As I’m sure I have mentioned on a hundred previous occasions “Buffalo” is possibly the greatest flavor that can be combined with nachos, especially via the medium of chicken. This is not to say that other edibles can’t be “buffaloed” (as in “made buffalo flavored” not as in “to confuse”), such as the tasty buffalo buffalo I have made before in my kitchen, but rarely are combinations like this seen in restaurants out in the wild though. Every once and awhile though you will come across something out of the ordinary that has been given the buffalo treatment, such as buffalo shrimp, and when faced with unicorns like these you simply must give them a try. Enter The Fix Burger Bar.
The Fix has been subject to review before for their House Fried Potato Chip Nachos with Short Rib, but then they went and added something crazy to their menu: Buffalo Shrimp Potato Chip Nachos. Being an esteemed member of their Burger Club, I decided the day I noticed this to cast aside my thought of eating a burger (I was going to have “The General”, their tastiest burger, get it while you can) and go for these instead. That was a mistake.
When having had buffalo shrimp in the past what I was presented with was some shrimp that had been covered in buffalo sauce like buffalo chicken bits would be, so I was a little taken aback to be presented here with just plain old shrimp. You know what looks real sad just by itself and even more out of place when on top of some potato chips nachos? Plain old shrimp. As you can see in the above picture, overall the nachos look a little not buffalo at all, what with the almost no distinctive spicy red buffalo sauce look other than the merest hint of sauce. Sure, carrots and celery and blue cheese are all important things associated with the “buffalo” experience, but they are distant second (blue cheese), third (celery), and fourth (carrot) on the list of what makes buffalo buffaloey.
What these are basically is Shrimp, Carrot, Celery, and Blue Cheese Nachos, with just a hint of spice. If they put that down instead of “Buffalo Shrimp” I would not have been nearly as sold as it as I was, which is probably why they named it like they did. Even the scallions that the menu promised were missing, which would have at least jazzed up the color pallet of the dish and made it visually more interesting. Flavorwise all these ingredients are the least tasty part associated with eating something known as “buffalo”, and really the part that most buffalo wing eaters probably pass on, save the blue cheese of course. I get that this is a “take” or “interpretation” of the buffalo experience and you can’t not call these Buffalo Shrimp Nachos, but I think people, like myself, getting these and expecting them to be what the average person would consider being buffalo are going to be disappointed. I’m your average person, and I was disappointed, both because these weren’t very good and because I could have instead gotten a burger that would have been great instead!
In much the same way you don’t go to Home Depot to get sushi, a sushi place to get a burger, or a burger and sushi place to get some 12x12 acoustic ceiling panels, don’t go to some place known for making something great and instead get something they’re not known for and isn’t great. Those are pretty good rules to live your life by, and seriously, go to The Fix for a burger rather than nachos. The General. The Bacon Blue.The Phenomenal. The Ghostface. The Rambling Wreck. The Splurge. Those are all names of burgers they make, and the order of deliciousness I would eat them in, and all of them are better than these nachos, or even their short rib nachos that are pretty tasty. I feel like I’m betraying my kind doing it, but I have to say definitely go for a burger over nachos here. Guess it’s time to hang up my nacho hat and start up Burgernomics...
Also they need to bring back their Cherry Phosphates, and bring them back ASAP.
