A rare lunchtime-date with D.Rough led us to a restaurant we
had heard about. It’s in a small complex of shops on Payne Avenue, housing a
brewery, a fruit smoothie shop, a barber shop, a jewelry shop, and a Mexican
restaurant. The Hamburguesas El Gordo is almost a glorified food stand in this
little complex, but it’s definitely worth stopping at. They’re known for
ridiculously massive burgers and hot dogs… also burritos and tacos, oddly
enough.
D.Rough and I both decided we needed the signature burger –
it’s one beef patty, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, ham, mayonnaise,
lettuce tomato, onions, jalapenos, bacon, avocado, ketchup, and mustard.
D.Rough added pineapple to hers, and I added a fried egg and salchichas (hot
dogs) to mine. Apparently, the standard version didn’t have enough toppings. We
also ordered the supreme french fries, you know, in case there was room for
some filler.
The food came out in just over five minutes, and thankfully
we got there right before a long line formed. The food was pretty impressive,
to say the least.
The burger meat itself tasted great – we don’t think it was
a frozen patty, which is always nice. The toppings were pretty impressive. I
was surprised at how well the whole thing stayed together, probably because I
had to smash it down pretty far to even get it in my mouth. I will tell you the
total stand-out ingredients of this burger were the avocado, the fried egg
(which was fried hard, not runny), and the pickled jalapeno slices. I really
enjoyed this burger more than I even expected to. Well done on both the
accuracy of the name and also the quality of my lunch.
The fries were good. Actual cut potatoes and loaded with
toppings (mainly sauces – crema, hot sauce, ketchup, mustard, and jalapeno
slices). We didn’t even eat half of these since were plenty full from the
burgers. We decided that the next time, we’d get the asada (steak)-covered
fries.
We also laughed that they have double burgers – which would
probably kill someone. They also have mini burgers, and a double mini burger
(which would likely end up being just a regular sized burger – hahaha).
This place is great and I’m glad we checked it out. I’m
assuming the other items on the menu are going to be just as good, based on the
showing we had at lunch! Cheers!
Hamburguesas El Gordo
990 Payne Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55106
