Last week, I had just finished volunteering and decided to go out  to dinner with a friend, but we didn’t want anyplace too fancy or fussy, and settled on Marathon Grill. Marathon is a local favorite with a few locations around Philadelphia, with good food, a nice amour of space and decent prices–it often reminds me of a modern, upscale diner. In fact, Marathon is often a brunch spot for me since their brunch quesadilla with chorizo is big and delicious!

  

For dinner, I opted for the Marathon Burger ($11.50). They also have the option of customizing your burger, but I went with the pre-customized menu version. The temperature of the burger was good, just a hair over medium rare, and it was amazingly juicy, greasy and messy in the best way possible–all burgers should be a little messy! For their beef, Marathon uses a blend of short rib, sirloin and chuck. The party tasted very gourmet, and because there was a blend of cuts, it had a nice amount of fat that kept the burger incredibly moist.

The tomato wasn’t sliced too thick, and the lettuce was easy to take off as I don’t usually like lettuce on my burgers. The applewood smoked bacon was cooked through, but still a kept some chewiness, which I love. I hate when bacon is super crisp and it’s lost all of its porkiness and meatiness. On the other hand, the bacon wasn’t flabby, and had a subtle smoky taste.

The BBQ sauce was slathered on the bottom half of the bread and also helped keep the sandwich moist–and wet. The sauce itself was spicy and had a nice bite to it–interesting, but in a good way. The cheese didn’t have a very bold flavor, but helped the sandwich keep a creamy consistency. The sweet, caramelized onions were on point and played well with the spicy BBQ sauce, especially since there was a generous portion of them on the burger. The burger was served on a country, brioche bun that was strong enough to stand up to the heavy burger. It had a slight, pleasant sweetness to it.

I wasn’t in the mood for fries, or for the other side choice of Caesar salad on the menu, so I substituted some spinach for the fries. The spinach was served in a small bowl on the burger plate and was cooked with a nice amount of garlic, though perked up a lot with some salt.

  

My friend ordered the Grilled Salmon ($15.50), which was glazed with a whole grain honey mustard sauce. The fish was cooked well, and stayed moist. The mustard wasn’t too strong as to overpower the salmon. The mashed potatoes were super creamy and absorbed some of the juice and sauce from the salmon. The accompanying asparagus was a smaller portion, but tasted delicious. The stalks weren’t mushy, and still had great texture. 

The restaurant staff was very friendly, and the servers were enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the menu. Marathon Grill was a solid weekday dinner option with a tasty, comforting old school burger.

They only lost a few points because the cheese for a little lost in the shuffle. I wish it was a bit more forthright. The meat blend and onions were fantastic though.