Today's AHT reader review comes from Malcolm B. (aka dinnercraft on Serious Eats), who writes about food in Portland, Maine at food blog From Away (@From_Away). Thanks, Malcolm! If anyone else wants to share some burger intel, email us at burger@seriouseats.com or check out our review submission form. —The Mgmt.

[Photographs: Malcolm B.]

The Dogfish Bar and Grill is exactly the kind of place I find myself spending more and more time in, now that I am in my thirties and am more focused on "drinking" and "eating" than I am on the other patrons, or whether my t-shirt is effectively communicating my sense of irony. The room is appropriately dim and cool, with a great selection of beer on tap. This isn't a pseudo-Irish pub, or a fistfighty frat boy bar, or a self-conscious dive bar. It's not a sports bar, or a tapas bar, or, for goodness' sake, a karaoke bar. No; The Dogfish Bar and Grille is a just a place, that doesn't happen to be your house, that you can go and have a drink with other pleasant, like-minded individuals, look at some local art, maybe hear some live music, sit outside when it's warm, and, if you'd like, get something to eat.

The Dogfish is also home to the signature Dogfish Burger. It combines barbecue sauce, chipotle ranch, onion rings, white cheddar, Applewood bacon, tomatoes and mixed greens, on an eight ounce patty, served on a lightly toasted wheat bun.

The initial presentation is stunning. This burger stands ten inches tall, with a long wooden skewer providing stability. Even after removing a few of the onion rings (which stayed surprisingly crisp, even under the weight of all the other ingredients), there's absolutely no way to get the whole burger in your mouth at one time. Instead, you are left to put your whole face in it, grabbing a few ingredients at a time with your teeth. This can be, depending on your state of mind, either delightful or awful. The burger was cooked to a medium-rare, as requested, with a very satisfying crust all around the outside giving way to a warm pink center.

The bun, some sort of brioche affair, was light and fluffy with a light honey flavor, but couldn't stand up to the onslaught of juices from the burger; the bottom half of the bun was obliterated before even half of the burger was gone, leaving you with a fistful of meat and cheese that you are repeatedly pushing your whole face into.

If anything, that is my only complaint about the burger at The Dogfish. While all of the individual components of the burger are delicious and well prepared, there is just so much of everything that it all becomes kind of indistinct. At eight ounces, the hamburger patty overpowers almost all of the other flavors on this sandwich; it's one of the few burgers I've had where I found myself wishing for less meat. I didn't detect even a hint of the promised chipotle ranch sauce or barbecue sauce, and didn't taste any of the white cheddar cheese. This is a minor complaint, however; when you are served beef this delicious, having the hamburger itself be the only thing you taste is a great problem to have. —Malcolm B.

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