Hungrygrrl

It’s been two years since Cobe and I first met. Two years! Seems like a long time. And yet no time at all.

We have a tradition of going to the bar where we first met for our anniversary (the Sloop). Maybe “tradition” is a loose term. We did that last year. We decided to do that again.

But we had to eat first (have you had the food at the Sloop?) so we stopped by the Lunchbox Laboratory.

This place fascinates me. Not many chefs of four star restaurants end up running a hamburger joint. It’s owned by Scott Simpson, formerly of Blue Onion Bistro and Fork. His life took a turn for the worse, but he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, had gastric bypass surgery, and decided to open a restaurant where he can barely eat anything they serve.

Of course, as it turns out, I can barely eat anything they serve.

Don’t get me wrong, the food is wonderful. The meat is ground on site and there’s a dozen different kinds to choose from, including prime rib, shrimp, falafel-quinoa, and…most impressively…the “dork” (duck and pork).

A good portion of this tiny restaurant (there are like 4 tables in the whole place) is taken up by the gigantic chalkboard that lists all the meats, as well as the sauces, sides, and various types of salt (bacon, garlic, pepper).

They also have homemade milkshakes and some cool local sodas. The one sad thing in this whole equation is no liquor license. Burgers definitely need some beer.

Despite the lack of beer, Cobe and I dove in and went for the prime rib special, which came with bacon and caramelized onions. He got the upscale tater tots, I got the sweet potato fries.

Amazingly for a place that grinds their own meat and offers so many options, you can’t get the burger cooked to order. This made me sad. I am forever lamenting the lack of good medium rare burgers in this town. Ecoli be damned.

In the end the burger was surprisingly juicy despite being a depressing shade of grey. Of course that might have been because of the impressive amount of grease. The burger tasted good, it really did, meaty and juicy with this perfect soft bun, accented by some fabulous caramelized onions. But my stomach was mad at me for nearly half a day afterwards. I just can’t eat that kind of grease, never could.

While some have described this place as “upscale fast food,” it seems to have all the downsides of regular fast food. Sometimes a girl wants a little less grease in her dinner, what can you do.

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Lunchbox Laboratory
7302 15th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(206) 706-3092

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