Tycoon Flats

Tycoon Flats

Early June

To fuel up before some Saturday night revelry (read: beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade at Slacker's), my buddy Webb and I went to Tycoon Flats.  One of the closest burger restaurants to my home in Tobin Hill, I've eaten here with my wife about three times, but not in the last 6 months.  My experiences in the past ranged from great to dissatisfied, but today I gave it a shot for a burger-centric evaluation.

Service and Setting

In simplest terms, the setting is a poor-man’s version of The Cove.  I say that as more of a compliment to The Cove than criticism of TF.  The outdoor area is a little smaller, the playground is much smaller, and there's less indoor seating.  No live music, and TVs above the bar.  Again, it's a perfectly nice place to sit and enjoy a summer night with a beer, burger and friends, it's just striking to contrast it with The Cove.  Service tonight was friendly and attentive.

Menu
An almost overwhelming amount of creative burger options. Also with large pictures for those who can't read good.  I think 80% of the specialty burgers have bacon or ham.  They have a third page of Flatsburgers and Izebox burgers, but I don't see too many of those coming out of the kitchen.  They also take the state fair approach in that a lot of the menu items spend some time in the deep fryer.  Aside from that, there is a pretty wide selection of bar food including wings, sandwiches, and TexMex.  Half-pound specialty burgers range from $13 to $15 and include fries.

Beverage

They have a respectable list of Texas beers on draft and in bottle.  Lots of margarita options which my wife has enjoyed in the past.  Good daily happy hour specials too.  It was hard to pass on the milkshake at the end of our meal.

Patty

Our waitress steered us to the fried green apple burger, and got the fried avocado burger as our second.  The kitchen was on point tonight.  The burgers came out fast, medium rare  (as requested), meaty and juicy.  For the first time since Fattboy did I have some juices dripping back on to my plate.  Great flavor and cooked right.  None of the toppings overpowered the burger.  The only collateral damage to all that juice was the bottom bun which essentially disintegrated.

Dress and Bun

Webb nor I are that excited about bacon, so we left it off the burger.  The fried green apple burger was downright excellent.  The sweetness of the caramelized onions and apple, that sting of the bleu cheese and the delicious meaty patty combined for a unique and remarkable burger.  None of the components overwhelmed the others, and I savored every bite.  The fried avocado burger left me less enthused.  Frying the avocado only detracted from the flavor of the fruit, and didn't give it enough crunch so they still opted to put tortilla chips on top.  Again, it was cooked properly, but seriously behind on flavor, especially after tasting the fried green apple burger.  It was pretty mediocre.  Probably the only weakness for this burger is the bun.  They use with a sourdough split top.  It is good, and it doesn't detract from the toppings, however the bottom bun cannot stand up to the wetness of the burger.  The last few bites end up being a combination scoop-with-the-top-bun-and-fork-it-to-your-mouth maneuver.

Sides

Fries included and lots of good upgrade options.  I'm a hot sauce and ketchup kinda guy, and since they have Cholula, I'm a happy camper.  We went with mixed fries (both regular and sweet potato).  They were fine.  Sweet potato fries were slightly superior.  Both were a little low on crunch.

The Verdict

Tycoon flats has a few of shortcomings as a restaurant, but the fried green apple burger is one of the best things I've tasted this year.  My experiences at the restaurant have been hit or miss, but the fried green apple burger is a grand slam.  Worth making a special trip to try it, I give it 5 spurs.