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- Address:
- 7561 Sawmill Rd, Dublin, OH, 43016
- Phone:
- 614-734-1008
- Overall User Rating:
-
(1 rating)
In preparation for a long night out, veteran partiers know a calorie-packed dinner can be a major benefit later in the evening, preventing serious ailments like, well, hangovers.
We are firm believers that such magical meals include the classics served daily at Dublin's new establishment, Graffiti Burger—burgers, fries and shakes, cooked fast and in a comfortably graffiti-ed atmosphere that brings the street food back to the street mentality.
Food: Graffiti Burger is great for people who like simple things. The menu consists solely of burgers, fries and shakes, with just a few options in between. There are three different ways to have the single or double Angus burgers, and then a fourth option with a bean patty for those veggies out there. The house burger, known as the graffiti burger ($4.99), consists of two patties that come in around a half a pound when combined, topped with lettuce, tomato, American cheese, the house-made, vinegar-based cole slaw, and the special Graffiti sauce, which contains 15 different spices.
Sadly, these spices somehow cancel each other out, and the burger ends up tasting a bit average while also being greasy enough to rival Five Guys. We recommend trying the "make your own burger," choosing among the 18 toppings available, like provolone, pickles, onions, chipotle sauce, pepper jack cheese, mayo, etc. Pick as many toppings as you like—the price is set no matter how much you add on. The toppings are pretty standard, and the menu doesn't offer any creative ways to combine them, so be sure to bring your imagination for the real chance to tag your burger.
If you're hungry, you can order a combo meal with fries and a shake added to the burger order ($7.99 for Graffiti Burger combo, $7.79 for other burgers). The fries at Graffiti Burger are similar to what you might find in a cup at a fair, only you're at a restaurant, so the fact that they are kind of tasteless and obviously from the bottom of the fryer basket is a little less forgivable here. In the same experience we had one basket that looked well cooked (but still flavorless) and another basket that contained all the obvious runts of the fryer, which were ultimately inedible.
Libations: We've done the dirty work for you, testing both the chocolate and strawberry shakes. The chocolate left a little to be desired (namely more chocolate) but the strawberry was pretty tasty, with real berries blended in and a whole strawberry in the mound of whipped cream on top. However, you get what you pay for—the strawberry shake had an extra charge, probably because it used actual fruit. We would like to see the folks at Graffiti Burger combine the chocolate and strawberry shakes into one super-powered shake ... the restaurant did just open in May, so here's hoping.
Décor: The inside of Graffiti Burger is completely covered in professionally done graffiti in vibrant colors, with a range of text stating general hype about the place, visualizations of decked-out burgers, and a grayish background to give the illusion that all of this was done on a stone wall in an alley somewhere. The reality of the situation is that you're in Dublin, in a recently built shopping plaza, giving the place the feel or a very clean Panera or Chipotle. The chairs and tables are all new and modern, and there is plenty of seating inside, plus some patio tables along the sidewalk that wraps around the outside.
We've heard that the original idea was to allow customers to be able to tag the walls themselves, but this didn't pan out, to both positive and negative effects. It would be notably more cool to be able to paint (or even just draw in pencil) on the walls, but we can't imagine how this could be done in a way that wouldn't be a health hazard. Or in a way that would prevent people from painting swear words and naked bodies everywhere.
Service: A great thing about Graffiti Burger is the service, which is similar to Chipotle, except they deliver the food to you at your table after you order it from the counter. That's nice, and the employees are great about stopping by the table throughout your meal to make sure everything is going all right and to remove trash and empty baskets. The service was efficient, as well. There was no line on a Saturday night around 7:30, but there were a decent number of people dining in at the time.
Crowd: Most of the folks eating at Graffiti Burger are likely to come from the general suburb area, or to be drawn in by the lure of co-owners Jim Torski (former vice president of operations at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants) and George Tanchevski (best known for working with Aladdin's Giorgio in Clintonville). You'll find high school and college-age kids gathering round, as well as groups of suburbanite families and older couples who are curious about what exactly graffiti has to do with burgers.
Insider's tip: This eatery can be hard to track down, but it is located in plain sight in the modern-looking plaza near the corner of Sawmill Road and Hard Road. It is in one of the smaller buildings closer to Sawmill, aside from the main plaza set further back from the street.
Bottom line: Graffiti Burger is worth a try, but maybe not worth a trip outside of your neighborhood, as it's not exactly trying something new. But if a solid load of food before a long night out is what you're after, Graffiti Burger is up to the challenge.
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