Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Bermuda Inn

103 E Hundred Rd
Chester, VA 23836
(804) 530-5454

 


I’m sure many of you are asking yourselves, “Where on earth is Bermuda Inn”?  It is a dumpy little wooden building on Rt. 10 with BBQ pits out front. I’m sure that most people have passed it 100 times without noticing it and if you did notice you would never even consider stopping there.  Well unlike most people I’ve always wanted to eat there, I had mistakenly assumed that they cooked BBQ. Last week when Amanda was in Baltimore I convinced my uncle, Corey, and our friend Robert to join me there for dinner because I had read online that they have the “the best freakin’ burgers on the planet”.  I hate gross overstatements so I wanted to go and debunk this one.

Well I must admit that the dinner started out a little bumpy with me missing the restaurant because it is a hole in the wall and had to drive down to Sheetz, turn around, wait at the light drive past Bermuda Inn and make a U-turn to get there. As we pulled up we noticed that the open sign was on but there was not a car in the parking lot and practically no lights inside. I peaked in the window and saw an older lady playing video poker at the bar, so we walked in. Boy did we not know what we walked in to. The restaurant had a huge pool table right smack in the middle of the place with three lonely tables pushed up to the edge of the walls. In two of the corners there was junk piled up practically to the ceiling and there were three rickety looking stools at the bar. There was one dim light on in the whole place when walked in but our waitress/cook/owner/possible mass murderer plugged in another light that gave us just enough light to see the various mounted animals on the walls covered in cobwebs and in various states or decay and dilapidation. The two that I vividly remember were the mounted deer butt and the squirrel with wings which hung over us looking ready to attack.

Our waitress brought us our menus and took our drink orders and to our horror did not include sweet tea. After settling for a Pepsi (in a can for $1.50) I looked at the menu. It consisted of burgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, and various sandwiches including BBQ that was not smoked on site along with a few specials written on a blackboard.  I told the fellas that I heard that there burgers were good so we all ordered burgers and got potato skins $5.95 and two orders of onion rings $2.00 each as appetizers.  The cheese burger was $3.25; I added chili and fried onions for $0.75 each and slaw for $0.35.  Our appetizers came out rather quickly for a place where it looked like she might have to go out back and dig up the potatoes. We received 6 potato skins that were covered in cheese and bacon with sour cream to dip them in. They were ok but not worth six dollars in my opinion. Our two servings of onion rings looked a whole lot like one serving with only about seven or eight on the plate. Although there were not very many of them they were pretty good, a nice thick slice of onion surrounded by a crisp and crunch shell.

We were able to finish the appetizers before our burgers arrived. I have to admit that for a crappy little restaurant the burgers were really good. They were by no means the “best on the planet” or even the best I’ve ever had but they were thick, juicy, and extremely flavorful and did not appear to just be some frozen patty. They were served on thick, fresh rolls which came as the biggest surprise.  They were not overly huge but they were enough to fill you up. My only complaint about them was that I felt a little skimped on the chili, there was just enough to give it a chili flavor. The slaw and onions on the other hand were loaded onto the burger. The slaw tasted store bought but the onions were cooked to soft and sweet perfection. 

While, I will probably never return to Bermuda Inn and recommend that if you want to get a good burger there are better places in the Tri-Cities to get one, I must admit that I did enjoy Bermuda Inn; partly because the burgers were good and partly because of the excitingly scary feeling that I was in some cheesy horror movie and was about to be made into a hamburger for the next unsuspecting visitor.  But in the end we made it out with our lives and our belly’s full. I must tell everyone one frightening detail that one must know before they decide to venture into Bermuda Inn… they do not take plastic so make sure your bring cash.

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