Let's start with the seating. One of the coolest things about Lankford is that you don't have to wait on line to order a burger or get a table. All you do is sit down and wait and the waitresses find you. I recommend eating outside, if the weather's nice. With shaded picnic tables and coolers full of coke in abundance, the outside seating at Lankford's is reminiscent of a backyard cook out.
But with better food.
I kept it simple and went with a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings. My burger was perfectly cooked, thick and very juicy. Unlike some other Houston burgers I've tried, this burger had just the right amount of salt. The toppings were all very fresh, but if I had one complaint, it would be that there was too much bacon. That's right, I said it. You can have too much bacon. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE bacon and this was quality stuff, but it overpowered the flavor of the burger and threw the balance of the other toppings off. Easy solution though: just pull off a little bit of the bacon and eat it later, maybe coupled with an onion rings.
The onion rings: normally I think of side dishes served with burgers as throw aways. I'll try them, but I don't ever expect them to compete with the burger, and I've never tried one that's been better than the burger. These rings weren't necessarily better than my burger, but they were really really good. Very crispy, very large, and a tad bit sweet, I managed to wolf down quite a few before my stomach started threatening to explode.
Service at Lankford isn't exactly fast, but the waitresses are very friendly. One word to the wise: you don't wait for your check. Just go inside and tell the man at the counter your name and that you were on the porch, and he'll give you your total. This seems counter-intuitive when everything else has been served to you at your table, but now you know.
So you might be wondering at this point, whose burgers do I like better: Hubcap, Christian's or Lankford? Hard call. The burgers at all three of these places were really good. If I were judging on food alone, I would probably say Hubcap. However, if you factor in service and atmosphere, I'm going to have to go with Lankford. As the cooler days of fall (hopefully) approach, sitting on the porch at Lankford will only become more appealing ... and the food ain't half bad either.
