Eagles Deli

Eagle’s Deli has long been a staple of Boston’s Cleveland Circle neighborhood, as well as the headquarters of the Boston chapter of the American Glutton Society. Famed for its massive, yet dubious, Eagle’s Challenge burger (more on that later), Eagle’s was voted “2nd best place in the world to pig out” by the Travel Channel. For the past three months Eagles Deli has been undergoing a ground-up renovation, which has completely changed the building. My goal: Too see if their burgers can still make me regret buying the cheapo brand toilet paper.

Eagle’s is famous for their massive burgers. The smallest is dubbed the “kiddie burger” and comes in at a measly 1/4pound. Next is the King Kong at ½ pound and the Godzilla at 1 pound. Now, they start getting a little crazy. After the Godzilla, there is the Cowabunga burger, which is 2 pounds of meat, the Reilly, which is 3, the Paul Jones, which 5 and finally, the 5-pound Eagles Challenge burger (oh yeah, did I mention the 20 slices of cheese and 20 pieces of bacon?).

I ordered the ½ pound King Kong burger--medium with cheddar cheese, tomato, onion ketchup and mayo and instead of regular fries, I ORDERED CHEESE FRIES (caps to convey the power that the cheese has.) A pretty lean lunch by all counts.

They give you a glass for the self-serve soda (always a +1 in my book) and a numbered placard to leave on your table. I filled up my glass with a Dr. Pepper, found a seat, and stalked the waitress with my eyes until my burger was en route.



Caption: Ahhh my prey has arrived. Look at that CHEESE!!!

The burger came about 8 minutes later, and boy was I ready to dive right in. I ate about 10 fries and got cheese all over my mouth but it tasted dam good. Next, I took a giant bite out of the burger and got more grease on my face. Unfortunately, the burger was a little to red for my liking but I finished it anyway because I was dam hungry. The outside was nice and charred, but the inside was pink. The meat was a lower grade and not as tasty as a gourmet burger, but certainly on par with the like of Five Guys.


Caption: On nom nom nom

The toppings were good, and complimented the burger well. The burger was so juicy, that the lower bun almost disintegrated by the time I was done.

The fries were super crispy and coated with cheese. The cheese was reminiscent of a Velveeta variety and it fucking tasted good. I made sure to dip my burger into the excess several times.

Overall, I was a little let down by the burger. I have been there several times before, and this was probably the worst. The cheese fries were great, but the burger just didn’t cut it. I will give them another shot before I totally write Eagles Deli off, but unless the next burger stuns me, then I will be heading to Five Guys more often.

The meal cost just over $9 including the fries, drink and tax.