Visiting new restaurant in American Fork is a Habit worth forming
Salads, a Chicken Sandwich, tempura green beans, onion rings and Charburgers are pictured from The Habit Burger Grill in American Fork on Wednesday.
A Tempura Jalapeño Charburger and a Original Double Charburger are pictured at Habit Burger Grill in American Fork.
The BBQ Chicken Salad at Habit Burger Grill in American Fork.
A Chicken Sandwich on a wheat bun at Habit Burger Grill.
A Chicken Sandwich on a wheat bun.
A Tempura Jalapeño Charburger and a Original Double Charburger from Habit Burger Grill.
Salads, a Chicken Sandwich, tempura green beans, onion rings and Charburgers from The Habit Burger Grill in American Fork.
If you’re looking for great-tasting, fresh, charbroiled hamburgers, along with additional fast-food fare, there’s a new option in town.
But — we must caution you — eating there could become extremely Habit forming.
Yes, The Habit Burger Grill opened recently in American Fork, bringing with it an array of charbroiled burgers and sandwiches that are the restaurant’s calling card. The California-based chain — which opened its original location in Santa Barbara in 1969 — has been exponentially expanding its reach in the past decade, and now boasts nine burger joints in Utah from St. George to Layton. This is the franchise’s first foray into Utah County.
We made our visit a bit later in the evening on Friday, and let’s just say things were a little busy. Impressively so, in fact.
You place your order at the front counter, and the line was back all the way to the front doors, and table space appeared to be at a premium. Our original expectations were that it would probably be a while before we were actually sitting down and sinking our teeth into a burger.
But that’s where we got a surprise. We moved through the line rather quickly, and after some cheerful and friendly help at the counter placed our order. Like everyone else, we were given one of those fancy buzzers that goes off when your order is ready. Things really started looking up when a smaller family noticed the size of our group and offered to swap us tables — allowing us an upgrade in terms of size and elbow room.
In the end, it didn’t take that long to get our food and it was impressive how fast the long order line dissipated.
As for the menu, Habit focuses on four main areas: Charburgers, Grilled Sandwiches, Fresh Salads and Sides. We willingly sampled something from each of those four designations.
From the Charburger realm, we opted to give a nod to the restaurant’s roots and went for the Santa Barbara Style burger. Served on grilled sourdough sandwich bread, this burger was a delicious combination of charbroiled patty with cheese, avocado and onions. It was hard to hold everything together, even though each sandwich half came with a toothpick — but every bite was worth it, even if we had to use more of our hands than we wished.
The Tri-Tip Steak and the Chicken were tasty samplings from the Grilled Sandwich section. The Chicken sandwich was especially good, featuring melted cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce and tomatoes along with a choice of dressings and sauces. The Tri-Tip comes with all the same additions. You choose between three choices of bread for your sandwich — French roll, grilled sourdough or wheat bun.
The Grilled Chicken Salad was certainly hearty. It included Romaine, iceberg and red leaf lettuce, red onions, sliced carrots, cucumbers and Roma tomatoes, topped off with slices of grilled chicken breast and croutons. You also have your choice of eight different dressings.
We also really loved the sides we tried. The French fries and Sweet potato fries were thin cut and extremely tasty, and the onion rings were also excellent.
The only real quibble we had with our meal was the Grilled Cheese sandwich off the kid menu. The outside of the bread was too lightly grilled — and the cheese inside wasn’t completely melted either. Most likely it was a compromise made to the busy night in the restaurant, and nothing a few more minutes on the grill wouldn’t have cured.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the shakes. Just standard flavors — chocolate, strawberry and vanilla — but our vanilla malt was sure delicious and a great complement to the meal.
Habit’s motto is: Respect the Burger. We plan to maintain that respect by trying even more of the Charburger options — there’s at least six — on future visits.
THE HABIT BURGER GRILL
Where: 232 N. West State St. Suite 101, American Fork
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
Prices: $3.10-$7.75 for entrees
Phone:(801) 756-1453 (number does not ring locally), habitburger.com