Lunch Report: Armadillo's on McCullough...

If you have lived in San Antonio for a while, you have been to or at least heard of the old Little Hipps burger place that went out of business a while back. Though not affiliated with the previous restaurant, a burger place called Armadillo's has taken over the building at the corner of McCullough and Evergreen near downtown, and that is where my wife and I found ourselves, just in time for lunch today.The first thing you will notice about the place (aside from the orange color of the metal fabricated building) is that there is little to no parking in front. Not to worry; just across the street you can park.Inside the place is pretty small, but for our Saturday afternoon visit, there wasn't much of a crowd, so no waiting for a table or anything. My wife liked the fact that the booth we were in had access to the juke box. As some guys seated in the back watched college basketball on the nice flat panel TV, she cranked up a few tunes to add to the atmosphere.She ordered the regular 1/3lb cheeseburger with everything but onions. We definitely love the way they do the buns - heated and smashed (or maybe mashed is the correct terminology) but I don't know why, that particular style says, "Diner" and we like that.I ordered the 1/2lb mushroom burger with swiss. They definitely don't skimp on the mushrooms and the lettuce, tomatoes and such all were fresh.I ordered a medium onion ring for us to share, but they put them all on my plate - I guess that is a basket saving feature. Either way, the onion rings are certainly forgettable. There ought to be some sort of international onion ring texture naming convention so you know what you are getting when you order rings. I am totally opposed to hard, crispy onion rings coatings. Even if there is no discernible taste or seasoning to the batter you use (like these), I can live with it if the coating is not breaking my teeth to get to the onion inside.

The onion rings at Clear Springs are good. The onion rings at Armadillo's seem like something you get in the lunch room at school. If the main en tree, in this case the burger, isn't spectacular (it wasn't bad - just not GREAT), then the onion rings have to make the difference. Great service though.Look, if you are downtown and would like a neat place to have a burger (I hear from others they have awesome hot dogs), give them a try. The atmosphere is nice and I could see meeting friends for a few beers after shopping or something. But having said that, unless it is convenient, I know a Whataburger that will make it any way you want it, and the onion rings are a lot better.