I am not the kind of person who has a favorite restaurant. Going to the same place over and over has always felt boring to me. Yet somehow I’ve become hooked on the Griffon Gastropub.  We’ve been there three times and have ordered the same thing all three times. I’m completely shocked at myself but it has been exactly the right thing to hit the spot.

I cook dinner 6-7 nights a week and I always cook healthy food – chicken or fish and lots of veggies. Lately when we go out the thing I crave the most is a really good burger and really good fries. And it is actually pretty hard to find. But the Griffin has hit the spot.

We start with the nachos. I never order nachos but they just caught my eye the first time. I love them because they are gluten free (hurray) and have vegetables (tomatoes, black beans, corn, lettuce, olives), cheese and a creamy sauce. They aren’t spicy and they are warm and gooey.

Then we share a burger. Although they have gluten-free rolls, we get ours without and without the onion rings (not GF). We order it with smoked Gouda. The burger is thick and has a wonderful depth of flavor and is a little bit crunchy on the outside. It comes with a whole pickle. The burger is served with fries which we order without seasoning (the seasoning is not GF). The fries are thick, super crispy and fluffy inside. They are not cooked in a dedicated fryer, but that works for us since we do not have celiac.

Somehow splitting these two plates is just the perfect weekend fun food for me.

We tried the house made lemon water the first time and it is far too sour, so we always get regular water. There is something weird about getting a table. Twice we have arrived around 5 and been told the only seats were those at the tall tables in the front by the bar, even though the entire back room was completely empty. Once we were seated in the back. I don’t know if they are regularly booking large parties in the back but it can be tricky to get a table here. I have now realized I need to specifically tell the server not to bring the burger until we are done with the nachos. Twice they have brought it while we are in the middle of the nachos. And finally on our last visit the burger was not cooked medium as we specified. It was bloody. When we asked the server to take it back, she tried to tell us it was medium. The customer is always right – you should not be arguing with me about whether the food is cooked the way I want it. Then she tried to leave the fries for us to “nibble.” I explained I wanted to eat them together and I wanted them to be hot. I was a bit surprised when the kitchen took the burger we had cut into and cooked it more – further melting off the cheese that was on top. We had a better experience the other two visits, so I hope this was an anomaly.

For about $25 this is a can’t be beat easy dinner out and we will surely return again.