Burgers in Vegas: a #mix11 review

We missed the IE In-N-Out Tweetup last night, which is a shame; In-N-Out is a classic burger that's always a great standby. On balance, I'd say Five Guys is a better burger and there's a slightly wider choice (definitely more toppings) and I like it because it reminds me of the Pony Express burger and fried chicken joint of my childhood (in Southport so we'd either been shopping or to the beach (well, expanse of sand) or the fair) (and we rarely stopped so it was a treat)), but in Vegas the Five Guys is in Henderson rather than not far off the strip (it's Vegas, assume 'not far' means car or cab). I'm quite fond of Steak n Shake - maybe not quite up to In-N-Out but the shakes are better - but that's in South Point, which isn't Vegas either.

Further up the scale, there's a new trend of gourmet burger shake bars. Our favourite is BLT (Burger Laurent Tourel) in the mirage; superb burgers, great sweet potato fries, awesome alcoholic shakes, fun toppings. Last night we tried Holstein's Shakes and Buns in the Cosmopolitan which has about 100 beers. I'm still uncertain about the Weiz Guys light heffeweizen Simon had but my Buckbean Orange Blossom ale (Nevada Brewery) was very nice and almost musky. I had the bacon and aged goat cheese arugula sirloin burger - I'd give the burger patty an 8 and the bun a 6. Shoestring and sweet potato fries both excellent. It doesn't have the fun shirts of BLT (tip waiters not cows) but I'm hard pressed to pick one patty over the other...

My tweets

• Thu, 09:04: You’re already paying for biometrics in business laptops, so is it time for your business to start using them? #itpro http://bit.ly/fbR1iE
• Thu, 18:51: Burgers in Vegas: a #mix11 review http://j.mp/igjeks