Sobelman’s Tallgrass Grill

Sobelman’s grill is a good place to eat at. Seeing that i havent had beef in about 10 years i stuggle with finding places who serve turkey burgers. Not Sobelman’s. I ordered a turkey burger with onion rings. My friend had a burger as well with a appetizer and a drink.
The total price was astounding, i figured we might as well have went out to eat. However, the food was not bad at all. The server was nice and explained things on the menu that we had questions about without a problem. This was my first time at Sobelman’s and maybe my last not because of the food or service, but because of the prices. I enjoyed the food but i wouldnt want to spend 20 $ everytime i stop in.
Sobelman’s is a good place to stop in if you have a taste for a certain type of food or dish and you have a couple extra dollars. Otherwise you could say a few bucks and find free parking at Pizza Shuttle, parking for Sobelman’s is not the best to mind you.
Enjoy

I have not had a good experience at Sobelman’s Tallgrass Grill. Normally I enjoy a Sobelman’s burger, but it has been disappointing at Tallgrass Grill. Often the order is wrong and the service is off. It’s like the staff is always new and does not know what to do. The last time I stopped in I waited for 20 minutes and then the guy came to ask me again what I ordered because they failed to start the order. And the place was empty!
I’d recommend trying another place. Comet is just across the road and The Eatery is down the hill. Both have great food and service.

For me this place really was just a-​ok. The burger was good but far from the best that I have ever tasted. The bun is delicious and not overpowering to the burger itself. The fries were the just plain limp and lifeless and that’s no good as a burger joint needs to have the fryalated arts mastered. I really do like that they use quality ingredients without requiring you to break out the Visa. However, I don’t plan to visit again in the near future as I feel that there are so many burger joints in Milwaukee that simply do it better!

I will say this in the first line of the review in the sake of transparency. I have never been to Sobelman’s Pub (Original Sobelmans)!
With that being said, I am a huge fan of this place. The Jalapeño Bacon Cheeseburger has been my go to with a side of fries and Root Beer. I remember when they had a promotion for UWM students and I ate this every weekend for a good two months. The bun is amazing. The seasoning is great but sometimes the burger gets a little overdone if you order a lot at one time.
Overall, good place to pick up a burger and bring it to your house to watch the Pack or cure a pounding head from drinking the night before.

When I scroll over a 3-​star rating, it says «A-​OK.» That’s exactly what this Sobelman’s location is: A-​OK. The burgers are good, but not great. The fries are good, but not great. The location is great, but the store is small.
If you think of it as an alternative to fast food, it is spectacular, but if you think of it as a restaurant it is unremarkable. Don’t get me wrong, I like Sobelman’s and I will return. That said, it really does not deserve more than three stars.

Having just moved here, I’ve been told that Sobelman’s had one of the best burgers in town. I just ordered a bacon cheeseburger basket. The fries were good. The bun was really good; possibly the highlight. The cheese was melted as it should be, and the bacon was delicious. The burger itself, wasn’t very flavorful at all. It just didn’t taste like much of anything. I’ll probably skip this place in the future.

I had heard so much about how great Sobleman’s was that I had high expectations. Best burger of Milwaukee? Hmphhhh.
I ordered the Loser burger which had cheese, fried onions and Nueske’s bacon. The bun for the burger was nice — great egg wash on it. The burger was average as was the fries.
Loved that they had Sprecher rootbeer as a fountain drink — big props to that.
As another reviewer said the volume of music there is a bit loud. Maybe awesome for late night post-​bar dining but not when I actually care to hear the conversation at my table. Oh well. Maybe I’ll give it a second shot sometime…

Very disappointed on a week night in early December — just maybe not the atmosphere intended for our demographic… We went with a livingsocial deal.
Parking is basically non-​existent, the dopy guy who delivers you your basket can barely grunt, let alone speak coherently on our night.
Seating is in short supply, crowded and uncomfortable, and DIRTY!
I had just «normal» expectations — we buy Tallgrass beef form Sendiks Markets. I have heard raving reviews about Sobelmans…
Failure — beef burger the hubs had was dry, my bison burger was more like compressed cardboard — and I asked for medium rare. It is definitely a preformed patty, which is not a bad thing, but the cook does not know how to prepare the leaner meat.
The fries that come with the burgers are battered — so not so good when they get cool.
I threw out my second cert — just not worth it.

I was very excited to give this place a try. I met up with some friends here before going to a movie. A little pre-​movie food. I ordered the Jalapeño Bacon Cheeseburger, as it was recommended highly. The ordering process was simple — make your order, get your soda and sit down. They brought the food out to me. This may vary depending on how busy it is, but I thought it was a nice little touch. Unlike your normal fast food joint where you stand around waiting for your order to come up.
So my burger arrived, looking nice. I started with the fries, which were a nice thick cut. Used a little ketchup, and enjoyed. The burger I didn’t mess with in terms of adding ketchup or anything — see how it stood on its own. It was a nice burger, but not mindblowing. It had a nice full flavor, and the jalapeño was not overpowering, but gave a nice hint of flavor.
Sprecher on tap — thumbs up. Décor, was fun. The space is kind of small, but their business may not dictate a larger space. There were just 5 people there when I was, which was a Wednesday night around 6:00. Pleasant, clean and just a good place to hang out and chat with some friends while enjoying a burger.
I would go up to 3.5 on this, I may be a little too harsh just because my expectations were set so high!

We decided to try this place on a whim and I am glad we did, it was really good! I can’t comment on the burgers, since we don’t eat beef. But I was so happy that they have veggie burgers and free range chicken (they also have turkey burgers) and any of these can be substituted in any of their burgers. It was soo good! I loved that atmosphere, too. I like the diner type atmosphere. They also have Sprecher and Lakefront to drink. We will definitely be coming back!
P. S. the only negative about this place is no mac ‘n cheese…

I DON’T GET IT
Once in awhile I stumble upon something that just doesn’t make sense to me. For instance – Brenda Lee, please explain to us what the heck it means to dance around merrily in the «new old-​fashioned» way? New old-​fashioned? Whatever.
…Well, now you can add this place to my list of things that just don’t add up!
A friend of mine was ravenous, and as we were driving by he asked me to stop at Sobleman’s, since neither of us were familiar with the Milwaukee icon. Sure, why not.
When I walked in and looked at the surroundings, I felt like I was there to get an oil change; not to eat anything. It was very chrome-​y and cold, like a garage. This space was converted from a Pattyburger location to its current incarnation as Sobleman’s Tallgrass Burgers.
One can see the remnants of Pattyburger in the décor. The walls are green with darker green polka dots. That part is fine. It’s the oversized plastic green inverted dome lights that are so bright they make you feel like you’re an item on a salad bar. The tables have those fake chrome tops with the «swirly» pattern that makes them look über cheap and unsophisticated. The seating looks like silver, metal lawn chairs. The floor is cement. There are hanging neon, and some faux-​neon signs around the perimeter of the little box restaurant.
There are displays of condiments on top of beer cases, along a cold-​looking wall that segregates the dining area from the counter where you place your orders. And that is the perfect segue to talk about the food itself. The burgers are between $ 6-​$ 8 and that includes fries. Drinks are extra, and they have beer, fountain drinks, and some premium sodas in bottles. My friend had a Sprecher and burger/​fries combo, and it was just short of $ 10. The menu is simple, which I kind of favor.
Now, I had already eaten, but my friend let me sample his meal so that I could write this review. Yeah, my friends are cool like that. The fries were BAD, and I mean BAD. They were reminiscent of the french fries served at my high school cafeteria: overly cooked, was our verdict. Burned. Not a great taste. My friend said «cooked in too much oil», which doesn’t make sense to me. What else would you cook fries in? But I think he meant they were cooked too long, and the grease was not shaken from them when they came out of the fryer.
The burger is represented as «The healthiest burger in Milwaukee». It might be, but my friend said that if it weren’t advertised as being any special type of meat, he wouldn’t have known. We both assessed the burger as a step up from McDonald’s, but not as good as a sit-​down restaurant’s $ 6.95 burger. The texture was crumbly. The bun was interesting though. Kind of an egg-​glazed texture on top. The avocado should really be slices – not a guacamole puss-​like, green sauce. The flavor was okay, but not the best we’d ever had.
The service was straight forward: guy in hat takes order, guy in hat brings out order in a heavy duty, big-​ass paper grocery bag (like the old fashioned ones grocery stores used circa 1980. HEY, you could even say they are «new old-​fashioned»).
We were the only two patrons in the place at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night. You get the idea?
SOBLEMAN’S CAN BE FIXED
A few tweaks and Sobleman’s Tallgrass could be a destination for great burgers!
First, the décor could be warmed up. Get rid of the heavy duty hydroponic pot-​growing ceiling light fixtures, and opt for some really unique fixtures and add a rheostat so that the brightness can be dimmed. Or how about table-​top lighting, hmmm? The green on the walls and the polka dots are a fine start, but how about warming it up with, ummm, I don’t know… some bright green, serene looking fake TALL GRASS around the entire perimeter. The cement floor could be warmed up to a sage color. Table tops could be replaced with some white lacquer tops (covered in glass). The industrial prison cafeteria napkin and condiment holders could be replaced with some green designer version – think Kurt Adler.
Next, the food. Just replace the fries. Period. Make them spectacular. This will make or break the place, seriously. Season the burgers with a little celery salt – you need a signature flavor, and right now you’ve got nothin’. Butter the buns and put them on the grill – get some grill marks on them. This could make them amazing. Fix the crumbly meat texture problem. Use real avocados.
Two stars for a place with untapped potential and an unfortunate location where parking is limited. If tweaked, it could be worth finding parking. But, eh, not so wonderful yet.

I thought this restaurant was a’ight. I got a mushroom and swiss veggie burger and it was okay. Not much cheese or mushrooms on it. I felt like it needed some sort of sauce, but I wasn’t sure what. The ones on the table didn’t seem right. I got cheese fries and I like that they serve the cheese on the side.
They have Sprecher sodas and those are always great. The restaurant itself is cheerful and clean. Terrible music, though.

FYI: This review is based solely on takeout order (not the actual space).
— — — –
Enter the best veggie burger I’ve ever had. Ever!
Today at work they ordered us lunch which means that they expect us to work through lunch (as I’m beginning to realize). But that’s ok by me when I found out where it was from!
I ordered the Mushroom & Swiss burger (veggie)… Boy oh boy. the FLAVOR! I didn’t even need any condiments! The mushrooms were fresh and abundant. The swiss melty good. But the true star here was that flavor packed veggie burger!
Tastebuds delight.

I ate here a couple weeks ago, and I remember nothing about the food. I think it was fine. Avocado spread – not slices of actual avocado.
The ambience was crappy. The were blasting KISS FM, which is not really what I have in mind when settling in for a burger and pile of fries. I mean, pop music is awesome. I love it. But it was LOUD techno dance mix or something that went on forever. I went to the counter and asked the woman to turn it down, and she looked at me as if I had asked to put my finger up her nose. The volume did not change.
On that note, I won’t bring my parents here again. I will insist that we drive down to the good Sobelman’s on St. Paul. I think the burgers are better there too, and most definitely better service.

There’s just so much hype. There’s hype about Sobelman’s. There’s hype about being grass fed beef. Hype Hype Hype.
I know the great food gods of Milwaukee will probably hunt me down, but I’m not impressed. There I said it.
There’s an off taste to the burgers every single time. I keep going back because my fiancé keeps making me (he’s a sucker for hype). I like grass fed beef — I’ve eaten in in a variety of other ways at other establishments and even at home. It isn’t the beef that’s the problem.
The cashiers could easily be replaced by a talking cardboard box. The fries are just fries. Don’t believe the hype. You will be let down.

Just not good. I had the cheeseburger and the bun was huge compared to the patty. It was so dry I had to swallow with a gulp of soda.
Maybe I need to stop reviewing burger joints, they never get very good ratings from me.

This place ROCKS. Everything I had was delicious.
Now if only there were one in Chicago…:hint, hint:
Super nice. Clean. Quick. Just how I like my men… and my burger joints!

This place isn’t all its cracked up to be. The burger I had was mediocre at best. The fries were very average.
The main thing that frustrated me was both my companion and I ordered a build your own style burger. We each ordered avocado. Side note — not real slices of avocado, but rather a spread. Back to the story, I was charged an extra $.75, she was charged an extra $.50. Not only were we not told about this hidden charge, but then we were charged different amounts.
When I went to ask the guy at the register, he pretty much shrugged me off. The burgers were small.

Full disclosure: I’ve never had the Original Sobelman’s, so I can’t compare the burgers to the Pub. The Tallgrass Grill is a small, clean little restaurant on the fashionable East Side, across from Comet Café.
My sister and I met here for an afternoon burger and lo and behold, we two twins both ordered the Fresca Burger with chipotle jack cheese, avocado, and raw red onions. Good on paper, kind of mediocre in the mouth. For one, we both would have prefered sliced avocado over the squeeze bottle variety avo spread, and the chipotle jack didn’t really have a kick.
S’s Tallgrass Grill serves Sprecher bottle sodas and Sprecher beer on tap. Service is good and the bathrooms are nice and clean. It’s a nice relaxing atmosphere, but not the greatest burger on the block.

Went here because we tried to go to Comet across the street, but the kitchen had just closed.
They have a veggie burger here that is vegan. It was just so-​so for me. Seemed like a black-​bean version of Trader Joe’s masala burger. Came with fries, and they were decent. Place could have been a little cleaner, but it wasn’t bad, just typical for a fast food joint. Service was decent.
Basically this place will do in a pinch, but I don’t think I’d really go out of my way for it.