News that Scores a 91: Robin Garr's Restaurant Ratings Are Back

Robin Garr's review of Mussel & Burger Bar in the Voice-Tribune contained no numerical score, as is typically the case for his pieces in Tracy Blue's vanity press. But there, at the bottom of the version he copies (Ctrl-C) and pastes (Ctrl-V) into his Louisville Hot Bytes forum is the most important number to hit the Louisville dining scene since KFC gussied itself up by plopping an 11 after its name: "Robin Garr's rating: 89 points."

Up until earlier this year, Garr's LEO Weekly reviews scored restaurants on a 100-point scale. But then LEO's editors junked the scale and Garr, "eventually decided their way of thinking makes sense." Apparently Garr did what all those guys writing the Craigslist Casual Encounters ads say that their wives do and swung the other way (ba-dum-ching). Or was he just copying and pasting the score from when he reviewed Mussel & Burger Bar for LEO just four months earlier?

Burgers range in price from $12 (for the Good Ole basic cheeseburger or a beet-based veggie burger) to $22 (for the lush "C.E.O." with foie gras; it's $15 sans fat goose liver). We stayed in the middle of the road with the Local Burger ($15), medium pink as ordered, a half-pound, all local construction of Sherwood Farm grass-fed beef, Kenny Mattingly's Kentucky "gouda" and Annett's Farm lettuce, tomatoes, onion and heirloom potatoes on the side. A chèvre fig salad ($8) was artful and filling: Three crusty goat-cheese croquettes, orange slices and figs topped a simple salad of baby cress and sliced fennel garnished with almonds and thin-sliced radish in a sweet-tart fig vinaigrette.[Voice-Tribune]

Louisville's dining scene excels to such an extent that Fiesta Mexicana—a Mexican restaurant serving combo plates, fajitas and a lunch special called Speedy Gonzalez—earned three stars (out of four), the third highest rating available, from the Louisville Courier-Journal's Marty Rosen:

Tamales — thick layers of steamed cornmeal wrapped around flavorful beef — were rich and satisfying (one tamale, a la carte, $2.50; 3, $6.75). And folks who love Latin-inflected seafood dishes will be delighted to find dishes like camarones al mojo ($10.75), shrimp and mushrooms sauteed in butter and garlic, with rice, beans and tortillas; or a combination platter that features quesadillas and enchiladas stuffed with crabmeat and shrimp ($9.25). I'm a sucker for sizzle, and Fiesta Mexicana does it right, dishing up cast-iron platters filled with fajitas that arrive at the table with all the noise and fanfare a guy could ask. [Louisville Courier-Journal]

·All Week in Reviews [~ELOU~]

[Photo: Courtesy Facebook/Mussel & Burger Bar]