Lumpy's Burgers

Another recent addition to the Albuquerque burger landscape is Lumpy's Burgers (5420 Central Ave. SW, 505-833-1300). Lumpy's is a hamburger stand with outdoor seating available near the parking. I assume it used to a be a drive-in style place. While Lumpy's is a burger stand, it goes for a few or the more gourmet touches (in this day and age), such as "100% fresh Angus beef, never frozen". One of Lumpy's gimmicks is allowing the customer to hand-pick their own potato for their fries: Idaho or sweet. To start your order, you grab a brown paper bag and a pencil, check off what you want on the menu printed on the bag, and place your potato inside the bag.

I visited Lumpy's on a recent Saturday evening with a friend and the crowd was pretty decent. I struck up a conversation with the people behind us in line who were talking about Fat Burger and In-N-Out. They seemed excited to be back at Lumpy's.

Besides choosing your own potato for your fries, you can also choose your style of fries: skinny, chunky, or skrewy. I decided to go with skrewy, with the assumption that skrewy meant curly-style. Lumpy's prices are just into the second price tier (basic 1/4 lb cheeseburger is over $3.50), but you should note that all toppings (including chile) are included with the price.

Meal:

• Wimpy burger - $3.59
• with cheddar, Cali sauce, lettuce, tomato
• Skrewy fries (Idaho potato) - $1.59
• Regular Cherry Coke - $1.79
• As a combo - $6.47 + tax

After 10-15 minutes our orders were called out of the loudspeaker. Skrewy fries turned out to be more like butterfly cut or potato chip-style (i.e. super thin). They were good, but different than what I was expecting, and different enough from normal fries that I won't rate them here. The Wimpy burger was a 1/4 lb. and decently juicy. I ordered cheddar because they didn't offer American, my prefered cheeseburger cheese. The Cali sauce is probably supposed to be a Big Mac/In-N-Out style sauce, which is a variation of Thousand Island dressing according to the Internets. The burger bun was toasted and tasty. The main drawbacks were the cooler than ideal temps for outdoor eating and slightly flat drinks.

Verdict:

• Type: Burger stand, counter service, outdoor seating, single location
• Burger: 8/10
• Price: $$$$$
• Overall: 76/100*

Lumpy's offers a pretty good burger and unique experience for a decent price. I don't think it's the best burger in ABQ (at least from my single visit), but it's definitely worth visiting.