RESTAURANT REVIEW: Get close to music history at Hard Rock Café

DESTIN — Not everyone has a chance to come in contact with rock ‘n’ roll royalty, but at Hard Rock Café you can get a little taste and a glimpse into the careers of some of rock’s most famous performers.

The food

I’m going to be honest and say the food is not the main reason to come to Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, my burger was fresh and delicious, but I could get the same thing, for a few dollars cheaper, down the street.

My friend and I both ordered burgers. I had the mushroom and Swiss burger, while she opted for the red, white and blue burger, which is grilled with Buffalo sauce and Cajun seasoning in the meat and topped with bleu cheese and an onion ring, with extra Buffalo sauce for dipping.

The burgers came with a side of fries, or for $3 more you could get onion rings.

We ordered our burgers medium-well, which is what the waiter recommended, and they turned out perfectly juicy and full of flavor.

My friend stuck with the fries and I decided to try the onion rings. I think they used a coarse corn meal-like batter. My only complaint about the whole meal is that the onion rings were not piping hot when delivered.

Besides burgers, Hard Rock also serves steaks, barbecue chicken and ribs, chicken fajitas, grilled chicken marsala, macaroni and cheese, and salmon for its entrees.

They also serve an array of salads including a gigantic Cobb salad, or an anti-Cobb salad if you are more health conscious and prefer fruit toppings.

The atmosphere

What most people come to Hard Rock Café for is to be transported backstage with a VIP pass to their dream concert. You just might get to see that at Hard Rock because several TVs across the restaurant broadcast performances by artists such as The Doors, Kiss, Oasis and The Pretenders, which are some of the acts we saw during lunch on a recent Monday.

Sometimes even the waitstaff gets into the act. On another visit I can recall all of the servers breaking into song during one of Madonna’s hits with one waitress dancing on a table toward the end of the song.

While you wait for your food, you can browse the hundreds of concert posters, articles of clothing, lyrics and instruments that adorn the walls.

We asked our punk rock Buddy Holly lookalike waiter what his favorite item of memorabilia was, and he said he had a particular affinity for the Beach Boys, so it was a shirt of Brian Wilson’s.

Near Wilson’s shirt, Beatles fans can find one of George Harrison’s comparatively drab baby blue Oxford shirts. Only when you inspect the cuffs do you realize this is no school boy’s uniform. The edges are marked by tiny pleats that go all the way around the cuff.

The service

Hard Rock wasn’t very busy on a recent Monday during lunchtime, so our waiter only had one other table. He was great and even persuaded us to donate some money to help feed the hungry.

A final taste

Hard Rock is somewhere that’s fun to go for a different sort of dining experience.