We had known that Five Star Burgers had opened up a new location in Kirkwood months ago, but today was our day to visit! Although the original Clayton location is actually closer to our house, the Kirkwood location appears to have more ample parking in the back, so we thought we would give it a try. We showed up around 11:45 and there was plenty of open parking in the back lot, a pleasant change from the tiny, packed lot behind their Clayton location.
When we entered the restaurant we immediately noticed that it was not as crowded as the Clayton one seems to be. It seemed more open with higher ceilings and with more bright colors. It seemed more family oriented as might be expected in a place like Kirkwood. There was a young family with a baby there as well as a larger group with little children, all adding to the "family" theme. The waiters were attentive and all wore T-shirts with cute burger sayings on the back like "There is no I in meat". Like at the other location the beverage selections were large if you wanted beer or other alcoholic drinks, but small if you wanted something non-alcoholic. My wife and mother-in-law ordered iced tea and I stuck with water, which again they brought out in room temperature glass bottles (at least the small water glasses had ice.)
We all ordered burgers, of course, with my wife ordering their Magic Mushroom burger, my mother-in-law selecting the 5 Star Burger and myself picking the Dad's Green Chile Cheeseburger. My wife and I also split an order of onion rings and my mother-in-law selecting their fries. The restaurant has a couple large screen HDTV's on the walls and the one I could see was playing a basketball game (an NIT game not a NCAA Championship game - it was too early in the day!)
The food arrived in a reasonable time and we could all start to enjoy our burgers. My wife had ordered her burger medium, and thought it was closer to medium-rare. It was too red and mushy. The onions were supposedly caramelized but they ended up undercooked as were the mushrooms, without much flavor. Having just recently enjoyed the magic mushroom burger at the Cheesecake Factory a few weeks before, she found the 5 Star version vastly inferior. My burger was pretty good and I believe my "medium" cooked burger was actually "medium". For some reason, though, it did not seem the same as the ones I have had at their Clayton location, not seeming to be as juicy (although still pretty messy.) The onion rings were good as usual and their fries are pretty good too.
Since we noticed they had $1 ice cream shooters, we decided to try them out as a little dessert treat. My wife and I ordered the chocolate ones and my mother-in-law picked the vanilla one. None of us were willing to try the "salted caramel" flavor. The shooters came in little cones that looked pretty cute. We noticed the chocolate seemed pale in color and once we bit into it we discovered why. The chocolate ice cream did not have hardly any chocolate flavor to it! It was like the cheap vanilla ice milk you used to get from a box in the grocery store in the 1970's. That was not much of a treat!
So the overall experience was not as good as we had hoped. For some reason the Kirkwood location did not seem to execute the burgers at the same level as the original Clayton location, but hopefully we just hit them on a bad day. We do prefer the parking and location of the Kirkwood restaurant, and it could be a great place if they prepared the burgers as well as the Clayton branch, and if they could purchase some real chocolate ice cream! While you are at it, get some normal fountain sodas (or maybe some bottled Fitz's.) The restroom did pass my wife's scrutiny as being well maintained and roomy, with a good baby changing table. We want Five Star Burgers to do well at both Clayton and Kirkwood. Hey, maybe you could have a Maplewood/Brentwood location too!
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