Denny's Slamburger

Curious Cravings
The Denny's Slamburger

Above: The Denny's Slamburger and Smothered Cheese Fries


This is a post I wrote for Fat Kid Review, a site that I work on with my friend Q. We'll be posting more and more often on the site once summer comes.

After watching a movie with my girlfriend a few nights ago we decided to get something to eat. It was late, so we decided to go to Denny’s, since we knew it would be open. We went to the Denny’s in Rome, NY. Outside the restaurant, a police car was waiting. My girlfriend told me that was typical—I guess a guy got stabbed there a little while back. Seemingly unconcerned with any potential danger, my girlfriend headed into the restaurant; nervously, I followed.

We were seated quickly amongst the rowdy crowd of fellow late-night face-stuffers. Before long an older group of four was met by the police officer. The group was seated diagonally from us. The group was yelling at the officer, and he was yelling back, threatening to take them to jail, etc. I was fascinated. Then our waitress came. I was trying to watch what was going down as I ordered a drink, but wound up missing a good chunk of it. The waitress told us that we should have visited the night before when someone tried to fight her.

After the waitress left, I managed to catch the police officer taking a member of the group outside. A different member of the group went along, but was not actually being escorted out like his friend. The remaining two members muttered curses at the officer.

THE NIBBLE
I opened the menu, and started to browse. It was the late-night menu, which was not only more limited than the daytime menu, but also featured different items. One of these late-night items was the Slamburger. I’d never heard of it before.

“Have you ever heard of this Slamburger before?” I asked my girlfriend.
“Oh yeah, it’s really good,” she said.

The menu described the item as “A burger topped with crispy hash browns, an egg cooked to order, then covered with cheese sauce.” I love eggs on burgers. That put it over the top for me. I was getting it. I ordered the egg over hard.

As we waited for our food, I imagined how I would respond if another knife-wielding maniac entered the restaurant. I assumed that the officer wouldn’t be all that close, so I would have to take matters into my own hands. The coffee pots were too far away to realistically consider using them as weapons, so I focused on what was at the table. Obviously I could use the silverware, but there were also the salt and pepper shakers. I thought that I might be able to use the thing that holds the sugar packets, but that was made out of plastic, and wasn’t ceramic like I had initially thought. I felt like I had a reasonable chance of subduing the imaginary maniac.

Before I had time to run through what I would do if zombies attacked our food came. It looked good. Nothing seemed to be sloppily placed or hurried. I was actually a little surprised by that given the number of customers.

I sank my teeth into the burger. The items were layered really well, so the bite was really satisfying. I wasn’t able to get any egg yolk in the first bite, but that didn’t take away from me enjoying the burger. The cheese sauce was better than I had anticipated.




Another view couldn't hurt, right? Maybe you can get a better view of the layers.


THE TASTE
The rest of the burger was tasty as well. My only qualm with the burger was that it wound up being rather messy, and I used all the napkins at the table. To be honest, I could have used even more.

I ordered the egg over hard because I wanted the yolk to run a little after I bit into it, but not so much that it was as messy as the cheese sauce. Looking back, I think that ordering over medium would have given me what I had wanted. However, ordering the egg over hard worked great because it wound up being a treat whenever I got a bite with yolk. That made eating the burger somewhat of a journey because the tastes were always changing. The tastes never clashed; they only complemented one another.

I wasn’t able to taste the hash browns much. It seemed that their main purpose was to add complexity to the texture of the burger. That was something that they definitely did, and that was enjoyable. However, I wouldn’t have minded if they were a little bit crispier, or a little bit more flavorful.

THE VERDICT
Perhaps it was the sweet satisfaction of exiting the Denny’s alive, or perhaps it was that the burger was truly as delicious as I found it to be. Whatever the reason was, I found myself feeling great about the decision to get the Slamburger.

So would I buy the Denny’s Slamburger again? Yes, absolutely. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it’s the best burger at Denny’s. I’d say it’s a great burger for the price. If you’re at Denny’s and want a burger, get the Slamburger. It was really filling though, so if you’re in the mood for something lighter, pass on the Slamburger. However, if you’re at Denny’s and you find yourself in the mood for something lighter look around, and remind yourself that you’re in a Denny’s! That might not be the place for you.

If you’re at home and want the best burger possible, depending on where you are, you might want to try somewhere else...especially if you’re particularly concerned with your own well being (because of the confrontations at Denny’s, not because of the burger).

4.5/5 Against burgers of the same price.
3/5 Against all burgers.

Note: Even though the Slamburger only appears on the late-night menu, you can order it at any time of the day. You just have to ask for it.