Rush's - The 2009-2010 Columbia Cheeseburger Crawl

The fifth place on our cheeseburger crawl was Rush's, a local fast food restaurant chain with six locations throughout Columbia (as well as two other locations in Lexington and Camden). It was a rainy day, but any day is good for cheeseburgers and fries in my book, so we drove over to the Rush's on Broad River Road by the I-26 to see if Rush's really offered "Fabulous Food . . . Fast!"

The menu at Rush's is clean and simple, with three main types of food of the menu: it offers hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and chili burgers, chili and slaw dogs, and fried chicken. A regular cheeseburger comes all the way with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion.

A couple of general comments about the cheeseburger at Rush's: I thought the cheeseburger was pretty similar to Palmetto Sandwich Shop except without the pimento cheese, meaning it was a simple, solid cheeseburger that didn't stand out very much...the burger was definitely made fast though - less than a minute after ordering, the food was ready. Flarké liked that the fries came in a cup. Hambone added "It is better than fast food", and Andy said "This cheeseburger is a step above McDonald's - at least it didn't make my stomach hurt." Andy's comment initially sounded kind of harsh, until I found out that whenever he eats a burger from McDonald's, he gets a stomachache - so, in context, it was a compliment...I think?

-Here are our ratings on the cheeseburger and fries:
Average Rating: 2.87

Epicurious E.: 2.5
Andy: 3.0
Flarké: 2.5
Hambone: 3.5

-And a breakdown of each of the components of the cheeseburger:

Bun: The bun was a regular cafeteria-style white bun, and it was not toasted. Andy complained about his bun, he thought there was too much bun on my burger compared to the patty, but no one else had this problem.

Meat: The meat was ok - it was not overcooked and the flavor was fine, but it didn't stand out, either.

Cheese: One choice - American cheese.

Presentation and condiments: As you can see from the photos, this is a simple fast food setup restaurant - the burger came in a simple bag, and there were no condiments on the tables.

When I saw that Rush's also offered chili dogs, I figured I'd try one as well. This is a slaw dog, which comes with chili, slaw, and mustard. If I were to rank this dog with the ones I've eaten so far, I would say it was middle of the road, better than Mack's, but not as good as Edna's. The dog itself was a decent size and cooked decently (not grilled enough for me, though), but the chili was a bit bland, not flavorful as Edna's.