This is the view out front window...
and view from side window...as we drove past the mountains and desert...
and farms and cows...
On our way into Salt Lake City, we planned to stop for lunch at Burger Bar in Roy, UT that we had seen on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (Triple D) on Food Network. 
Nick got the “Big Ben’ their signature burger which has a special sauce, I got a cheeseburger and we split onion rings, some sort of potato bites and a milkshake. I gotta say, I wasn’t so impressed. First of all, the place is a dive on the corner of a busy intersection of a nothing town in the middle of the desert.
Its hot as hell and everyone is waiting for their food with their cars running, making the wait even more uncomfortable, hot, smelly with exhaust fumes and noisy. Once we got our food, it was difficult to manage everything and there are no tables or anywhere to put stuff down or to stand and eat, so we balanced everything on the hood of our car and ate standing up in the carport style covered parking area.
So now for the food…the burgers were just ok, nothing bad but certainly nothing special. I mean, we made better burgers ourselves on both the flattop and the charcoal BBQ at the Belmont Diner in Vancouver. The onion rings were ok, there were not that many rings which was disappointing, just a few onion strings and lots of little crispy batter bits (good batter, I’ll give them that).
The milkshake was essentially a soft serve ice cream which started overflowing the container as it melted in the ridiculous 95F temperature (they did have lots of flavors but I was looking forward to a classic chocolate shake) and the potato bites were essentially glorified deep fried tater-tots…with a real “potatoey” flavor…mmmm.
It was comparable to a Wendy’s fast food meal. Now, I don’t mind Wendy’s, as far as fast food goes its pretty good…so this place was maybe on par…nothing special worth making the trip for in our opinion. Oh, and to top it off…none of the employees seemed particularly thrilled to see us or to be there themselves. When we mentioned we saw their restaurant on DDD, and that we were driving across the country and made a point of stopping off at their restaurant - they didn’t seem to care one bit.
So what else does Salt Lake City have? Mormons. Lots and lots of Mormons. (I mean no disrespect, the Mormons are extremely nice people…but they just believe in some really weird stuff).
LDS customer service representatives are hanging out around the Salt Lake Temple to engage in conversation and provide information about the Church. “So, what do YOU know about the LDS church…?”
Salt Lake Temple (restricted entry to members of the church only)
Spunky of Latter Day Saints...
Just to the east of Temple Square is the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the former Hotel Utah.
Having accomplished that…we checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit before going out for dinner. Another Triple D restaurant we had marked in Salt Lake City was a Mexican place. After our experience with the Burger Bar, we were a little hesitant, but all the reviews online said good things about it so we gave it a try and this time we were NOT disappointed!
The Lone Star Taqueria was a sort of a 1950’s diner (even had a drive through pick up window) where you order at the counter inside and sit down either inside or outside where they had a large patio area with umbrella covered tables. It was almost 9pm by the time we got there, so it was still warm but comfortable to be outside. While we were looking at the menu inside trying to decide, we started chatting with a guy waiting for his food in front of us, so we asked what he recommended. We got a fish taco plate (their speciality) and a carne asada taco, a chicken tamale, and fresh guacamole and fresh chips washed down with a Mexican beer – AMAZING!
It was a really nice evening and the food was really good so it totally made up for the disappointing meal earlier in the day. Time for bed and another day of driving in the Utah desert tomorrow.
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