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Asheville, North Carolina, is a really fun city to visit. It has a lot of great dining options. And one of those dining options is Juicy Lucy’s Burger Bar and Grill!
Why We Chose Juicy Lucy
When my family visited Asheville a few weeks ago, we wanted to try Juicy Lucy, for a couple of reasons:
- Prices: Its prices are less expensive than comparable restaurants in Asheville; you can actually get a meal for a reasonable price
- Awards: It has won numerous awards both for Western North Carolina and nationally, including being named as one of the Top 100 Burgers in America by Yelp!
So we know we wanted to try the burgers (and other items on their menu). So what did we think of them, as well as our experience? Well, we are about to tell you in our review! We’ll tell you the good, the bad, and one thing that did sour our visit.
But let’s start with the atmosphere.
Atmosphere
The restaurant’s atmosphere is great. It has fun vibes with fun decor throughout the restaurant. It has a fun and laidback atmosphere that fits in extremely well in Asheville.
And if you are like me and you are a child of the 90’s, then you will love the music. They played a lot of great 1990s hits.
The restaurant also has a lot of nice touches. For example, I love the Coca-Cola-themed salt and pepper bottle shakers!
They also had cool mason jar-type glasses for drinks.
Drinks
Juicy Lucy’s Burger Bar and Grill has great drinks – after all, “bar” is in the name.
It also has great milkshakes, too. You can get them with alcohol or without. There is a sign up that says “Hand Spun Milkshakes” and we found it to be of great quality.
We liked the Oreo Cookies & Cream.
You could really taste the Oreo cookie flavor.
Food
But that wasn’t the only delicious thing we had during our visit to Juicy Lucy’s Burger Bar and Grill!
And since burgers is in the name, it’s time we talk about the burgers. Specifically, let’s talk about the Black N’ Blue!
Now, that is one delicious burger!
The Black N’ Blue burger has bleu cheese (hence blue in the name), caramelized red onions, and fresh arugula. They were very generous with caramelized onions. They were not as generous – but still generous – with bleu cheese.
One important note about this burger, though. I ordered medium well but the burger wasn’t quite as cooked as what I consider “medium well” to be. It was pinker than I expected.
I’ve ordered burgers to be much more on the “rare” side in the past, so I didn’t mind and it didn’t take away from my enjoyment at all. But if you are particular about how your burger is cooked (as so many people are), I would suggest asking your server what they consider medium, medium well, etc, as each restaurant can be a little different.
But overall, the burger was delicious. So were the sandwiches. One affordable, great sandwich is the B.L.A.T., or the bacon, lettuce, avocado & tomato sandwich. As someone who loves BLT sandwiches and avocado, I love combining the two! Especially the way they did it!
The best part was the avocados. They were great! They were very fresh, perfectly smashed and soft. There were plenty of avocados.
There was also plenty of bacon. I was pleasantly surprised by how much. So much so I did not even finish all the bacon (a few pieces were a bit hard).
Another great affordable menu item is the Gyro Sandwich. You can choose between the lamb, chicken, or pulled pork. The sandwich is wrapped in a grilled pita and is topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and tzatziki sauce. We got the lamb.
And the lamb was delicious! The whole sandwich was very good.
We had a few complaints about the sandwich:
- The onions were a bit too big and had to chop them up so they wouldn’t overwhelm each bite
- The tomatoes on the other hand were chopped up a bit too much to get a good tomato taste
- The sandwich had a tendency to fall apart when picking it up
But these are minor complaints to the overall delicious taste of the sandwich. And again, this is a very affordable menu item.
The sandwiches and burger ccome with fries. We opted to try both the French Fries and the sweet potato fries. I normally like sweet potato fries better, but I thought the French Fries were better.
One Thing We Hated About Juicy Lucy’s
Okay, so I warned you there was one thing we didn’t like.
When we came, it was a very hot. We were seated in a booth in the sun but not near a celing fan. We asked if we could change seats to one of the empty tables. There were multiple empty tables at the restaurant.
The server wouldn’t let us change. It was quite odd, since one of the tables we wanted to sit at they sat the next family in.
So it was very hot, and humid, and I was a bit concerned because humidity has given me migraines before. But luckily, it was okay. One thing that helped was that we brought this portable fan and put it on the table.
So ultimately, this does not ruin my restaurant and I still super recommend it. But if you are going on a hot day like my family did, make sure you bring a portable fan!
Conclusion
While we would have liked to have been moved to another table, this did not spoil our visit. We really liked Juicy Lucy’s Burger Bar and Grill, and we wholeheartedly recommend it to our readers.
Especially considering:
- The affordable prices compared to similar Asheville restaurants
- The good food quality
- The fun atmosphere that fits Asheville vibes
So if you are visiting Asheville, then we recommend eating there.
And speaking of visiting Asheville, we also recommend Fairfield Inn Asheville Tunnel Road.
If you are looking for a more affordable hotel, check out these discounted Asheville hotels.