It was a fairly typical late afternoon.

“You know we’ve got zero plans for dinner. Nothing much in the fridge. I’ve just spent the last two days cooking for your friends”, said Don Day’s Wife. “Why don’t we order in.”

Now, usually ordering in means something that we don’t normally cook at home. Pizza is top of the list for, without a hot enough oven (or barbecue), we just can’t make a good enough crust. Chinese comes not far behind pizza because when we want Chinese, we want three or four different dishes and making that many dishes for only two people just doesn’t make sense.

“I want a burger” said Don Day’s Wife. “I want a La Frontera burger. You can order her drunken burrito.”

“Nah”, I said, “I want one of her burgers, too.”

“Her” refers to Noren Caceres and La Frontera is her restaurant. Over 2 for $99 cocktails at Bananas, the other evening, the guys were talking about the most successful restauranteurs in town. The words talented, smart, dedicated and conscientious were used to describe Noren. Don Day’s Wife calls her “the hardest working chef in SMA”.

Having La Frontera’s burgers delivered to our door though was a bit of an accident. Despite discovering Noren Caceres’ ability to create great burgers many, many years ago, the first time we had burgers outside of her restaurant was back in December.

It was a similar scene. Just arrived from a long day of travel from Toronto. Checking the evening news on the box. Let’s order in was the decision; burgers, the unanimous choice. I went to Uber Eats and chose a restaurant with a solid reputation for burgers and keyed in the order. Sirloin burger $345. Cheese $30. Bacon $40. Fries $80. Total $495. Times two $990.

Almost $1000 for two burgers and fries! Wait a minute! There’s a restaurant just down the street and around the corner from where we were ordering that does a very good burger. Wonder if they deliver. Noren Caceres answered the phone. Yes they did. We ordered two bacon cheese burgers with fries.

“That will be $470 including delivery and tip”, said Noren.

I think I said, “Wow!”

So…in addition to being less than half the price…what makes La Frontera’s hamburger so special?

Most important, of course is the meat. The patties are about seven ounces in size, which is perfect for me and even a titch oversized for Don Day’s Wife. They’re all beef, about 80/20 lean to fat in ratio and nicely but lightly spiced. They’re grilled on metal which holds the juice in better than char-broiled. The spicing is light but right. And each time we’ve ordered, they’ve come perfectly cooked “medium” as requested.

The bun is, apart for some sesame seeds, boring. Because buns are not supposed to compete with the flavor of what’s between them, only to deliver the goods in an easy to handle package.

The cheese is added at the grilling stage so that it’s melted perfectly. The overly generous amount of bacon is fried to almost crisp. The lettuce is traditional iceberg and also crisp. The tomatoes are Roma and ripe. The onion is the slightly-better-than-white purple. The avocado is unnecessary but still welcomed. The mustard, mayo and ketchup are Heinz.

Over on the side, our choice with burgers has to be French fries. La Frontera’s potatoes are previously frozen, 3/8-inch, straight-cut Idahos that, despite the availability of local Russets these days in San Miguel, still make sense for restaurants.

Put all of the components together and you have a fistful of flavor and one very good burger. Consider the price and you have a great one. And a delightful delivery alternative to pizza or Chinese.

La Frontera is located at Refugio Sur #28 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. To order pick-up or delivery, call 415 152 4265.