Thursday, July 30, 2009

Cookout (Huntersville)

Since I arrived in NC, I've driven by the Cook Out restaurants without venturing in. What is a Cook-Out? What do they serve? I was a little hesitant about this unknown quantity. But yesterday I finally took the plunge, and I'm glad I did.

I don't know what the other Cook Out restaurants look like inside, but this kinda had a feel of a rustic Southern lake house. The walls had wood paneling, there were fans hanging from the ceiling, and small NASCAR car hoods adorned the walls, as did maps of Lake Norman.

Lake Norman Cook Out MenuI approached the cashier, and locked onto the first thing I saw on the menu. A hamburger. I chose the Regular size (1/4 lb), with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, and ketchup. I also got an order of fries and a Coke.

As you can tell, the menu there has a LOT of items. From burgers and BBQ, to chicken tenders and milkshakes, this place has a LOT to offer.

In just over the about the time that it took me to walk over to the fountain, and fill my cup, my food was ready! It came in a bag, so I could take it "To-Go" if I wanted to. However, I really wanted to eat immediately, so I grabbed a seat, and took at look at what was in the bag.

Cook Out MealInside I found a small bag or fries, and a burger wrapped in aluminum foil. As you can see, the burger looked pretty good! It was topped with a thick slice of tomato, fresh lettuce, and a thin slice of white onion. The burger was a very good size, and not pressed too thin. In addition, the burger bun was not squished. I was a little surprised it looked so good!

I took a bite of the burger and was pleased. It wasn't over-cooked or greasy. In addition, the fresh produce really added a nice bit of added flavor. In particular, that tomato was amazing. Really red, really fresh, and really good! The produce was such a high quality that it made me reminisce about In-N-Out Burger. (Which almost always has GREAT quality produce.)

I polished off the burger pretty quickly. So I went over to the fries. At first I was hopeful -- the fries were cooked with their skins still on. That is almost always a sign of a high quality fry. But I was disappointed when I took a bite. The fries weren't crispy -- they were just there. Not soggy, not crispy. They sorta looked they were apologizing for their sad state when picked up; with it drooping from my fingers.

That said, I really want to try their hush puppies. They've gotta be better than the fries. Any fast-food joint that serves hush puppies is a favorite of mine!

Score:
Atmosphere: 3.5/5
Food: 3.5/5
Service: 4/5
TOTAL: 11/15

Price: $ (Well under $10)
Kid friendly: Yes. High chairs and booster seats available.

Conclusion: Cheap prices, fast service, and good burgers are in abundance here. I'm not a fan of the fries. But since the burger was sooo good. I'll be back to try some other things -- including the hush-puppies.

Restaurant Info:
Cook Out
425 Huntersville Gateway Blvd
Huntersville, NC 28078
p) 704-875-0077
http://www.cookoutnc.com/

3 comments:

  1. Guess what?! My 17 yr old son is the premier shake maker at Cookout :) Ask for a chocolate, banana, peanut butter shake next time. They will make any combo you can come up with as long as they have the ingredients...The shakes are YUM.

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  2. the best thing about CookOut is that you can choose another meat as your side - chicken nuggets, hotdog, corndog.. all eligible side items.

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  3. Laurie, I'll have to ask for one of those!!

    VermillionRes, I didn't know that you could do that! I think a hamburger with a side of corndog sounds GREAT!

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