Some things are better in theory than in practice, and so it was with the burger I had at Cowbell. \n\nBut first, the good:  great atmosphere. Much better than its predecessor burger joint, Nix. Clean, inviting, great for watching sports. \n\nThe service was also great, if not overeager. I had no less than three people waiting on lil ole me, and it got kind of confusing. When they dropped the check off, I was taking my time (it wasn't busy, so I wasn't tying up a table or anything) and one of my army of servers came over to take it up before I even had a chance to put my credit card down. \n\nThe bad:  the side I had. The cucumber salad. Since cucumber salad is the new, hip-happenin side du jour, I'd like to ask all the burger joints to have a sit down and decide how it should be made. \n\nThis one was not good. The cucumbers had some weird sweet taste to them. And the vast majority of the cucumber salad was not, in fact, cucumber - it was raw onion. Ack. Go for some other side.\n\nThe ugly:  the burger. I'm sorry to have to say that. I wanted to like it -- I really did.  I had The Bruiser, a blackened patty with mushrooms, horseradish sauce, onions, lettuce and blue cheese. Sounds yum, right?\n\nBut noooooo. First there was so much blue cheese on it, it killed the rest of the flavors. But just to make sure I had no possible chance of tasting the meat, they doused the burger with about a gallon of horseradish sauce. It came gushing out the sides and it was clear from the get-go that I was going to need to eat this puppy with a fork (or a hazmat suit).  The onion kaiser bun was DOA from all that goo. \n\nThere's also the issue of \"blackening.\" Normally this means a little spiciness. Perhaps it was the killer cloaking combo of blue cheese and horseradish, but I'm thinking that the blackening spice used here was... salt. Blech.\n\nFinally, I ordered the burger medium. It came out overdone. And I'm not convinced the meat quality was all that good either based on what I could see after I used a trowel to scrape all the crap off the burger. \n\nIt makes me sad that a cow gave her all for that travesty of a burger. Seriously - a huge disappointment. \n\nI'd go back if my dinner companion insisted, but I'd definitely go for a much, much simpler burger or something else altogether. But what's the point of going to a burger joint if the burgers aren't up to snuff?