers for each burger joint and their offerings in the final report.
No national chains will be included in this challenge, no Five Guys, no Red Robin, no BurgerFi, no Freddy’s, etc…. Only the local, regional burger joints qualify. Besides, when it comes to burgers, McDonald’s is most everybody’s last resort, Wendy’s is nothing extra special with their square patties and Burger King, well, isn’t a king at all.
Nice looking basket! Boatload of fries!
Today’s Burger Challenge is a review of Walt’s East, another Wichita icon, serving Wichita with cheers and beers since 1947. This bar & grill is the fifth tasting in this challenge of 28 burger joints to review.
I ordered the Walt’s Classic which is a fresh ground beef patty topped with mustard, pickles and fried onions on a butter toasted bun. You can have your choice of cheeses, but I stayed classic in ordering American. And how can I go wrong on a Saturday night, with a burger, fries, cold beer and some good basketball on the big screen!….
Walt’s makes a solid burger. I got a good sized patty, it was seasoned decently, not over-cooked – it was juicy. The meat to bun ratio was a bit on the too much bread side, but that butter toasted bun was nice and ‘pillowy’….. making it easy to overlook the bit too much bread thing. The combo of the mustard, pickles and fried onions was spot on in flavor, but generous on the pickles and not so much with the fried onions? What’s up with that? Walt’s scored 52 out of a possible 63 points on the spreadsheet. If there’s a knock to be made on this burger, it’s that there’s nothing that puts it over the top in the yum department. Like I said, it’s a solid burger and the fries were quite tasty, but to be honest, of the five burger joints I’ve reviewed so far, Bionic Burger makes a better classic Cheeseburger.
Walt’s East is located at 7732 E Central Ave #110, Wichita, KS 67206. The service for my eat-at-the-bar order was initially very polite, fast and professional. I think my burger and fries was served up in less than five minutes, I hardly had time to enjoy a few swigs of beer and make a Burger Challenge post on Facebook! But I did have to ask for a second beer and it took too long to settle up after letting my server know I wished to do so. I get it, it can be busy at Walt’s on a Saturday night, but it wasn’t SO busy at around 6pm that my bill couldn’t be rung up in a more timely manner. Stop texting on your phone ma’am… Costing me $8.99 for the burger and fries, I’m giving Walt’s East and their Classic Burger 4 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars. It’s worthy of a repeat buy. I’m told the Garlic Butter Burger is really good!
I look forward to the next burger joint tasting!
Here’s my list of 28 restaurants that tout burgers, more joints are to be added, I’m sure I missed a few when putting this challenge together.
Doing this in the name of “Food Science” (cough), I’m looking forward to finding the best locally crafted burger! I’ll eventually whittle this list down to the 10 Best Burger Joints in the Wichita Metro.
Stay tuned and $pend Wisely My Friends…..
$pend Wisely My Friends…
Enjoy this post?
If you appreciate the article you just read and want to support more great content on BachelorontheCheap.com, you can help keep this site going with a one-time or a monthly donation. Thank you so much for your support! ~ Mike