American Roadside :: 80 East Main St., Smithtown

American Roadside Burgers recently opened up in Smithtown, right on Main Street (where the Boston Market used to be). You can’t miss it as you drive down 25A through the village, especially since you’ll probably be stuck in traffic.

Jennifer ate:

Veggie Burger — ($4.24)
Sweet Potato Fries — ($2.66)

A burger joint. How very appealing to a health-conscious vegetarian. I’d been avoiding this place since it opened. Even Chuck, with his (mildly) high cholesterol, wasn’t looking forward to blogging about a hamburger restaurant. But, it is in Smithtown, right in the village, and we vowed to review every restaurant in Smithtown (if it’s open for lunch) when we started this blog, so we resolved ourselves to going.

The decor is pretty cool. The dining room is spacious with comfy places to sit, there are interesting things to look at, there’s a hand washing station outside of the bathrooms, rolls of paper towels at each table, an interesting fountain soda selection, and funky music to match the theme. There’s also a wall to commemorate all the brave souls who ordered, and consumed, the RoadStar burger (four cheeseburgers on a bun, yes, FOUR!). I suppose if your heart can survive that, you deserve to have your name on the wall. (Either that or it’s a great place for cardiologists to find patients.)

I checked the menu online so I could mentally prepare, and was happily surprised to see a veggie burger on the menu. And the thing about American Roadside is, it’s all about the toppings, which are free. So, piled on my veggie burger I got ketchup, mustard, pickles, red onion, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, and roasted jalapeños. I also ordered the sweet potato fries. (When in Rome…)

I was happy to see that they offered a “skinny” option, which was the burger without the bun, wrapped, instead, in lettuce. I’ve had other things this way and it’s quite tasty and you don’t miss the bread. But for this, I felt I owed it to the blog to have the American Roadside experience, so I had the bun. They also have a salad on the menu, which sounds pretty bland. But, hey, at least it’s on the menu.

Getting down to the flavor. It was GOOD! Honestly, I was surprised. I’ve had dozens of veggie burgers that ranged in flavor from “good” to “not unlike cardboard”. The toppings do make the burger and these toppings were tasty. I should have also asked for the “pink” sauce, but I didn’t know what it was. It’s a mixture of ketchup, mayo and Worcestershire sauce, and we ended up getting a little cup of it to dip our sweet potato fries in — yum! I definitely recommend that. The fries were very tasty. Of course, deep fry just about anything and it will taste good.

So, pleasant surprise, American Roadside is good. It would be a really fun place to take your kids and teenagers. We were tempted by the old fashioned milkshakes and ice cream sandwiches (and something called Lug Nuts which sounded to me like zepolis), but felt guilty enough eating burgers and fries so we skipped dessert.

The bottom line:

Veggie Burger with all the fixins – Pretty good.
Sweet Potato Fries – Sinfully good.
Overall rating: I actually liked it. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, since red meat is so bad for you, but if you take the veggie burger route, you might have a tasty meal with decent prices.

Chuck ate:

Cheeseburger ($3.82)

Boy oh boy. American Roadside Burger (ARB) is like the modern day soda shop from yesteryear. The decor is brick and exposed, painted steel and decidedly “rough.” The addition of a new Harley INSIDE the restaurant is a nice touch. Especially since it’s part of a promotional giveaway in conjunction with Lighthouse Harley Davidson (Each a pound of meat, win a hog).

So, I will admit I was dreading this one. I’ve just been trying to eat healthier as of late and the thought of a greasy burger wasn’t too appetizing. Man was I wrong. I went for the cheeseburger and topped it with onions, pickles, hot sauce, roasted jalapeños, ketchup, and lettuce. The burger was hot and the toppings where VERY fresh and tasty. This is probably one of the better burgers I’ve had lately. The thing I really liked about it was that it was a nice proportion. So if I was hungrier, I could go for the double and that would work nicely.

The fries where good (as Jen said) and the pink sauce was intriguing. I usually mix up a mayo/maple syrup sauce to dip sweet potato fries in (before you saw EWWWW…try it, seriously) and I think that would be a nice addition on the menu (hint, hint).

The food came out FAST. It wasn’t very busy, so I was expecting it to come out quickly, but we had pretty much just sat down when our server brought it out. So that was nice.

The bottom line:

Cheeseburger – Awesome, one of the best burgers I’ve had in a while
Overall rating: With a clean, retro/hip decor, fast service, and tasty burgers ARB is the place to go for your fast food fix.