Restaurant Review: Flip

This past weekend, we went to Atlanta to see the Killers in concert. They weren't coming anywhere in the state where I live, and Atlanta was the closest. The show was amazing - white tiger backdrops and all. Whoever co-ordinated their lighting for the show deserves an award.

As devout Top Chef fans, we wanted to go to a Richard Blais restaurant. HOME was a little out of our price range, so we went to Flip, the new upscale burger joint. The menu is pretty basic - burgers of all kinds (beef and otherwise), some sides, shakes, and a full bar. Reservations are not accepted, and I had read that the wait to be seated can be extensive. We arrived at 11:02 on Saturday morning and within half an hour, the place was full. Good thing we got there early.

The restaurant's claim to fame is the milkshakes made with liquid nitrogen. We ordered a nutella and burnt marshmallow milkshake to share. It arrived at the table still emitting smoke. The shake was fantastic, and the toasted hazelnuts that accompanied the marshmallows was a nice surprise.

We also ordered the Turf 'n' Earth (a mushroom burger with goat cheese, argula, and white truffle butter), the Bacon and Cheese (self-explanatory), sweet potato tots, and the vodka-battered onion rings. My bacon and cheese burger was hands down the best burger I've ever eaten. The bun was fresh and springy. With every bite I was murmuring, "this is soooo good..." Hubs' mushroom burger was tasty - very earthy, although the patty fell apart a bit during eating. The sides were crunchy without being too greasy.

I asked the server which burgers were the most ordered. She thought for a second and replied, 'The Butcher Cut, the Pate Melt, and the Shrimp Po-boyger." They all sounded delicious. We topped the meal with a coffee to go, so as to not to occupy the table any longer. The line was almost out the door by then.

For the rest of the afternoon, we reminisced about the meal. We were very close to going back for dinner and trying another burger, but the line was probably around the block by then, and we had a plane to catch.