Cheers In Maumelle

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com

I had a brief lunch today at Cheers in Maumelle with a co-worker and ordered the ($5.50) Garden Burger from their Vegetarian Delights section. I am not a vegetarian, but I do eat things low in calories and fat when possible and the Garden Burger is much lower in calories than a regular beef patty. Cheers has a very nice “feel” to it and is comfortable to dine in. I sat in the outside area which is wonderful this time of year.

I asked Cheers for the nutritional information on their Garden Burger but they “threw the box away.” I did some quick research and turned up that the Garden Burger has 120 calories and 4 grams of fat. This is opposed to a normal beef patty that has 279 calories and 14.5 grams of fat. Keep in mind to that restaurants usually have beef patties that are about twice the normal size so it doesn’t take long for the calories to add up! As a point of reference, women generally burn 1800 calories a day and men burn 2200 calories per day. If you consume any more than that you will likely gain weight or harm yourself in other ways if you don’t gain weight (increase cholesterol for example.)

My meal came with a choice of chips or fries but I turned them down and just had the pickle spear with my sandwich (once again, to cut down on calories). The burger came with mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and purple onions on it. I requested a side order of jalapenos about half-way through my lunch and would order them again in the future.

The burger was a little on the crispy side. I can’t really blame Cheers for this since the Garden Burger is made from rice, grains, and other things that aren’t moist. I cook vegetarian burgers all the time at home though and they are more tender than what I had at lunch. It tasted ok but had nothing added to it to make it better. I would suggest they put a nice low-calorie sauce on it or do something to make it taste better than what you can make in five minutes at home. The jalapenos helped but I added that myself and can’t give them credit for it. The iced tea I had with my lunch was good and tasted freshly brewed. It wasn’t too strong and was quite refreshing.

While the outside area was very nice, the service was extremely slow. Our waiter had to work the inside and outside area and that put a huge burden on his ability to really serve. I can empathize with his situation but that’s not really an excuse for the restaurant. It took several minutes to receive any attention and we had to chase the waiter down to get the check (our lunch hour was up.) When we did have their attention they were courteous and quick to serve. The only problem is we didn’t have their attention often enough.

So would I go back? Cheers is not something I would crave but I can see myself going back. Why? Because it’s close and they do have lower-calorie options which is more than I can say for many places. I do believe there is plenty of room for improvement and would like to see them make the food more interesting. American cuisine has matured a lot over the past few years and they should do some catching up.

Cheers In Maumelle
(501) 851-6200
1901 Club Manor Dr Ste C
Maumelle, AR 72113
http://www.cheersith.com