Smile Cafe

Address: 400 S 200 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84111. 801.532.1977.

Review: Smile Cafe is one of those places you just want to like. It's a small joint that serves standard American fare alongside Korean foodstuffs. The list of burgers is innovative and surprisingly extensive. And they have sweet potato fries. So, how was the actual food? Let's discuss.

I ordered the pineapple teriyaki burger and some sweet potato fries.

The fries were light and crispy crunchy. Smile's fry sauce complimented the sweetness of the fries quite nicely. Honestly, these were as good as sweet potato fries get. That said, I can never eat an entire order of sweet potato fries, even these ones. They always end up being just a bit too sweet. Anyway, Smile's fries are good eats and my sweetness aversion should not take away from that fact.

The pineapple teriyaki burger.

Hmm. The bun (i.e., the most important part of the burger) was white as a sheet and pretty flavorless. Moreover, after five bites, the juice and teriyaki sauce saturated the bun and it fell apart, making eating the other 2/3 of the burger a messy chore. The amount of meat was substantial, but it was overcooked and had become somewhat dry. Moisture was provided by teriyaki sauce, which didn't taste very teriyaki-y, and a pineapple ring, which came from a can. In the end, everything was muddled and messy.

My buddy had the spicy egg burger, which he really enjoyed. It looked pretty good, but I didn't taste it, so all I have to base my review on is my burger, which wasn't.

Rating: 4/10 (5/10 is average).