slater’s 50/50 / liberty station – san diego, ca

It was high time for me to visit Slater’s 50/50. Jake and I had heard kind of mixed things about the place – some people really liked it and some didn’t and some just thought it was okay. I had to decide for myself though and after a few failed attempts at visiting, Jake, T and I went on that hella hot weekend we had a few weeks ago – when it was in triple digit temperatures. We went next door to Ace Hardware just for the A/C while waiting for our table. I do like their notification system – which sends you a text message to let you know when your table’s ready. Very neat!

We were seated in a corner table. Pretty much my thoughts were, “Gee, do they have enough TV’s in this place?” Must be an ADD person’s heaven. Me? I thought it was distracting. But maybe I’m the only one (or maybe that’s the point).

[combination plate – onion strings, french fries and panko fried mac n’ cheese – $6.95]

We decided to get the combo plate for appetizers. Jake and I both thought we were getting regular mac n’ cheese, since it was further below on the menu – we both didn’t notice it was fried mac n’ cheese. Oops.

We each got one mac n cheese ball. It was very crispy on the outer, with a melted, cheesy middle. A little on the bland side. Not as great as I thought it would be, especially since I was expecting just mac n cheese… but that was my fault for not reading the menu properly. These were okay.

The onion strings/rings things were good, I dug those. French fries are french fries. I will say though that we were hoping for fries on our plates, but when we realized we didn’t get more fries, we ordered 2 more orders. One order tasted like they dropped a salt shaker on it, it was so salty that it was inedible. We had that one taken off our order after we told the waitress though but did not get another order – wasn’t necessary. Besides, the fries weren’t that awesome.

[build your own burger – starting at $8.95]

All three of us did the “Make Your Own” sandwich thing. This is T’s creation – which had fried chicken instead of a hamburger patty.

And here is it all assembled – with a tiny bite removed. He got it with cream cheese, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and pickle chips. He loved this sandwich and was surprised that the cream cheese went well with the fried chicken – and I do admit that the fried chicken was pretty good. It was white breast meat, very tender and flavorful – it had a nice seasonings in the coating of the chicken.

This was all stacked on a ciabatta roll, which T found to be too chewy and hard to eat.

Little overkill on the tomatoes here if you ask me, but hey, it didn’t go in my mouth!

[jake’s 50/50 burger]

This is Jake’s burger – he got one of those 50/50 patties – which is 50% beef and 50% bacon.

To go with the 50/50 patty, Jake topped this off with gravy, pickle chips, cheddar, grilled onions and lettuce with a very large white brioche bun… holy bun, Batman!

The burger itself… was just too well done for my tastes (and Jake’s). Of course, it’s got to be cooked a little longer to account for the bacon which has to be cooked all of the way through. It was bacon-y though and I was overall glad that I opted to just have a bite of the 50/50 rather than have it on my burger.

Jake was in love with putting gravy on his burger since he loves gravy like nobody’s business. I just thought it was messy. Hah!

To quote Jake on this burger, “It wasn’t bad… just not as good as expected.”

And finally we get to my creation – which I affectionately dubbed “awesome sauce”.

[my awesome sauce burger]

On my burger, I got a 1/3 beef patty with sage mayo, vampire dip, asparagus, tomato and green leaf lettuce on a honey wheat bun.

I love how the asparagus looks in my burger!

I ordered it medium rare – but it came out more towards medium. The burger also didn’t taste like it was seasoned at all… people, there’s this thing called “salt and pepper”. Please use it.

The vampire dip – which is a garlic, cheese and artichoke dip – was not garlicky enough for me by a long shot. It pretty much just tasted like a mild cheese sauce and I was hoping for something really garlicky, but nope, didn’t happen.

I dug the asparagus though, I can say that much.

Overall though… a disappointing burger. Not well seasoned, overcooked, and the toppings didn’t quite live up to what I was expecting.

[bacon brownie – $8.95]

I’m not one to bypass dessert. Especially not when I see things like maple bacon milkshakes, cookie skillets and bacon brownies. How could I not try it?!

I’ve had bacon brownies before – thanks to Leanne of Three Dog Kitchen who made them for this year’s SD Food Bloggers Bake Sale. Those brownies were to die for!

The bacon brownie at Slater’s 50/50 though… was not a brownie. Not to me, anyway. It was crumbly, kind of like an intense chocolate cake. My idea of a brownie is something of a cross between fudge and cake – rich and gooey – and this “brownie” wasn’t fudgy. It did have a chocolate sauce on top – which isn’t necessary if you have a real brownie’s that’s done right. The chocolate sauce was needed in this case and did help this dessert out since it was too was dry. A dry brownie? I think my soul wept.

The bacon on top was also really chewy and just okay. The dessert just kind of failed in my eyes. T loved it though, Jake and I just kind of kept rolling our eyes at each other and wondering where the real brownie was.

Oh well. I tried it. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it, either. I’ve had worse and nothing was enticing enough for me to want to try it again. Sorry, Slater’s 50/50, but you didn’t win a place in my heart.

Slater’s 50/50
2750 Dewey Road Building 193
Liberty Station/San Diego, CA 92106
619.398.2600