Is it just us or is anyone else noticing the fact that burger joints in northern NJ are popping up faster than Deena dropped her pants for the Situation in this season’s Jersey Shore opener? It all started with Five Guys and then bam! Smashburger, Bobby’s Burger Palace, Cheeburger, Cheeburger, and Zinburger sprang up without warning. Most recently, BuCu, joined in on the race for burger supremacy.
However, comparing all six burger joints would be similar to comparing a filet mignon from Morton’s to Applebee’s house sirloin. Or comparing “Bieber Fever” to “Beatlemania” in the ‘60s. (Please note it’s not so much that I am a Beatles fan, but that I wholeheartedly do not understand what the craze is over Justin Bieber that sparked that comment.) Anyway, the comparison is something that simply cannot be done.
Zinburger and Bobby’s Burger Palace stand in a category all on their own for obvious reasons. Zinburger’s kobe beef burger would probably fall under the category of “Best Thing I Ever Ate… In My Entire Life!” It is the moistest, most succulent burger I have ever tasted. Eating that burger is an out of body experience that can only be described in one word: orgasmic! Yes, I said it. Gentlemen take my advice, keep it in your pants and take your ladies to Zinburger. You’ll be thanking me later. In fact, if I got to choose where my last meal on earth came from, I’d probably give the honors to Zinburger. But enough about Zinburger because I’m sure we will revisit their heavenly fare again and again.
On the other hand BBP does not win the moist category, but Bobby, you are proving once again that you are the king of flavor. In fact, Narn dreams about the Dallas burger in his sleep and if he were a cartoon, there would be thought bubbles with floating Dallas burgers above his head. I on the other hand have recently made the LA burgerwith avocado relish (YUM!), watercress, cheddar cheese and tomatoes my new favorite menu item. Regardless, the flavors are what will have you coming back time and time again. Not to mention the fries with dipping sauces (have you gotten the hint that I am a big fan of dipping sauces?!)
But now to the meat and potatoes… what I really want to talk about is our latest weekend adventure to BuCu. This one-stop shop for sweet and savory, burgers AND cupcakes (BU(rger)CU(pcake), get it??) , opened in Paramus a few weeks back. The opportunity to build your own burger and the fact that they also offer wings is what initially attracted us to BuCu on a night with yet another craving for the most unhealthy yet most delicious foods our hearts could fathom.
As with most of our first experiences at a new restaurant, we ordered entirely too much food for four people. The menu for the night:
- Kettle chips with rosemary parmesan cheese
- Haystack onions with smoky BBQ dipping sauce
- Hand cut fries
- Sweet potato fries
- Buffalo wings
- Asian wings (with sweet garlic-chili sauce)
- 4 burgers – each to our own specifications
And this is all before we even got to dessert!
Good or bad news first? Well, let’s go with the not-so-good. The biggest disappointment of the night for me was the Asian wings. Although they were spot-on flavor-wise, I discovered that a few of them were slightly undercooked (and I am being extremely generous using that term). Luckily, what they lacked in cooking time, they made up for in customer service. The wings were quickly replaced with a delicious s’mores cookie at no extra charge, but more on that in a minute.
The rest of the meal was…. good. As far as sides go, the kettle chips were very good, as were the rest of the “sides,” the fries, sweet potato fries and onion rings. The burgers were…. good as well, but definitely not the best I ever had. The best part about them is the fact that they are made to your liking at that particular point in time, and therefore, the possibilities are endless. In fact, BuCu offers you the opportunity to choose the size of your burger (single, double or even veggie), type of bread, cheese, up to three free toppings, premium toppings (at an additional charge), and choice of sauce (my favorite!). In addition, a single burger without “premium toppings” is under five bucks! When you consider what you spend for your favorite fast food burger, that’s a steal!
But since we couldn’t end the night without something sweet and after all we were missing the “Cu” part of BuCu, we soon discovered that the highlight of BuCu is in their sweet endings. It is their homemade ice cream sandwiches that caught my taste buds by surprise and had me asking myself, “grandma, are you in that kitchen making me a delectable after-school snack-a-doo?” After the complimentary s’mores cookie that was obviously not nearly enough for four, we opted to go back for more cookies and then upon looking at the menu, soon discovered the ice cream sandwiches made with these same crunchy-on-the-outside, yet perfectly chewy on the inside cookies. Now this is what we were missing! I have also been told that BuCu’s unique cupcake milkshake in which they blend an entire cupcake, icing and all, into a milkshake is something not to be missed! However, by that point, as usual, we were stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey and had to call it quits, leaving something to look forward to next time we vistit BuCu.
S'mores cookies, vanilla ice cream = sweet sandwich perfection
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