Dalton’s Roadhouse, San Marcos, CA

High Hopes

For the this review we tried to hit a new place called “Fat Cat Burger & BBQ” based on a recommendation of one of UBR’s many fans around the world. This particular fan ‘X’ just happened to be local in our I.S. Department. Fat Cat apparently was a failure before we could deem it a failure. They were closed.  Anyway, let’s get on to the next failure. Since Troy had to stock up on ammo and rockets for his Thanksgiving desert jaunt we targeted nearby Dalton’s Roadhouse with our guest reviewer Ryan Baldwin (who is well on his way to a coveted Associate Level Reviewer status). Please, no whining from the people that still have not been lucky enough yet to experience their “first time” with the UBR staff. Anyway, once the UBR staff stepped out of the car they were greeted by a lovely aroma of searing meat. Sadly, the delightful aroma was killed once we stepped foot into the restaurant where it was overpowered by the stench of a rancid grease trap. However, Dalton’s has a cool old barn feel and it’s one of those places where they give you peanuts to throw on the floor. Our waitress was delightful and quickly brought us our burgers. They had decent presentation points, except for the fact that they cut the burger in half. This contributed to some structural integrity issues. That was a nice way of saying “what the hell”!?!? If I want my burger cut in half I’ll friggin’ tell you I want it cut in half!”  Good thickness and decent burger- to-bun ratio couldn’t hide the flaws from the discerning palate of the UBR staff.  It was quickly pegged as a standard machine-formed flavorless meat circle. Lame! The burger category did receive a rare “pickle bump” of 0.1, pushing the overall rating up to 2.6. The best part of the experience was the fries, which earned a solid 4 by UBR standards. As a footnote (and we have never had to add this to a review before), the post burger experience was quite problematic. Troy damn near yacked by the time he got to the car.  As a result, we must give Dalton’s a 2 on the ‘post burger’ rating. Too bad Troy never did yack because that would have been hilarious, and they would have gotten an unprecedented 1 on the ‘post burger’.  The moral of the story is Dalton’s Road kill Roadhouse burger is not worth the stop.

Roadhouse Burger