Ernie’s Station
So there I am in the middle of packing, sorting things out, and even throwing things out. You know that point where you just don’t want to see any more boxes and you just wish all your stuff would magically disappear and appear in the next place you will call home for some time? Well, I discovered that the best thing you can do when you are on the verge of burning all those boxes is to grab your friends and go for a nice juicy burger.
So moi, le Hermes and our guest Lindsy decided to go check out this place we’d been spying on for some time. It’s called Ernie’s station and it’s on Calle Arenal closer to Opera than Sol. The style is typical american diner, similar to Tommy Mel’s, just maybe a bit more interesting on the the inside. Plastic chairs, state license plates and other interesting paraphernalia decorate the place. The place was practically empty when we arrived and it didn’t really change during our stay.
Since me and Hermes arrived early, we ordered some hot wings as appetizers and our drinks while we waited. As far as starters go, these are pretty good and they come with the customary delicious cheese dip. Once Lindsy arrived we got on the task of ordering our main dish. The menu is a bit tricky though. You get a choice of five different burger meat types for €6.20 and then a bunch of different extras (cheeses, sauces, side dishes) to add to the the burger. As awesome as this sounds with great power comes great responsibility —Uncle Ben dixit— and not every combination of tastes is a winner (Philadelphia cheese and guacamole? Mmmm!). To make matters more complicated the names of the ingredients aren’t always perfectly representative of what you’re going to get. For example Cabrales is a typical strong blue cheese from Asturias. It’s a mixture of cow, sheep and goat cheeses, and in this case it was translated as goat cheese. So under this wrong impression I ordered one beef burger with fake goat cheese, honey mustard sauce, and a some hash browns; Hermes ordered beef burger with bacon, queso manchego, honey mustard sauce, and french fries; and Lindsy decided to give a go for beef and pork burger with guacamole and queso manchego.
As a quick aside let me tell you one thing about hamburgers. If it’s made of pork, it is not a real hamburger. If it’s made of turkey it’s even less of a hamburger. If it’s made of tuna it’s definitely not a hamburger. And if it’s made of shrimps it’s not even a hamburger in a parallel universe where sea based creatures rule the world. However, for some strange reason, the chef at Earnie’s considers them hamburgers or at least it says so on the menu. My advice is: forget the fancy names and order beef. (We’ll let the 50/50 beef+pork hamburger slide because Lindsy ordered it and if she orders it that’s ok with us, but had she ordered the *gasp* shrimp hamburger lawyers would have been called in and papers would have been signed stating the cease of all kinds of contact and/or relationship between both parties, namely the shrimpburger ordering one and the non-shrimpburger ordering one).
Apart from the fact that the waitress didn’t ask how well we want our meat done, which is a big minus, the fake goat cheese killed my taste buds. The thing about blue cheese is it’s so freaking strong that whatever you combine it with is just going to be burried under the sensory overload. Hard to judge on the quality of meat then. I was told it was ok-ish. These two things were the big negatives, because the bun was soft from the inside and crunchy from the outside, hash browns and french fries perfectly fried, ketchup and other utilities on the table, quick and smiley waiters, and good music which didn’t really match up with the TV screen. So while we were watching curvy Lady Gaga and even curvier Beyonce shake they’re respective derrieres, we were listening to good old jazz.
Price in total per person with a drink and appetizer is €15. In times of crisis I would say, go and find cheaper place with the same quality. But then again, I am unemployed and have a different point of view right now.
