IssaEats: Grounded and Pounded

I honestly do not think that anything will come close to my favorite Fat Cow burger for a while but it doesn’t hurt to post some pretty ok burgers in between.

Grounded and Pounded which is located at the ground floor of One Pavillion mall along Banawa claims to be a healthier variation to the typical burger. With the tag line “It’s Not Just Healthy… It’s Grounded and Pounded”, I was sort of left wondering what was so healthy about it. I think it was the pesto sauce they used in it but to be honest, I really don’t know.

I don’t feel too good about giving a bad review but a friend encouraged me to be very honest with my thoughts and opinions which is the basis of a good blog so I will try very very hard to make this as decent as possible. Sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings.

We walked into Grounded and Pounded right around noontime, hungry and excited to try out this new burger place that we’ve been noticing over the past few months. The first thing we noticed as we entered was that all the doors were open and that the air conditioning was turned off with the absence of an electric fan to make up for the scrimped ventilation. Not to sound like we can’t handle a little heat or anything but for an establishment located inside the mall, we were expecting that it would be fully air conditioned. Also, the reason why we decided to eat out was because it was too hot to eat at home in the first place. Since the place was pretty clean and it wasn’t suffocating us, we decided to stay anyways since we were all pretty determined to try the place out.

At first I was quite excited to order since there were quite a few selections to choose from their flip through menu such as the Banh Mi Burger (P109.00), The Gap Classic (P 99.00), The Gap Premium (P 129.00), The Gap Bacon Burger (P 144.00) and side dishes like Bruschetta (P69.00), Mojos (P89.00) among others. Unfortunately, the burger and the side dish that I wanted weren’t available and I ended up with a Gap Classic with Cheese (P 139.00) and fries. The menu stated that it came with mojos but they did not have those either which was kind of a bummer.

Maybe it was the heat or the disappointment from their scarcity in selections but I ended up not quite enjoying my burger. Although I liked the little hearts that the chef cutely placed on my chopping board, I guess it wasn’t enough to entice my already fading appetite. Also, if you’re not really into spiced burgers then you probably won’t like this burger either.

There were a lot of things I did not like about this place or the food but the service wasn’t really that bad. The place was clean so even though it was hot, we didn’t feel like we were being grilled liked our patties. There weren’t a lot of people so there wasn’t a problem with seating either and when my friend’s chair broke mid meal, the owner humbly apologized and provided us with a new one. But then again, chairs aren’t supposed to break mid meal, are they? haha. It could’ve gone worse, guys!

We probably went on one of our off days so I’m hoping that the next time we decide to drop by, they’ll have more items on their menu and that the necessary changes will be made. Grounded and Pounded seemed to me like a labor of love that had so much potential to develop and become more than it is. So even if I did not enjoy my first time there, I’m looking forward to seeing them improve for the next time we decide to try it out again.

Find out more about them here