Burger Bar at Lumiere Place

Too often people come to a casino restaurant and expect high class at all their dining establishments. And so you should, however one must understand that the price paid here is for the beef itself and should not be rated low because of pricing. Service was great and food quality was a close 10 for the price. I will eat here again.

Place is closed. I am disappointed — it was the very first place I took my current girlfriend Gail on a date, back in December 2011.

The turkey burgers and the sweet potato fries are fabulous here! I love them and that is what I always get. However, I know others who get the regular burgers aren’t as impressed — but I haven’t tried the beef burgers.
I do like that there are lots of topping choices and bun choices — you can really customize your burger the way you want. Simple to gourmet even.
It is a bit pricey — but for me the turkey burger and sweet potato fries are worth it.

Came here for a later dinner after an MMA fight. Reasoning for coming… it was right there when you exited the Lumiere Theater but if I had a choice I would not have chose this place.
However, I had the veggie burger which was not to my liking. It was like eating mashed veggies with chickpeas and fried up. Tried the chocolate burger for dessert… it was ok but the «patty» which is chocolate with nuts is kind of hard. The pastry does not hold up well when you are trying to figure out how to eat it. It was an ok dessert.
Overall, I think I chose the wrong foods to eat because the people I was with seemed to enjoy their burgers.
The atmosphere is like a bar scene. The waitress we had was pretty non-​existent.
There are mini TV’s at the booths which is nice but there is no sound. The booth chairs pretty comfy.

I came here with a friend ’cause we wanted to try something new. It was very good and we’ll definitely be back. The breakdown:
We ordered the sliders to eat. All of them were good, but I feel the Vegas Vegan could have been just a bit better. The music selection was good but too loud. I know it is a burger bar, but the music was at club level. In a dining experience, I do not want loud music at all. It’s annoying. Each booth in the place was cozy and private, the waitress extremely attendant, and the menu was small with good options especially if you want to play. Price is a little high but what can you expect when rare truffles, Kobe beef, buffalo, and foie gras are on the menu?
Overall, very good, but I have to give it three stars because the music was too damn loud.

Awesome burger. I got the kobe beef– thats some freakin awesome beef, slap a fried egg in top with 2 different cheeses and you got yourself a party in your mouth hole.
To top it off. A massive banana split with carmelized bananas. A great american meal.

I have been here twice since I began working in St. Louis, the first time I had the kobe beef burger with pepperjack cheese and the second time I had the regular burger with american cheese and bacon. To be honest… I couldn’t tell the difference between the two so if I do go back I am going to opt for the cheaper one.
It is a decent burger and I kind of was hoping for something more considering Hubert Keller’s name is attached to the chain. The burgers aren’t anything fancy… unless you happen to get the one with foie gras and truffle sauce. It is a solid burger for the price you would pay.

This place does something magical and mystical — you’ll leave here heavier AND lighter!
(That is – you’ll feel heavier, but your wallet will feel a lot lighter.)
Stopped by here on a visit to Lumiere Place; figured it was worth a shot. Didn’t know anything about the pedigree of the chef or the place — just that it was in the casino, I was hungry, and I was there. Seated quickly (it was late in a Wednesday evening and pretty dead). Server was attentive, patient to answer the questions I had, and was pretty efficient.
First thing you’ll notice when you open the menu — yeah. Pricey, even for a gourmet burger joint. You can either build your own burger (starting with a base at around $ 10 and adding on for extra ingredients ranging from truffles and caramelized onions to good ol’ fashioned bacon and cheddar), or pick one of the select ones. Those come with fries, so there’s a slight savings there, since fries are separate for the main burgers.
The fail here is that the burgers are about 75% the size of what you’d expect to get at the local burger hut. That wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem, except that the prices are about 25% higher than what you’d expect to pay at a gourmet/​specialty burger place. Yes, yes, this place is inside of a casino, so you’d expect it to be a little pricier, but it just seemed like it was a premium price for what turned out to be an OK meal.
This is a place to stop by if you’re going to spend a night at the casino with friends and want to have something fun and cool to eat before a night of gaming. It’s not a place to stop by after you’re done and looking for something casual and cheap to end the evening.
I think the 3 stars is generous; the staff made up for this visit being kind of disappointing. I can see where this place would be appealing; it just wasn’t what I had in mind as a visitor. Now I know better.

Ambience: Pretty cool. Wish they could filter the smoke wafting from the casino better.
Wait Staff: Very attentive and prompt.
Quality and Quantity of food: The Kobe burger will likely be the best burger you will ever eat. Worth the steep $ 16+ pricetag!
Price: We spent about $ 20 person including tip, tax, and drinks
Bottom line: Way better food than one would expect at a Midwest casino. The celebrity chef restaurant is a trend that I hope will continue for a long time! We will definitively return and would highly recommend to anyone visiting downtown St Louis.

I’m a burger enthusiast, to say the least. So when I was told that there was a Burger Bar in the Lumiere, I made it a point to stop by while I was in the Lou.
The concept of celebrity chef owned burger joints is nothing new — I’ve enjoyed offerings by Bobby Flay, Jose Garces and MIchael Symon in the past. And while I dont consider Hubert Keller to be on the same level as these other names, I still appreciate his culinary contributions and signature style.
After we were seated, my group and I scanned the menu. I was initially amazed by high level of customization Burger Bar offers — the buns, the toppings, even the kind of beef are all things you can choose. I appreciated the option of Kobe beef, but wisely stuck with the default beef offering, as every Kobe burger Ive ever eaten has never yielded a discernable difference in taste. They are also much easier to overcook and ruin. We also stuck with plain buns to keep it simple. I topped mine with thick bacon, american cheese and a runny, fried egg — see photo.
When the burgers came, I carefully inspected mine for quality and found that it was cooked perfectly medium rare, and topped per my specifications. I bit into it and enjoyed the rich, beefy flavor complimented by the even richer, runny egg and melted cheese. The bacon was thick and crisp, further elevating the flavor profile. This is what its all about. This is why you pay more for these burgers. Rounded off with skinny fries and a winter ale, this was a memorable meal.
So then I see theres a dessert burger on the dessert menu and Im like, «Yeah, I’ll have that too.» A few minutes later, the waitress brings back this little burger, made entirely of dessert components — a doughnut for the bun, a chocolate ganache patty, a slice of passion fruit gelatin, and 2 kiwi chips. It was perfect down to the last detail — see photos.
After oggling this thing for 10 minutes, I finally bit into it and WHAM — walnuts! Where on the menu does it say «contains nuts»?? Kinda important for me, considering I have quite a tree nut allergy. I had to remove the chocolate patty and chip away at it, trying to salvage what I could to finish my dessert. That was the lone disappointment of the night, thankfully it didnt lead to any serious reaction. I would definately go back though.

Came to Lumiere for blackjack & roulette… ended up hitting Burger Bar beforehand because of my famished cousin. Seriously… guy acts like his stomach is touching his back… yahhh. So… stopped in, and our server (Chris, I believe), walks us through the menu… I’m easy, so it’s going to be the American Classic w/​fat fries. How can you not love fries, preceded by the word «fat»? It just sounds inherently bad for you… yet delicious. My burger was a perfect medium… closer to medium rare… exactly the way I hoped. Excellent service, good food, and a TV in every booth… definite spot to hit when I’m in StL & downtown… whether or not I feel like gambling.

We were in town for a weekend and found ourselves wandering around the casino for a large portion of our stay. We decided to try out Burger Bar for dinner. I found this place to be overpriced for what they serve but delicious.
First, you order the type of burger that you want, the type of bun, add the toppings (all at additional costs) and then add the sides (also at additional costs). I ordered a grilled chicken burger with sliced zucchini on a wheat bun. My boyfriend chose a regular burger with swiss cheese. I chose to add fries as a side.
I was impressed with the size of both burgers. The chicken was moist and quite delicious with the zucchini on top. They add more chicken on the burger than most restaurants (and for the price of it, I would expect more chicken). The cheeseburger was also moist but not dripping with grease which we found pleasant. The side of fries that I ordered looked and tasted just like McDonalds fries. This made me believe that the fries most likely came from a frozen bag and dumped into a fryer. Certainly, not worth an extra $ 3.
I chose to drink a martini, which was made with a decent amount of vodka. I only needed one. My boyfriend chose a vodka tonic. This was a disappointing drink as it was made with seltzer water and not real tonic water. I know most bars make these using seltzer water, but for the price of the drink, it should be real tonic water.
The waitress was very kind. She didn’t make us feel rushed and she was helpful with my martini choice. The only downside was we had to wave her down when a shake was brought to our table that we had not ordered.
If I am in town again, I am not sure if I would come back to Burger Bar just because of the price. I am sure that I can find a decent burger elsewhere with sides that do not cost extra.

I was given a groupon for the Burger Bar by a friend who couldn’t use it, but said it was the best burger she’s ever had. Maybe on another night, but between the service and the overcooked burgers, I’d turn down the next groupon. The server, Ian, seemed to only get about half of the things we ordered. Both of our beer orders had to be repeated twice, my wife’s burger came with regular bun, not an onion roll (it’s pretty noticeable) and my burger came without aioli. The line of the night seemed to be «oh yeah, you did order that.»
But, I could forgive all that if the burgers were delicious. Sadly no. I was really looking forward to a Kobe beef burger, but when they came out — supposedly medium — there was not a hint of pink. Or juice. I was glad to have the toppings just to give it some flavor and make it interesting. The burgers were small too. They don’t claim a weight, and I can see why not. I actually ran out of beef before the bun. It was way less than a third of a pound.
Given a choice (money no object) I’d have a Culver’s burger before to the Burger Bar again, and O’Connells and the Route 61 roadhouse have infinitely better burgers for a third of the price.
The price issue is a big one — despite being there during traditional happy hours (6 pm on a Friday), a pint of Schlafly, or any beer, was $ 5.50. And the Kobe burger at 16 bucks before toppings was a real disappointment.
The zucchini sticks were really good, but seriously, when the best part of the meal at a so-​called burger bar is the veggies, that’s a serious problem.

I stayed at Lumiere Hotel this weekend for a St. Louis Social Media Chicks outing… lots of social media discussion, tweeting and food. All weekend I kept hearing from one of the women how the Burger Bar has the best turkey burger in town. The other 4 people with me all got a turkey burger with a variety of toppings and buns, and they all seemed to like them.
I got one of the pre-​made burgers off the menu, the Black Jack Burger. It has Monterrey Jack cheese, tappenade and a ciabatta bun. I asked for it to be cooked medium well and that’s how it came. I will say that the burger was better than most places I’ve gotten them, but wasn’t as juicy as I like… Mike Duffy’s burger blows them away.
I also got sweet potato fries instead of the skinny fries that came with my sandwich, and a Black & White milkshake on the recommendation of our Lumiere Hotel host (@lumiereplace).
Everything I got was fine. No major real complaints.
So why only 3 stars?
For lunch, my bill was $ 23. And I got was an average burger, sweet potato fries and a milkshake that was a whole lot smaller than what you would get at Steak N Shake or Crown Candy. And it was $ 7.95!
This place is simply overpriced. If I was in Vegas and wandered in from a casino into a Burger Bar, I might not be surprised by the prices. But for St. Louis… the prices are way high and as a local, I would never go back. If you are visiting town and staying at Lumiere or the Four Seasons, I would recommend stepping out of the casino and walking down to one of the restaurants in Laclede’s Landing or on Washington Avenue. Prices will be a lot lower and I bet the food will be better too.

We were in town for the U2 concert and couldn’t decide where to go for lunch, so when we stumbled upon Lumiere Place, we thought we would check inside. The person working the Casino entry suggested we eat at Burger Bar.
The menu has nothing but appetizers, burgers and salads. I am not a burger fan, so I went with a salad, which was good. Their burger menu reminds me of a pizza menu. You start by ordering what burger you want, then can add up to like 50 different toppings (various additional charges per item). The fried pickles, zucchini fries and onion ring trio we ordered came with 5 – 6 dipping sauces and were all good, but not over the top. All enjoyed their burgers, but didn’t rave over them.
Our service was horrible. Our server seemed really eager to wait on us at first… quick drink delivery, quick order taking, etc… then it is like he disappeared or something. We waited forever for refills, someone else brought our food, he never checked on us or was around when we needed anything and they weren’t even busy. We waited quite a long time for our check as well. As we were leaving Lumiere Place, we passed him on the curb out front smoking a cigarette. That must be where he was all along!
I won’t be back. I am semi-​impatient and need to see, just see, my server at least once every 5 minutes, just incase I need something. We would go 15 minutes at a time not seeing this guy! No bueno.
Additionally, if you are a server and take frequent smoke breaks, for goodness sake… don’t let your guests see it!

If it wasn’t for the dessert burgers, I would’ve given 2 stars.
atmosphere [3 stars]
Nothing special. The booths are separated by high seat backs/​walls so one time the server didn’t see that we had been sat and took forever to come to our table. The cool thing about this place is that people can access the bar from the restaurant and from inside the casino.
service [3 stars]
price [1 star]
$ 10 – 25 for a burger at Burger Bar or $ 5 – 10 for a better burger at Five Guys and Hardee’s. Even the milkshakes are overpriced – $ 7+???
The dessert burgers are $ 4.25 each, which isn’t too bad, but the banana split is $ 8.75?
food [3 stars]
I’ve had the Kobe sliders, a custom made burger with Kobe beef, and the Surf & Turf burger.
To be honest, I couldn’t really tell I was eating Kobe beef, the meat wasn’t particularly great. Some people might like that you can customize your own burger with a large variety of toppings (I had asparagus and pesto on mine!), but they add more to the bill than to the general taste.
The Surf & Turf burger wasn’t that great either. The lobster meat was more rubber-​y than expected and the meat was only alright.
Despite the lack of amazing burgers at no other than Burger Bar opened by the famous chef Hubert Keller, I did enjoy the zucchini fries and the dessert.
I’ve happily eaten both the chocolate burger and the creamy cheese cake burger. The chocolate burger looks and tastes good. There is a thick «patty» of chocolate ganache that is amazing, and I don’t like a lot of chocolate. The donuts as buns are nice and soft while the strawberries and mint are a perfect complement. The creamy cheese cake burger was good, too, but the chocolate ganache wins.

Not sure what’s up with some of the haterade being consumed by a few reviewers. Have eaten here at least 9 times on business trips to St Louis and have yet to be disappointed with the burgers or the service. Always get a perfectly medium-​rare burger served promptly with a smile. Only reason for no 5 stars is that the salads and most sides are average but… It’s the BURGER bar not the salad bar so its all good.

As an avid fan of Top Chef on Bravo and having seen Hubert Keller in action I was ecstatic about trying his flagship «Burger Bar» at Lumière Place despite the lavish expense.
The place was deserted when we got there. At 6:00pm. On a weekday. During Restaurant week.
Let me back up– this restaurant, which was advertised and FEATURED in restaurant week … was empty? Signs already point to bad, says my spidey sense.
The atmosphere was bar-​ish. It seemed cozy enough with the high backed, individual bench stalls and dim lighting. We also seemed pretty well insulated from the din of the casino. Our only reminder of the posh casino next door was all the LCD screens riveted to EVERYTHING.
We were seated relatively soon, once the staff realized there were actually people who want to eat at their establishment. As we looked over the menu I was blown away by how many options I had. You choose your meat, you choose vegetables, cheese, sauce, additional meats to on your burger (lobster and bacon among the choices), you can choose garnishes like truffles and coleslaw. With a selection like that the possibilities seemed almost endless.
The list of stock burgers was extremely short, on the other hand. There were only 6, 5 if you don’t count the $ 60 «upscaled» version featured such garbage as truffles and foie gras. (Why the h@#! would I want liver pâté on my burger?!)
So what to choose? I’m not a professional chef, I don’t know if chopped jalapeños will go well with a cranberry sauce, or whether sliced zucchini will taste ok next to pickled green tomatoes. And I don’t want to make a disgusting combination because I’d be spending upward of $ 20 to $ 30 dollars for it!
So I asked our waiter for suggestions, PRAYING he would have made an observation regarding popular burgers other guests have ‘invented’ or at least burgers he had tried himself. Instead he pointed us back to the stock choices.
This is just my philosophy, but when you are in the food service industry and someone asks for a suggestion, they’re looking for guidance and personal experience, not a poorly read-​aloud of the menu. *Most* folks *CAN* read.
I decided to go with a medium cooked Black Angus burger, with baby spinach, Jalapeño bacon, Monterey Jack cheese and a Peppercorn Sauce.
We also ordered a «Trio of Fries» which I took to mean a sampling of several types of fries (sweet potatoe, shoestring, wedgecut, waffle, etc). Not a trio of 3 things that ARE fried (zucchini, onions and pickles).
A while later (it seemed forever in the dead atmosphere of the bar), our food arrived, appetizers and burgers at the same time. Everything looked great, so I was still excited despite all the warning signs.
The burger was a laughable abomination. Rather than a large patty spread thin with toppings packed compactly into a deadly combination of flavor explosions in each bite, the burger patty itself was practically a meat ball, and the excessive toppings were perched precariously on top. They seemed to sway back and forth gently in an undetectable breeze.
It was impossible to savor a bite which combined the flavor of everything I’d ordered. Instead, some bites were cheesy (at least, I assumed the texture I sensed was cheese), some were meaty, some were spinachy (it was cooked spinach, btw… not raw as I had imagined… blech!). This lack of consistency while eating was definitely a shame. I had ordered the items together to TASTE them together. Which the constraints of a 3D space did not permit me to do.
That said, the flavors of everything were disappointingly mediocre at best. The jalapeño bacon did not POP with spicy jalapeño flavor (or bacon flavor for that matter). I couldn’t taste the flavor of the monterey jack and the peppercorn sauce might as well have been thick gray water.
Plus the burger itself was more rare than I would have wanted.
In expecting to pay somewhere near $ 25 dollars for the burger, my standards had been raised– I expected it to TASTE like $ 25 dollars. And Hubert, I’m sorry to say it fell miserably short.
By the end of the meal, I was more satisfied and impressed with the Trio of Fries we’d ordered. For $ 15 bucks we got an enormous amount of fried foods– and everything was pretty awesome. I don’t know if I’m a fan of beer battered, deep fried pickles yet, but they’re starting to grow on me.
As it is, I feel like if you want a professional burger experience with a massive selection of non-​typical toppings, then head to Five Guys, Burgers and Fries. It’s not only a better value, but a better quality burger.

I’ve actually been to the Burger Bar before, but this was during my pre-​Yelp days (and pre-​meat eating days; yes, I was a vegetarian for seven long years!)
So I’m going to start a fresh review based on my most recent experience at the Burger Bar.
Me and Andy visited the Burger Bar on a weekday night during restaurant week. It was completely EMPTY. We spotted one other couple there. That’s it. Maybe that should have been the first sign?
Our waiter was terrible. He seated us, handed us menus and grabbed us some water, and then all but disappeared for the next 20 minutes. What was he DOING? Like I said before, the restaurant wasn’t super busy.
But that’s not why he was terrible. No, he was terrible because he did the one thing that bad waiters always do: they turn into douchebags when you ask them for suggestions.
Let me explain. The burger bar has tons of combinations that you can use to put together your own burger. You choose your bun, the burger itself, your cheeses, toppings, etc. Of course, they also have specialty burgers where everything is chosen for you. But who wants to do that when you can play chef for a night and make your own burger?
Okay, so here comes the waiter douchebag part. We asked for some suggestions on what combinations are popular among other guests, and the waiter POINTS TO THE MENU and tells us that the pre-​selected options are pretty good. Gee, thanks, hun… I know how to READ. Gah! Maybe I’m weird, but that just burned me up.
But anyway, the food. We ordered the trio of fries as an appetizer: zucchini fries, onion rings, and pickle fries.
For my entrée, I made my own burger using a ciabatta bun, buffalo burger, pepperjack cheese, avocado, and jalapeño bacon. I asked for my burger to be cooked medium.
Well, guess what? Our appetizer came out at the same time as our entrée. Awesome. Don’t you just love when that happens? Poor timing, folks. Poor timing.
The app was pretty terrible to boot. How can you go wrong with deep fried goodness? Well, let me tell you: I bit into the deep fried pickle, and the whole pickle slid out in the first bite, leaving me with a sad empty breading shell. Ew. Same thing happened with the zucchini fries. And the onion rings. I guess this was God’s way of telling me not to eat things that are deep fried? It worked. I stopped after a bite of each.
My burger was also lame and sad. It wasn’t cooked medium. Instead, it was well-​done. *sigh* If a freaking BURGER BAR can’t cook my burger right, I’ve lost hope for all burgers out there. Sorry.
Aside from the meat being overdone, it was dry and bland (probably due to being overcooked!). The toppings were decent, but they didn’t add much to the burger. The ciabatta bun was hard and didn’t seem fresh.
All in all, this was a complete disaster. Since our meal was comped, we felt obligated to leave a decent tip to our not-​so-​decent waiter. I’ll tell you what — leaving that $ 20 tip on the table was HARD.
I’ll never be back. Hubert Keller, you should be ashamed of yourself for this abomination.

Burger #129: A St. Louis Treat
Hubert Keller is pretty famous in the restaurant world. From his many appearances on PBS cooking shows, to his flagship restaurant in San Francisco, Fleur de Lys, to his Burger Bar in Vegas. I was utterly shocked when I learned that the only other Burger Bar was in St. Louis???
Located inside the Lumiere Place Casino, Burger Bar is one of two Keller restaurants in the building, the other being Sleek, a steakhouse. We went around 7pm on a Wednesday and the place was about half full. We were quickly seated in a booth and I got down to business with creating my masterpiece.
I immediately knew I could save $ 7 by skipping Kobe beef and sticking with Angus, medium rare ($ 9). To that I added caramelized onions ($ 0.95), provolone ($ 0.50), prosciutto ($ 0.95), a fried egg ($ 1.95), seared foie gras ($ 12), and a special red wine and shallot reduction ($ 1.95). I was on the fence with adding 9g of truffles for $ 30, and I ended up skipping it.
After a short wait, the in house chef came out with our burgers:
I could smell the foie without even leaning down, it was so nice! The red wine, shallot reduction resembled an au jus in consistency and color, but was so much more! I took my first bite of the burger dry, instantly the sweetness of the onions filled my mouth, then the prosciutto, egg and beef all came up and mixed together in perfect meaty harmony. The beef alone was seasoned well and cooked perfectly. The bun was also just right; not too thick, not too thin. It held together throughout my burger, never quit, and never got in the way. After a couple bites, I had to get a cross section picture:
Here, you can see the only minor flaw of the burger, and this was my fault since I was the architect. The caramelized onions were too overpowering, not to say they didn’t have their place, it was that there didn’t need to be quite as thick a layer as I received. Besides that minor detail, the burger was simply fabulous. The reduction was the ultimate dipping sauce and now I’ve been craving a French dip burger, it just makes sense!
I’m glad I got to try Burger Bar outside of Vegas, because when I finally do go to Vegas, I can focus on many other burgers I intend to eat there. Good job Hubert!