Because sometimes, nothing but a killer milkshake will do.

If you grew up in the East County, chances are you have probably already been to the Beef n’ Bun. If you didn’t, chances are you drove past it about a dozen times before someone told you how fantastic their milkshakes are. At that point, if you’re like me, you immediately made a bee-line for the drive-thru and ordered a Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake. Sipping the heavenly concoction of vanilla ice cream blended with chocolate syrup and flecks of salty peanut butter, I felt a deep pang of sincere regret for those unfortunate folks who happen to be lactose intolerant -- and immediately went back to sucking that milkshake down just as fast as my personal brain-freeze tolerance would allow.

Beef n’ Bun sits on Fletcher Parkway, just East of 125. It’s one of the few remaining independent stand-alone drive-thru burger joints in town. In fact, I can only think of one other one and it’s also in the East County – Charlie’s Best Burgers in Lemon Grove. The stand itself is fairly unassuming. It appears to have been re-decorated in the mid-70s or thereabouts, which probably didn’t do the interior atmosphere any favors, but the drive-thru is really where it’s at. You should be aware however, that if you do order your milkshake in the restaurant, you’ll get a mound of whipped cream about five inches high on top. Drive-thru milkshakes come with a lid, for obvious reasons – and therefore, no whipped cream. Personally, though I like whipped cream just fine, I think the unadorned milkshake is plenty rich enough without it.

Though the milkshakes are enough of a reason to go, the “real” food is pretty darn good too. The menu offers standard fast food fare – including big sloppy burgers with all the trimmings, a decent grilled chicken breast sandwich, and my personal favorite – the B.L.T. with six slices of perfectly crisp bacon, served on toasted bread instead of a bun. Perhaps because it’s not a standardized chain, the food tastes a little more “real” -- it doesn’t have that strange sweet taste I’ve noticed at McDonald’s, or the hyper-seasoned flavor of the food at Jack in the Box. I’d describe it as more along the lines of an In ‘n’ Out or Rally Burger - though I am quite certain that they don’t make their fries from fresh potatoes as In ‘n’ Out claims to do. In fact, the frozen crinkle fries are the weakest part of the dining experience here. Soggy and under-cooked, they reminded me of the ones we had in school lunches, but you can easily skip the fries in favor of the giant batter-dipped onion rings, or zucchini sticks. If you’re consuming a veritable bucket of milkshake and a sandwich though, you might want to do your arteries a favor and skip the side orders altogether -- I’m just saying.

The milkshakes are made with a base of soft-serve vanilla ice cream, which gives them their super-smooth, creamy texture. The added ingredients are blended in with a mixing machine you can see just inside the pickup window. You can watch them make your shake -- adding salty creamy peanut butter, chocolate syrup, malt powder, bananas -- whatever you’ve requested. They have a knack for putting in just the right amount. Thus far I’ve tried Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Malt, and Peanut Butter (which is particularly good with the B.L.T.) The chocolate malt packs a wallop of rich malt flavor, the peanut butter chocolate is salty, sweet and creamy all at the same time -- and the peanut butter really does slide down to the bottom if you leave it to sit for long. It occurred to me on my last visit that I should go ahead and just combine these flavors, in a Chocolate Peanut Butter Malt. I think I’ll save that for one of these nights when the East County summer weather is too oppressive not only to cook, but to eat anything more substantial than ice cream. It would be a meal in itself.

I do not have any connections with this business. I've been here five to ten times.