Smash Burger Fargo

Overpriced. Underwhelming.

Smashburger recently opened its doors in Fargo. We decided to check it out. On the way home, I stopped by to order two sandwiches and two sides "to go". They don't have a drive-up window so you do need to park and go in to order...from their order taker. Let's call him Raymond. My first impression of the place was from Raymond - not good. (Wouldn't you want to put someone with some personality and professionalism on your front line?) He was looking down and yawning more than listening and communicating. I started trying to order but wasn't sure if he was paying attention. In the meantime, there must have been two dozen employees all moving around but none of them were doing anything. My order was supposed to be one classic smashburger without onions and an order of smashfries, plus one classic crispy chicken sandwich without onions with an order of veggie frites: to go. With tax, the order came to $17.08, which did not include any drinks. I was thinking that in order to overcome my bad first impressions of the place, some incredible food would be the only possible redemption. At home, a few minutes later, we opened our to-go containers to find: 1. sandwiches that showed little evidence of any recent heat (even tho the to-go bag was next to the floor heater for the two-minute drive home) and 2. side orders of jokingly small proportion. The classic smashburger ($4.99) and crispy classic chicken ($5.99) both had onions, even tho "no onions" was written on the side of the to-go container. The veggie frites ($2.99) yielded about eight small pieces of flash-fried asparagus and eight small pieces of flash-fried carrots (and no green beans as is mentioned on the menu). Bottom line: If you are in Fargo looking for a bite to eat, take your business to Culver's where the same meal would have been $5 less and twice as good, or McDonald's where you would have spent half as much and gotten twice as much food. We came away from our Smashburger experience with average food, small portions, high prices, and poor service. Any questions?