Second Stop: The Dogfish Cafe, Congress St. and St. John, Portland

Quote of the night was "I will compare every burger from here on out to this one." That about sums it up. This was a great stop. First off, our props to the staff--when we arrived there, we were clearly not the only ones interested in dinner--the small room and bar was absolutely packed. If I were the host, I would have been annoyed. However, this guy seemed genuinely happy that our party of 6 had shown up. We had some drinks at the bar, and the bartender was totally nice as well. When it came time to seat us, the waitress made special accommodations for our crowd and even moved us to a better table seeing that we were a bit cramped. So props on the service all around.

For food, 3/6 of us got the namesake burger: The Dogfish. It is, as one member accurately put it "a commitment." The thing is literally 1 foot tall. All sorts of madness went on there: onion rings, sauces, veggies, bacon I believe...just massive. The meat is local, the pickles, fries, chips and onion rings are homemade, and the food is really something to be proud of. Two basic burgers were ordered, and one veggie burger (which is made locally of black beans) with a generous amount of guacamole. The onions are sliced really thin, which is great, the sides were actually "on the side" so that you can basically build your own burger to your liking. Everyone was quite thrilled with the overall taste experience. We did not leave hungry.

There were some small downsides, nothing that made us re-evealuate our wonderful service or pleasure with the food, but they're worth mentioning. Overall, the meat was cooked more than any of us expected it to be. This usually would be a real disappointment, but it wasn't THAT big of a deal--we just decided that we would from now on recommend ordering one step lower than what you'd actually like. The prices are, well, not cheap, but not outrageaous. Overall, the beer was not as expensive as we thought it would be, so this made up for any sense of overspending on the food. Definately exceeded our expectations, and was a night we still talk about. (And yeah, we realize that we've now had the bar brought way up.)

Scores out of 100

Burger: 87

Atmosphere: 100

Overall Experience: 100

First stop: Wild Willy's, South Portland ME

This was a very good choice to start with. There's no waitstaff, you order at the counter as you walk in. The big draw here was the option to have bison as a stand in for hamburger on any burger. Not only is it a little different from the usual, but the information provided on the counter proved that there was a big nutritional difference as well. 4 out of 5 of us went this route and were incredibly pleased. All of us agreed that the meat was cooked the way we wanted it (they weren't afraid of pink) and the toppings were well executed on the specialty burgers (think horseradish, pepperjack cheese, sautéed onions, green chilies, barbecue sauce, mmm...) Go there.

Scores out of 100.

Burger: 84

Atmosphere: 72

Overall Experience: 76