Hard Rock Cafe

The Hard Rock Café is a famous international chain of casual dining restaurants. The chain or its franchisees own resorts, hotels and restaurants in dozens of locations throughout the world. The “theme” of the restaurant is “rock music” and the décor features photos of rock stars, rock-music memorabilia and lots of television screens churning out a variety of classic-rock videos. But you knew that, right?

Once an international legend, the restaurant is now a caricature of what it was when created in the 1970’s. It used to cater to the hip crowd and celebrities. Now, it caters to travelers familiar with the Hard Rock brand, Japanese tourists and locals that don’t know any better. As a result, the menu is somewhat “pricey”. We’ve had steak dinners at nice restaurants paying less than what we paid for a burger and warmed-up appetizers at the Hard Rock Café.

I suppose that would be okay if the burger were one to talk about. But it’s not. In the Santiago restaurant, the meat is of inferior quality, short on fat content, and generally produces one the least juicy burgers ever flipped on a grille. It had a smoky taste as if broiled on an open flame. That was a nice touch, but the bun was so dry it fell apart. I had to eat the entire burger with a knife and fork. That’s something most Chileans won’t mind since that’s how they do it anyway. The fries were average at best. Service was good.

Of the 2,500 photos uploaded by consumers on Tripadvisor.com, only about 5% were images of the food. The rest were selfies, shots of the décor or beer bottles. What does that tell you about how memorable the food is?

Despite our good rating for ambiance, the sub-standard food means the Hard Rock Café only achieves an overall score of 77% (3.9 stars). I suppose the good news is that this very average score is still better than International chain-restaurants Friday’s and Chili’s could garner in Santiago.

If you’ve never been to the Hard Rock Café and want a selfie shot next to a guitar signed by Lenny Kravitz that he probably never played, Hard Rock Café is your only choice. For a burger, we’d suggest Uncle Fletch or the nearby La Burguesía. They serve burgers worthy of a review.