Fat Rat's Lounge

Update 2012: The chef who prepared the food I had as noted below is no longer here. Subsequent reviews indicate things have changed, so whatever you read below is "old news" and you should take this for what it is, a review of what was, maybe not of what now is....

News Flash: Fat Rat's Lounge is now serving some good food as of late December 2011. Fat Rat's Lounge has been around for a while. It is an interesting places in that it is really three places, a bar, a middle pool table room, and a restaurant area, all connected. I'm not sure what it was like before, but recently a local favorite took over the restaurant area. Steve Richards (of Alive After Five Tail Gator fame) and Samantha did a nice job on our recent visit there.

We'd been at The Palette earlier and have eaten there plenty of times, but wanted to try something new. Michael from The Palette suggested Fat Rat's and so we gave it a try. We're glad we did.

We both decided to have the burger. There has not been a great burger around since Morgan's closed. I ordered mine medium rare and my friend Tommy ordered his medium. We had a nice chat with Steve and Samantha while we waited--they did not have any idea who I was. My burger was produced in good time and it was perfectly cooked to a medium rare. It was nice and juice and served on a delicious bun. The onion rings that accompanied it were pretty standard, but they were good, as were Tommy's fries. His buger, too, arrived just as ordered, it was exactly medium. Now, cannot say this was the best burger I've ever had, but it was darned good. There are two adjustments I'd have made on then. First, a bit of salt. Mine needed a bit of salt. Steve, I suggest you give them a light salt/pepper dusting when cooking, that would add a lot. The second was the placement on the sandwich. It was, top to bottom, top bun, cheese, burger, tomato, lettuce, mayo, bottom burger. But the burger was nice and juicy. I'd suggest putting the lettuce and tomato on top so the bun itself can soak up some of that good burger juice. Still, with a few tweaks, this would have been one of the best burgers I'd ever had.

After we were done, I did introduce myself. I'm a big fan of downtown Sanford. This is a place I'd like to return to. They tell me they're planning on doing lunch too and expanding the menu. The told me of a few of their ideas and I think they're on the right path. And you know when someone like Steve really likes to cook when he does it for fun--by day he's an A/C contractor, this is his hobby, and probably his passion. Well, he does it well. I'd go back, for sure!