Champps Restaurant & Bar

Meh. Look, if you're friends with a picky eater who will only eat standard American fare, this place will work for you. Otherwise, I'd go somewhere else.

This was the second Champps I've been to - I went to the one in Westlake to watch a basketball game with other alums from my college. I hadn't been impressed, but signed up for the Chammps card - earning myself a free cheeseburger.

Well, the lure of free food was enough to convince me to drive down to this Champps. The deal is legitimate - you get one free cheeseburger, although if you want to upgrade your burger, you have to pay the difference. I ordered a Firehouse Burger with a side of potato soup, and with my discount, only paid $4 (plus tip). This is probably the last $4 Champps will get from me, though.

The Firehouse burger is supposed to be full of heat - both peppers and sauces. I ordered mine medium rare and was excited for the jalapenos - but was pretty disappointed when my burger came out. The meat was flat and grey, with not even a touch of pink (maybe my waiter thought I said medium well? I can only hope this was the issue). The bun was also soaked with sauce - to the point where it was difficult to pick up and I was a little concerned it'd fall apart. There were way too many peppers (and not the hot kind, just bell peppers) on the sandwich, although I'm not faulting Chammps for this - easy enough to take off, and I'd rather have too many than too few. However, this burger was NOT hot and spicy. It really was just a burger with peppers and some watered down hot sauce - I was pretty disappointed.

The waffle fries that came with it were good, and my chunky potato soup was delicious. It came with cheese and bacon in it, as well as croutons. The croutons were NOT good at all, I wish I hadn't bit them, but the rest of the soup was good.

Overall, I will not be returning to Champps unless I somehow score more "free" food. It's fine, it's not BAD, I just wasn't impressed and would rather take my money elsewhere.

To be fair, this place just isn't for me. I knew that and I don't know why we stopped anyways.

Service was fine, if not a little strange, but nice overall.

The food was just... how do I put this nicely? Well, I wasn't very hungry and I ordered a side salad with a cup of their potato soup. I'm sure there are way better options on the menu that I could have tried. But these two simple items were a total flop. The soup was grainy, bland and unimpressive. Could I eat it? Yes, but it just wasn't good. The salad was lazy with plenty of short cuts. The funny part? Why the shortcuts when your restaurant is borderline empty? You'd think they'd put more time and care into their dishes when it's not busy.

Typical chain restaurant everything. Saving grace? A pretty great happy hour.

This past saturday for dinner was my second time at champs and will say both times have been good experiences. No wait either time. Good menu selection, good craft beer selection, mixed drink selection. You can spend 10.00 for a burger or 30 on a real dinner depending on mood.  Service was good both times.  The chicken pot pie was impressive btw.. Aut the best ive had.  Another plus... When you order your burger "medium" it is actually cooked medium!