Bachelor on the Cheap

Bubba's 33, 412 S Towne East Mall Dr.

By Mike Thayer

Meeting up with some friends from back in the day when I worked at Public Storage (I don't miss that job), we met up at Bubba's 33 for dinner on a Monday night.

Walking into the joint at about 6:30pm, it was busy, we had to wait a bit for a table to open up to seat five, but it was a short wait.

After being seated and greeted by our server, we ordered drinks, an appetizer and perused the menu.  I've eaten here a few times before and I've never had a bad meal, with most everything on the menu appealing and something I would order.  But it's a Monday night, $8.99 burger night at Bubba's and they make some good ones so that's where my focus was.

Water for the table was delivered in short order, soon followed by our drink order and the appetizer.  I ordered a Blackberry Smash cocktail, which is Crown Royal, hand shaken with a hint of Bubba's 33 sweet and sour, DeKuyper Razzmatazz Liqueur and fresh blackberries.  It's a dangerously smooth cocktail.  Of note, all of the drinks ordered by the table were spot on refreshing, the bartender did a nice job.

Tasty, tasty, tasty!

The appetizer ordered was the Chorizo Queso Dip, suggested by my friend Ashley and boy was she on the money with that order!  A delicious combination of melted cheeses topped with house-made chorizo, pico de gallo and jalapeño sauce, the generous portion of cheesy goodness was served with seasoned tortilla chips and a made-from-scratch salsa.

For dinner I went with the Bacon Guacamole Burger.  With nine different burger options to choose from, this one features two Bubba's signature beef and bacon grind patties (that's a half pound of meat!) stacked high with smoked bacon, melted pepper jack cheese, the classic toppings of lettuce, tomato, onion and putting this burger into the Flavortown category is the creamy guacamole.

Great visual appeal

This is an excellent burger, the patties were seasoned well and cooked to order perfection, I got the crispy smokiness in the bacon, the pepper jack cheese is a perfect pairing, complimenting the freshness of the veggies and the decadence of the guacamole.  The only knock I have on this burger is the bun.  It was falling apart less than half-way through the burger, with virtually no toast. Given all the great base ingredients in this burger, the bun needs to hold up and it flat out didn't.  I'll chalk it up to a preparation error.

Side Note:  Bubba's 33 cranks out some pretty darn good fries too!  Seasoned perfectly, their fries give you that nice crispy bite on the outside and the light fluffy potato goodness on the inside.

This was a very enjoyable dining experience and it was great to catch up with old friends.  Thank you Diane (guest of honor, traveling in from Arizona), Ashley and Jana Rhea, it was a fun evening!

This burger is a mouthful!

From drinks to appetizer to meals (no dessert ordered, we were all too full), everything was quite tasty.  Overall, the service was adequate on a busy but not slamming busy Monday.  Jayne, our server did a fair enough job but she could have been a little more attentive in providing drink refills and clearing dishes from the table.  There were lulls in the action where servers were observed standing around doing nothing.  I'm giving Bubba's 33 and their Bacon Guacamole Burger 4 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.   Costing me $29.46 + tip for two cocktails, burger and fries, I enjoyed another good meal and I'll continue to be a repeat customer.

The Bubba's 33 visited on this occasion is located at:  412 S Towne East Mall Dr, Wichita, KS 67207