Maddy’s Diner 23

Maddy’s Diner 23 is a cute retro diner-style building with oldies playing and old memorabilia posters and signs on the wall. When we walked in, there was a sign that said we should seat ourselves, so we picked out a booth along the front windows of the diner.

It is a nice-looking establishment. The bathrooms were clean and the servers were friendly, although ours was new and a little overly attentive.

There wasn't an orthodox Reuben sandwich on the menu, so I ordered the Reuben Burger, which sounded pretty normal except for the substitution of hamburger patties for the corned beef. I was curious as to how it would turn out.

It seemed to take a while for our order to be delivered, but not a ridiculous amount of time. When the Reuben Burger arrived, it looked pretty much like what I would expect. The rye bread was pretty light in color, and it was clear that it had been buttered generously before grilling the sandwich.

For the 1/2 pound of beef, they put two hamburger patties on the sandwich—right against the bottom slice of rye, which was already getting a little soggy. The hamburger wasn't super flavorful, so I added a few shakes of salt between the patties. The Swiss cheese was melted nicely against the top patty and tasted very good.

The sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing were a little on the light side, so the overall taste of the sandwich was very much like a burger. The sandwich was messy and the dressing dripped out of the sandwich quite a bit.

Overall, I felt that the Reuben Burger failed as both a Reuben and as a burger. Unfortunately, the ground beef just didn't have the same tangy flavor that corned beef or pastrami would have. And the vibrant flavors of the sauerkraut and Thousand Island just didn't blend well with the ground beef. In my opinion, the sandwich would have been many times better if it were just a patty melt without the sauerkraut and Thousand Island.

Overall, the flavors didn't complement each other very well. Instead of cooperation between the ingredients, it tasted more like a competition. Part of that could be that they put two ground beef patties on the sandwich, which maybe tipped the scale too much to the burger side of the equation. I might want to try the same recipe but with a quarter pound of beef instead of a half pound. I have had Reuben Burgers before, but they had one beef patty along with corned beef on the same sandwich—and those were good. Perhaps that's something that Maddy’s diner should think about if they keep this item on their menu.

I would recommend Maddy's Diner 23, for the atmosphere and the other menu items, but I wouldn't recommend it for their Reuben Burger.