b.good, Mount Laurel – Review

by Alice Magdziak • May 1, 2016 • Burger Mania, Food • Comments (0) • 2332

National Burger Month started today and we kicked off the celebration at b.good in Mount Laurel. b.good is a chain of restaurants that are located mostly in the Northeast but also in North Carolina, Canada and Switzerland. There are three New Jersey locations—Marlton, Mount Laurel and Wynnewood. The chain focuses on fast food that’s healthy and local. Throughout the Mount Laurel store that we visited were reminders of where all the restaurant’s ingredients came from.

We really liked this aspect. Reading all the names of the farms and in some instances even reading the names of the farmers was inspiring.

Local, fresh ingredients made great burgers and sides, unsurprisingly. We were a party of four when we visited today so we got to try all four of the different types of burgers. The way the menu works is that you choose from a beef, ground turkey, veggie or chicken breast burger and then pick the type of toppings you’d like.

We got the beef burger with the Adopted Luke topping combo which is mushrooms, caramelized onions, smoked Swiss and bbq sauce. The burger was cooked a perfect medium (we weren’t asked how we wanted it cooked) and the mushrooms were the highlight of the toppings. Earthy and well-seasoned, they would have added a great flavor to even the plainest sandwich. We also picked a whole wheat bun on this burger but other than a slightly browner color and some sesame seeds on the top, the whole wheat taste wasn’t very apparent. Maybe that’s a good thing for people trying to eat healthier but who don’t necessarily like whole wheat.

The turkey burger with West-Side toppings—avocado, cilantro, fresh salsa, chipotle puree, lime—was an outstanding sandwich. Initially, there was too much avocado (which presented more like guacamole than plain avocado) that drown out the taste of the burger and other toppings. Once some of the avocado dripped off, it became a better-balanced sandwich and ended up being an extremely well-cooked, delicious burger with great tasting toppings. The chipotle sauce was so good that we asked for a cup of it to dip some fries in. It was sweet and smoky and not too hot.

The topping combo we chose for the chicken breast was a seasonal special one called the Goomba. It came with marinated arugula, smoked Swiss and more of those amazing wild mushrooms. We also chose the white bread bun for this one and it was a home-style bun that soaked up all the burger’s juices nicely.

Finally, the veggie burger was topped with Cousin Oliver’s lettuce, tomato, onions, Chef Tony’s homemade pickles. This was a veggie burger like I’ve never tried before. It was mostly rice-based and wasn’t chock full of visible vegetables like other burgers. This certainly isn’t to say that it didn’t taste good. It was just unusual looking at first. The patty was a pretty neutral taste to build on with fresh toppings. What I also really appreciated was the texture. Many veggie burgers are so moist and vegetable-laden that they smash down and fall out of the sandwich as you’re eating it. This one kept it’s shape and tasted good from first to last bite. We also tried a gluten-free bun with this burger. The great thing about the bun was that it didn’t really have a particular taste or odd texture. I wouldn’t have known it was gluten-free if someone were trying to pull one over on me.

The highlight of this sandwich, oddly enough, was the fresh veggie toppings. I don’t know how Chef Tony makes his pickles but I would buy the pickle juice separately just to use as a salad dressing. It was a little sweet, highly vegetal and completely delicious on the pickles which were thick cut and fresh. The tomatoes were somehow extremely fresh and smelled and tasted like summer even though it was only May 1st. Everyone at the table noted how beautiful they looked when I opened up the bun to see the toppings. Even the lettuce tasted great! This is where I felt the local ingredient aspect of the restaurant really showed through. I could have eaten just the vegetables on a bun and been completely happy.

The fries we tried were good tasting but both the sweet potato and regular fries were pretty cold. Maybe we should have just asked them to heat them through more. The best side we tried was the Crisp Veggies. It came with kale, zucchini, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. All the veggies were indeed still crisp and had a little browning in spots. The vegetables all tasted fresh from the farm and it was a great bowl that was very filling.

We had a great time trying all the burgers at b.good and can’t wait to go back and try their great sounding salads and Kale and Grain bowls. Check out all the pictures from our visit to b.good in Mount Laurel and celebrate National Burger Month with us all May long!