Chef Kenny Mills cooks all burgers to order. This is the dream of every ground-beef aficionado: a red meat veteran—Capital Grille, Sullivan’s, Dallas Chop House—personally flipping patties. Of course, the little kitchen’s made to order ethic causes waits of ten or twenty minutes. But time and proper tending promises burgers dripping and special. Paper towels propped on each table seem to confirm the presence of juicy beef.

A time-worn room, little changed from its days as a cheap Chinese buffet merely adds to the anticipation: some of the world’s best burgers emerge from age blackened grills and grease stained walls. Mills meets expectations quite often. A “Blacken Bleu” oozes from rendering fat and melting cheese, adding density to watery spurts of tomato and lettuce.

Yet when stressed, perhaps by a crowd, the ideal of one person overseeing a grill can become clouded. A string of orders or some backroom commotion is enough, causing Mills to miss the point where the burger crinkles past medium. Approaching medium well, the patty dries out considerably. Still, the comforting savor of beef strides confidently across your palate, punctuated here and there by bursts of crispy, bittersweet char. It’s a straightforward, thick, and masculine burger, with little to disturb the taste of meat.