Fatburger reopens Elk Grove location under new management. ‘It’s a lot different’
Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express fast food restaurant in Elk Grove has officially reopened under new management, after closing last year amid negative feedback from customers.
The long-running Los Angeles-based burger chain opened an Elk Grove location at 4720 Elk Grove Blvd. in December 2021. It temporarily closed in 2023.
It previously received negative reviews online from customers who were disgruntled with wait times, incorrect orders and subpar taste. Yelp showed the Elk Grove location with a 2.5-star rating out of 5, based on 130 reviews.
“I went about a month after they opened. They were extremely slow and the food was mediocre. Never went back,” one Reddit user wrote in a thread.
The Fatburger in Elk Grove, in a shopping center at Elk Grove and Franklin boulevards, held a soft opening under new management June 14 and all throughout last week. Now, the location is getting prepared for a wave of hungry patrons.
Since new management took over, store manager AJ Pooni said he checked the Yelp reviews of the Fatburger from when it was under the previous management and wants to assure people that they will enjoy their experience under new ownership.
“If you try to check the old reviews now, I don’t think you can find them, but they were terrible,” Pooni said. (The reviews, many of them unflattering, were still visible on Yelp as of Friday morning.) “Everyone was complaining about wait times, just nasty food and it’s all just due to people not caring about the store, and that’s changing now. We’re here. It’s a lot different.”
Customers seem to be singing a different tune and enjoying their meals.
Robert Kiehne, a retired firefighter who worked for the city of Sacramento for 25 years, has been an Elk Grove resident since 2002.
Kiehne, known in his community as Uncle Bob, visited Fatburger last week during their soft opening. It was his first ever experience at a Fatburger.
He said he’s been there seven times in the restaurant’s first 12 days since reopening.
“The first time I’d ever had Fatburger and I was just blown away,” Kiehne said. “The burger was cooked to perfection. It wasn’t too overcooked, it wasn’t undercooked. It was perfect.”
Kiehne also tended to his sweet tooth, ordering a chocolate chip cookie to dip into his vanilla milkshake.
Pooni said their aim is to ensure that people know the issues of the past will remain in the past.
“You’re not going to wait 40 minutes for a milkshake. We have everything on the spot,” Pooni said. We make sure we have all our products in stock. You’re not going to come in and order a burger and then get told 10 minutes later that we don’t have the buns, you’re going to know on the spot if we don’t have something. Our employees are very well-knowledgeable. They know what we have and they know what goes into our products.”
Shift leader Donald Bowman-Banks knows the store had a bad reputation and understands what it will take to change that perception.
“We are expecting to serve our food to high-quality expectations, unlike how it was before to say, ‘No, we’re doing things a lot different now,’” Bowman-Banks said. “We know this store has a pretty bad reputation. We’re doing our best to change people’s minds and look the other way and come back in and give us another try.”
Kiehne gave them another try and said it’s his “new favorite place to come.”
“I was sold my very first experience,” Kiehne said. “It’s just the real deal.”
