You can be sure I will not return. Vegan bun or not, which nobody knew what the bun contained anyway. I figured I’d eat it plain. Yes, vegans do go out to eat with friends at animal-eating and animal-serving establishments.
It wasn’t that late, about 7:00 when we arrived. It was dark and rainy and cold. 19 January 2023 Thursday. I brought two guests: my husband and an old friend of his from school from about fifty years ago. We met at the casino and spent some time there. We were going to go to the buffet because it was Italian night, but there was nothing on the menu that was vegan that was worth 30$ or so per person, so we ended up at WAHLBURGERS, a hamburger joint that served an animal-free IMPOSSIBLE burger.
The only thing I have to prove I was there is my receipt.
I wasn’t planning on doing a review, so didn’t take any pictures. It was dreary looking inside, too many fluorescent lights maybe or whatever they were it looked more like an old-styled cafeteria back in the 1960’s. I could almost hear the clanking of dishes in the backroom, except that it wasn’t that. Maybe the noise from the casino was drifting in with a clamor, more like a hammer on stainless steel.
The only good thing that came out of the visit was our company and the new wait staff person first day on the job, did us wonderful all things considered. Something was happening with one of the machines back there and it took two people fixing and one watching, so we had to approach them for service, not the other way around.
That being said, I ordered an Impossible burger plain, done well, no bun with a side of ketchup and mustard.
It comes out in a deep bowl with a slice of melted cheese on it. I politely said that I wanted it plain (which means no cheese), she said she’d fix it.
I could have sworn that upon entering, I walked by a young guy, slim, darkish, head down (it was raining) standing with hands in pockets and as I walked by he leaned in and asked if I could spare something or other – don’t remember the exact words, but I responded with, ah sorry no cash today baby. He said that was okay. After sitting ourselves at some point I looked up and saw him walk into the restroom or kitchen – he worked there.
Hey Mark, don’t you pay your employees?
So my burger comes back after the other two were served and all they did was scrape the cheese off and put a bunch of caramelized onions on top to hide the fact. I scraped the onions and didn’t realize until I got to the bottom that there was shredded lettuce with some kind of pink mayo.
So what part of plain with nothing on it didn’t the kitchen understand?
Forget the burger. Hey, I make these at home and I never experienced a black burger. This was not charred, in fact it was on the mushy side, uncharacteristic for an Impossible burger. I didn’t complain again at this point; I decided to eat my loses and scraped the other gunk off and used the ketchup and mustard as the condiments I ordered. It wasn’t rotten tasting or anything like that, just like it had some things done to it that weren’t in keeping with the integrity of the original Impossible burger.
Sonya was lovely and agreed to take our pictures when asked. The beer was pretty good.
ANIMAL-FREE SOUS-CHEF™ 