Bobby's Burgers By Bobby Flay manages to set itself apart. 

• Alex Springer

With the Utah dining market becoming more and more attractive for nationally-recognized brand franchises, it's no surprise that Bobby's Burgers has come to town. Owned by professional chef and Food Network stalwart Bobby Flay, Bobby's Burgers packages the grill-centric celebrity chef's brand into a pleasant fast-casual model. Since it already has several Las Vegas locations and an expanding East Coast presence, it makes sense for this national brand to set its sights on Utah and its own ever-evolving food scene.

Readers of my stuff will know that I don't discriminate based on brand recognition or national presence—good food is good food. However, I will tend to hold an eatery that has Bobby Flay money in its corner to a higher standard. It's something that local restaurateur Joe Sample mentions when we met up at Bobby's Burgers in Orem.

"The Bobby Flay name is always going to draw trial," says Sample, whose MTB Management operates 12 Taco Bell locations across Western Montana. Bobby's Burgers is a new addition to Sample's portfolio, and his first foray into Utah's dining scene has been a success thus far.

The Orem location has been open for just over a month now, but it's the kind of property that nicely matches the vibes of University Place Mall. It's the kind of local fast-casual spot that feels just enough like destination dining to make it attractive to Utah County shoppers.

I'm savvy enough to recognize the difference between a menu and a brand, so while I respect Flay's status as an Iron Chef, I was really looking for a restaurant burger that could reasonably justify being three times the price of In-N-Out. It's my own personal litmus test, and it hasn't let me down yet.

I liked the Bobby's Burgers conceit of "crunchifying" its burgers with the addition of crispy potato chips, so I went for the Nacho Burger ($11.99). It seemed to embody the idea of crunchification, while also leaning into the Tex-Mex flavors for which Flay is known. On a side note, I just can't avoid junk food that has more junk food piled on top of it. One aspect of the burger patties at Bobby's Burgers that Sample is most proud of is the quality of the restaurant's beef.

"These burgers are six-ounce Angus-certified patties, and we don't smash them," he says.

The Nacho Burger arrives looking very nacho-tastic with its gooey queso, pickled jalapeños and tomato chipotle salsa. This burger's crunchification comes courtesy of blue corn tortilla chips, which essentially make this a self-sustaining scoop of nachos on top of a very juicy burger. At Bobby's Burgers, you can get your burger medium or well-done, and the former is the right call. That six-ounce patty is front and center, spilling its marvelous juices all over the burger's heel. It's a well-seasoned burger, and all those nacho toppings only complement the existing flavors.

In short, this definitely blew past my In-N-Out Burger litmus test—it is worth the price of admission.

I was planning on getting a fried chicken sandwich ($11.99), because Bobby's Burgers is hitting us during the local cold war we're experiencing among our fried-chicken sandwich purveyors. I don't know if it's got enough of a punch to be a contender in this grand melee of deep-fried poultry, but it's a pretty damn good chicken sandwich. My favorite thing about this one is the breading on the chicken. Visually, it looks like the kind of crust that will be murder on the gums, but its crenulated peaks and valleys yield perfectly to each bite—it's crisped up enough to provide a nice crunch, but it's not like chewing gravel. I also liked the coleslaw and pickles, but the aji amarillo mayo mutes the acid too much. If the coleslaw was tossed with a bit of this for smoky flavor, it would be much improved.

As a side dish, I went with the buttermilk onion rings ($5.99) because fries are great and all, but onion rings are superior in almost every way. The rings at Bobby's are enormous, and the majority of their thickness comes from the sliced onion itself. Their buttermilk batter is much thinner than on other rings I have known, and each onion is cooked perfectly so there's no textural interference happening here.

You get three sauce options with the sides, including Bobby's Sauce, which uses chipotle mayo to spice up this cousin to Utah's beloved fry sauce. Then there's the house-made ranch that has a bevy of signature ingredients, and the horseradish honey mustard which leans more into the honey's sweetness than the horseradish bite. I liked the Bobby's Sauce, but all three have their advantages.

Again, any time you get a restaurant with a celebrity chef's clout behind it, you tend to ask a lot of questions. That said, my experience at Bobby's Burgers was definitely positive. It's got a nice, boutique-sized menu, the team isn't fooling around with their ingredients, and the possibility of swapping a burger patty for a chicken breast or veggie burger means plenty of variety. If you're shopping at University Place in Orem, Bobby's Burgers is definitely worth checking out.