While out doing some shopping in Bayers Lake, the burger hunger hit me and I knew it was time for #20. I decided to go to Montana’s, located at 196 Chain Lake Drive, to see what they had to offer for burgers.

They had a few to choose from but I ultimately decided on The Great Grilled Cheese Burger.

Stats

From the menu: “A juicy sirloin burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches, topped with smoky bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, crispy Cajun onions, sriracha ketchup and mayo”

Appearance (5.5/10)

The first thing I did before getting the burger was I asked the server if their patties were fresh or frozen, although I was fairly certain I already knew the answer. They do use frozen patties here, which is a pretty typical thing for a big chain restaurant like this. My first impression of the burger was how uniform it looked. The problem with chain restaurants is that they focus on having each item be the exact same as the last, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in terms of quality but it does take away from the personal touch that comes with a completely handmade burger. All that aside, the burger did look like it had the potential to be delicious, so it was time to take my first bite.

Taste (4/10)

After the first few bites, any hope I had for this burger being delicious quickly vanished. It was very easy to tell that this was a frozen patty, as there was really a lack of taste to the patty itself. A major issue that I had with this burger was the use of the grilled cheese sandwiches as the bun. They got cold really fast, and a grilled cheese sandwich is not something that should be eaten at that temperature. Also, having four slices of bread for one patty is way too much, and it causes you to get full way too quickly. If I had to choose one good thing about this burger, it would probably have to be the Cajun onions as they were the one thing that actually added some nice flavour to this rather disappointing burger.

Restaurant Atmosphere & Service (5/10)

When we arrived at Montana’s it was noticeably busy, and we were told that it would be a 15 minute wait for our table. 25 minutes later we were finally seated, which is fine because it can be somewhat hard to gauge how long people are going to take to finish their meal. Once we were seated, our server came along and quickly took our order. Due to the fact that it was so busy, our server just kinda kept doing laps through his section to check on each of his tables, which kind of left no room for friendly interaction on his part. Once we got all of our food one of the side dishes was missing and the manager came over herself to apologize, which was a nice touch.

Cost vs. What You Get (4/10)

The cost of this burger is $13.99. This price makes sense when you think about the size of the burger, but when you factor in the quality, this burger is overpriced.

Overall (4.63/10)

As you can probably tell already, this burger didn’t leave me with a great impression. In theory, a burger patty in between two grilled cheese sandwiches sounds great, but when you actually have it in front of you, it falls way short. Montana’s does have some tasty things on their menu, this just isn’t one of them.

Montana’s Cookhouse
196 Chain Lake Drive, Halifax, NS
Website