The Habit Burger Grill: A Tragic Tale

Hidden discretely in a small strip mall in the heart of Elk Grove's Laguna area lies The Habit Burger Grill. And frankly, it should remain hidden for a long, long time.

If you're looking for a menu void of variety, outrageous prices and mediocre food, then The Habit is the perfect place for you to waste your money.

Upon entering The Habit, one might think that it's the poor-man's In-n-Out Burger, but The Habit doesn't even deserve to be compared to that establishment. It's a seat-yourself-while-waiting-for-your-number kind of restaurant decked out in every kind of brown you can imagine.

Brown counters, brown tables, brown seats and brown tile. Yeah, this place screams fun and excitement.

The Habit has both patio and booth seating with majority of said seats being against windows. While window seats are just dandy, looking at a barren parking lot and the occasional bird picking at fries left on the ground is not necessarily scenic.

The menu brings two kinds of emotions: disappointment and shock.

Disappointment comes from the ability to order only three kinds of food: burgers (called "Charburgers", and if that's not pretentious I don't know what is), sandwiches and salads. And the choices from what's available is even more restricting with each having each food item having about four or five variations. These include your run-of-the-mill cheeseburgers and chicken club sandwiches. Yawn. It's underwhelming to say the least.

Shock comes from jaw-dropping prices listed on the menu above the cashier. A burger from The Habit costs an average of $7 or $8. And don't think by taking the healthy route will save you either; a salad and a small drink comes up to a total of nearly $10. It just doesn't seem very fair since the extent of making it is throwing lettuce, chicken and dressing on a plate. Needless to say, one has to feel a bit cheated and has to wonder where all of this money is going.

While ordering the salad the friendly cashier asked if I wanted to have teriyaki drizzled on my caesar salad. Uh, teriyaki and ceasar dressing? Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but looking back, nothing could have saved this salad.

The time it took to actually get the salad seemed a bit outrageous, as it seemed everyone else got their order much faster. You would think that the salad was easiest thing to make!

Mmm... tastes like failure.
After sitting down with soda in hand and taking the first bite of this salad, the taste of dirty socks and old lettuce filled my mouth causing a cringe or two. I wondered what I had done to deserve such a revolting taste in my mouth, but then I remembered it wasn't me, the salad was just downright disgusting. And to top it off, the chicken tasted as if it were made out of rubber. Tasty.

Ten dollars apparently gets you a life-affirming experience, questionable breath and a small drink these days.

Even though The Habit does have a clean atmosphere and friendly staff, it doesn't make up for the lack of quality of their food. Funny, since their slogan is "There's no substitute for quality!"

Yes, there is, and that substitute is eating somewhere else.