Tag: burger

Friday, February 9, 2024 — Traveling Houston-area burger purveyors Crypto Burger hit my Instagram feed last fall with mouth-watering photos of their delicious-looking burgers, and I finally popped over to the food truck park on Chimney Rock in the Galleria to see what all the fuss was about.

Anticipating a line, the entire park—which also features another burger food truck catty corner from Crypto—was instead surprisingly barren for lunchtime on a Friday. I debated between their fan favorite Bunque Burger and the Bull Run, and ended up ordering the latter. 

Bull Run is described as a “Homemade beef patty, topped with Serrano peppers, beef bacon, fried onions, cayenne pepper hot sauce, shredded Colby jack cheese, and our spicy FOMO sauce.” 

It took a bit longer for my order—which, because I am a glutton for all things meat, also included the Spicy Metaverse Monster Fries, a gigantic platter of fries that could easily serve as a meal unto its own absolutely smothered with ground beef, grilled jalapeños, and FOMO sauce—to be completed than I expected, though you can’t quibble with a fresh-grilled burger.

As you can see by my photo, the patty is drenched in the FOMO sauce and it is truly the star of the show. A pleasant zippiness, but not overwhelmingly spicy where it blows your palate out. The beef blend itself was enjoyable, though the overall flavor got a little lost amidst all of the other awesomeness accompanying it. The bun was fluffy and also hefty enough to stand up to the onslaught of toppings—always a plus.

Overall I was glad to have finally checked Crypto off my neverending list. While I don’t  think it cracks my top five in Houston—though in fairness, that’s a difficult list to enter!—and food trucks seem to be the recipient of a generous grading curve by the review-leaving public, I would definitely eat it again. 4 out of 5 patties.

Friday, January 19, 2024 — My ever-growing list of burgers to try in the Greater Houston area (go ahead and click the link; it’s the first time I’ve publicly shared my spreadsheet 😊) is usually populated by places that appear on best-of lists and/or word of mouth via the city’s lively and various Facebook foodie groups. 

KP’s hit my radar by way of Reddit, and I’m certainly glad it did. My spreadsheet ranks burgers by Yelp review first and Google rating second, as the former is typically a tougher grade. KP’s is the rare spot that grades out ridiculously highly on both platforms — 4.6 on Yelp, and 4.7 on Google. 

And it deserves those high marks.

KP’s cheeseburger might be the most unassuming of all of the patties I’ve reviewed to date — its two smashburgers are accompanied by smoked bacon, American cheese, dijonnaise & hand cut fries — but its the execution that makes this straightforward sandwich top-notch.  The burgers themselves are exquisite — I don’t know what the meat blend is, but they’re expertly seasoned and cooked to perfection, and given the sheer volume of meat stack plates I saw coming out of the kitchen, it’s no small feat to nail the temperature over and over again for a restaurant that’s not a fast-food joint. 

Truly, the KP burger’s appeal lies in its simplicity — the cheese is melted just so, the bacon soft yet chewy, and the bun representing the ideal delivery vehicle. You’d be forgiven if you overlooked KP’s given that it sits right on I-10 (“I can’t imagine an elite burger place on a highway frontage road”), but do yourself a favor and hop on over there for this beefy greatness. 

To top it off, KP’s is BYOB, and for an outrageously picky beer snob like me, the ability to bring a world-class hazy DIPA into the restaurant — in this particular instance, a fresh-off–the-canning-line batch of SpindleTap’s lovely ode to Nelson and Galaxy hops, Hirsch Road Hop Heads — absolutely elevated the overall experience, and cemented KP’s as a go-to spot for meals to come.

4.5 out of 5 patties. 🍔🍔🍔🍔