One of the big questions I get from people is “How do you find the places you eat?” There are many answers to this, but the primary two answers are “research” and “happenstance”. Mad Madeline’s Grill was a good example of the latter. We were visiting Temecula with Carol’s sister and her boyfriend, and walking down the street we passed by Mad Madeline’s. I didn’t even need to look inside to know that this was going to be a good burger joint. Walking by on the sidewalk, I walked through three successive bands of smells. First was the smoker. Second was the smell of nicely seared beef. The third was a fry cooker. It certainly smelled like a good burger joint.
Looking in, there were several tables of people, all having large burger and fry platters, and obviously enjoying them, so we decided to give the place a shot. So we went “inside” (Mad Madeline’s seating is entirely outside, although somewhat sheltered from the weather).
Mad Madeline’s sports quite an extensive menu of burgers, primarily half pounders ranging from the plain old cheeseburger, the obligatory-in-California lettuce-tomato-mayo burger, the also obligatory guacamole burger, several different chile-pepper burgers, and the like. I settled on a jalapeno cheeseburger and fries.
The burger was a very nicely done California style burger, with nicley leafed lettuce and tomato, a very nicely seared but very juicy and properly-cooked medium-rare half-pound patty, and a nicely toasted bun with just enough mayo to keep the very juicy burger from soaking into it. A good example of a burger that’s hitting on all cylinders. The fries were also good, being cut on-site and freshly made to order, having a decent crispiness and a nice fluffy interior.
If I go back another time, I’m trying the ortega chile burger, since it looked quite promising as well. They also appeared to have decent barbecue, but I’ll have to leave that for the next trip as well.
All in all, I enjoyed Mad Madeline’s. The location is nice, and you can kick back and relax with your burger as you people-watch in Old Town Temecula. The burger and fries were enjoyable (although a bit expensive) as well.
