*** This location of Boll Weevil has closed
I thought it would be appropriate to end burger week, with a visit to a "chain" of sorts….well not a nation-wide chain, but a local chain, called Boll Weevil. I did a quick search on Wikipedia and quickly found out what a nasty looking fellow the Boll Weevil is. Now who the heck would name a restaurant after such a destructive, nasty looking fellow? After looking through Wikipedia again, I found the story here. According to the entry, the proprietors of a steak house called "The Cotton Patch" opened up a chain of smaller, casual burger restaurants next to Cotton Patch Restaurants and they called them Boll Weevil. Am I the only person who finds some irony in the fact that Boll Weevils are still around, and all the Cotton Patches are gone? Guess them little Boll Weevil ate all the Cotton Patches……he-he-he!
The location of Boll Weevil we visited recently is located on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, and in
addition to all the standard Boll Weevil dishes, also offer BBQ, and other items….you can check out the smoker in the front of the restaurant. I'll pass, but you may be interested. It seems that recently several Boll Weevils have closed down, I know that the one on Convoy Street, among others(Midway) have closed down over the years….don't know why, they just seem to be disappearing.
We arrived at Boll Weevil, and found a table – this is the type of Casual-Family-Bar-Restaurant, where you sit yourself, the place was doing some pretty bang up business on this night. The Missus and I opened our menus, and suddenly both thought, "prices have gone up a bit since we last visited."
Well maybe it was just us…….since we aren't regular customers at Boll Weevil.
The Missus decided on a 1/2 pound Blue Cheese Bacon Burger, with Seasoned Curly Fries as her side($9.79):
I now understand the necessity of the condiment tray at Boll Weevil, the burger was on the tough-bland side, the "Goo"(not Blue) Cheese was just salty and had been placed under a broiler or something to melt it into a gooey texture, and the bacon tasted a bit old. The Curly Fries were great though. Nice and crisp, and well seasoned.
I got the "Super Burger"($5.09), which is the 1/2 pound "Steerburger"(after all Boll Weevil is "The Home of the 1/2 lb Steerburger) straight-up, which for me is the test of a burger, no cheese or "secret sauce" to hide behind:
My burger tasted better than the Missus's, it was fairly moist, though tough. And even though the menu states this….in plain English:
Both our burgers were cooked way beyond well…..
I tend to use the burgers at Mr Peabody's as a reference point for these type of burgers, and Boll Weevil fell short. Tough and on the bland side, these were just mediocre.
On previous visits, I'd always order some Frings(French Fries and Onions Rings – regular order $3.79):
The portion size was alot smaller than I remember…let's do the math; if the small portion of fries is say, worth $2(and that's really stretching it), that would make each one of those onions rings cost about 45 cents a piece…. The fries were just okay, nothing special, and the rings had been over cooked and proceeded to shatter into little pieces when I bit into them.
I dunno what happened to Boll Weevil, was it just a fluke? I will say that the service at this location of Boll Weevil was very nice, though a bit slow…but mostly due to the couple across from us who kept sending everything back(soup not hot enough…I don't like this salad dressing….I don't like this spoon!!!), and running the poor Gal ragged.
I know so many people who love Boll Weevil, but I'm kinda like this guy…..on the fence:
I really don't know if I'll be back…….
Boll Weevil
9330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92123-1223
(858)571-6225