CG Burger's is a 'local' fast/casual chain that has recently grown quite a bit in South Florida. I've dined at the Palm Beach Gardens location and liked it so I kind of knew what to expect (or hopefully expect) once their new location in Ft. Lauderdale opened. The Ft. Lauderdale location is smaller than most of the other locations and the menu does not include pizza. This really isn't a problem for me, since making the menu too large can be a problem with quality and consistency.

The Ft. Lauderdale location is in a small addition to a strip mall on US1 (between Oakland Park Blvd and Sunrise) that also contains a brand new Chipotle and Pei Wei restaurant. The strip mall itself has gone through an impressive renovation with lots of new stores (HH Gregg, Ulta Beauty..just to name a few). The restaurant is dine-in or take out. You place your order at the counter and can be seated. Rather than call names..they actually have a CG Burger worker deliver your food based on the number you are given when you complete your order. It's a number sign that you place in a holder on the table…kind of like Panera used to do prior to the 'pager' system they use now.


(CG Burgers - Ft. Lauderdale...inside)

The menu has Burgers, Wings (fire grilled), Mahi-mahi sandwich, chicken and some sides like zucchini fries and hand cut french fries. They also offer a salad bar that comes in 3 sizes - Side, One Trip and All-You-Can-Eat. Shakes are also available along with the 'new' Coke Robo machine for soda drinkers. Oh…and they do have beer on tap! .

The restaurant is very pleasing to the eye and if seated in a booth…it's actually a nice spot to eat. There are 2 large 'slab' type tables in the center of the room with tables scattered around. Booths line the inside parameter of the restaurant and there are also a few tables outside.





The salad bar has quite a few options, which was impressive given the small space it's contained in. I almost think that the salad bar had more 'items' that the one at Ruby Tuesdays.


(CG Burgers - Ft. Lauderdale...Salad Bar)

The 'Robo-Coke' machine is the new tech based soda machine popping up all over. The machine allows you to choose many many different soda combinations. You can choose a Raspberry Diet Coke flavor…or an Orange Coke Zero flavor…they even have different flavors of Sprite. I like it and hope more restaurants install it.


(Robo-Coke machine - CG Burgers, Ft. Lauderdale)

We approached the order counter and found the people working there to be quite friendly. We ordered 10 wings…buffalo flavor - hot. I ordered a Pub burger with lettuce, tomato and onion with a side of zucchini fries. Jeff ordered a pub burger with horseradish, onion, tomato, lettuce and I think jalapeno. He also went for the side salad.

It seems that they bring everything to the table at once…so if you think you are going to have something as an appetizer…you probably won't have that opportunity. We figured that this would be the case…so our strategy was to just sample the wings and take the rest home. The wings arrived and looked great. They have a slight char from the grill. They were pretty large and had a great grilled taste that went well with the hot sauce. While we ordered hot, I didn't find this sauce extremely hot and liked it. They also have another version of the wings…we tried them in Palm Beach Gardens. They are grilled with olive oil and spices with pepper flakes. We found that version a bit too oily. Our left over wings were just as good heated up the next day too.


(CG Burgers - 10 piece grilled wings with hot buffalo sauce)

The side salad is a small dish where you are allowed to make one trip to the salad bar. While the items were fresh, I think the prices for the salad are a bit too high. The side salad runs $3.95 and I believe the All-You-Can Eat option runs around $9. While everything tasted fresh and there were some cool dressings…they should drop the price a bit to keep the turnover of items consistent.


(Jeff's salad bar trip - Side Salad)

Jeff's pub burger (6 oz) was LOADED with horseradish. While I'm not a fan of the root…Jeff loved it and didn't leave anything on the plate.


(Jeff's Pub Burger - CG Burgers, Ft. Lauderdale)

I'm not one to get too many toppings most of the time. I'm glad I kept my choices limited so that I could see how the burger tasted. It was really good. While you can't order the single, double or pub burgers 'to order'…I didn't mind that it was 'well done'. (You can order the specialty burgers temperature to order.) The meat was slightly salted and had a nice grill crust. One thing I noticed was that it wasn't overly greasy. Some may find it a bit dryer than you are used to…but it made me think I wasn't eating a ton of fat. The zucchini fries were fresh, crisp on the outside and the actual zucchini was soft but not mushy on the inside. I liked them…but think they should offer some kind of dressing to dip them into (I used the blue cheese dressing from our wings) .


(CG Burgers Pub Burger with zucchini fries)

Overall, we liked our meal at CG Burgers. It's a little different than some of the other burger places in town and has some great 'alternative' choices for those not in a burger mood. One thing to note is that your overall bill can go up quite fast. There are some items that will make that total rise up (salad, zucchini fries) but you can find items that are typical burger prices as well ($3-5). Our total bill was around $30 for all of that food and 2 sodas.



CG Burgers location:
1732 North Federal Highway
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

FTLToday Score: B (missed an 'A' due to a few higher priced items)