The summer of 2008, my family was staying at Marco Island but I had an ulterior motive for being there. I knew that Red Robin was only 45 minutes from where we were staying. There was no way I was going back to Miami without having gone to Red Robin. I’ve seen enough Red Robin commercials to know that I had to check it out. I didn’t  realize that it’s a family type restaurant, not at all what I envisioned or expected (not that there’s anything wrong with that). After reviewing the menu, we settle on a few “shareable starters”which were the Towering Onion Rings, Buzzard Wings & the Cheeseburger Con Queso.

My Dad hamming it up

Alright so the wings were OK. They weren’t anything I haven’t tasted before, not horrible just not memorable. The Towering Onion Rings were pretty good and the tangy sauce served with the order made them better. Now, the Cheeseburger Con Queso was definitely the highlight of all the starters we tasted. It’s a cheese dipping sauce with ground beef, salsa and cilantro and  comes with a variety of flour and corn tortilla chips. This is the first time I am tempted to say “Yum” like the commercials, and I will restrain myself. Of course you must be wondering what I ordered from a place that fancies itself as the restaurant to get Gourmet burgers.

I ordered the Royal Red Robin Burger (fresh fried Egg, topped with three strips of hickory maple-smoked Bacon, American cheese, crisp Lettuce, Tomatoes and Mayo). Just for the record I do not eat lettuce and tomato and they were discarded.

Don’t look at me like that

It’s just not my thing. So, oh yeah, the burger. Wow, what can I say? It was good but then again I was expecting a little more. This could have been one of those cases like when I went to another chain and was left disappointed, but I’ll leave that story for another post.

Since this was written Red Robin opened its 1st location in South Florida in April 2012.

Red Robin
Facebook: Red Robin
Twitter: @RedRobinBurgers
10021 Gulf Center Drive, Fort Myers,FL
239-454-5532