Glory Days Grill, Southdale Center, 7939 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie/Pasadena

Glory Days Grill at Southdale has a typical sports bar and grill atmosphere, including lots of television screens -- 13 within direct view of our table, not counting the two gianormous big screens -- sports memorabilia covering the walls, a couple of video games near the bar, and waitstaff attired in sports jerseys. It's lively, loud, bright and offers plenty of distractions for the attention-deficient. The menu is the kind of fare you would expect -- lots of burgers, some steaks and ribs, the ubiquitous wings, nachos, fries and so forth.

We  visited Glory Days Grill to take advantage of their Monday $5 Burgers deal. Most likely due to the holiday, we found it busier than usual, especially for the three-thirty hour. With a lot of the main dining area occupied, we elected to take a table in the bar area. To our pleasant surprise, it was less noisy on that side than we normally experience on the other side. Too bad that our tabletop speaker box had a dead battery, so we were unable to hear any of the TV audio. When we brought it to the waiter's attention, he set the dead box on the next table, but didn't give us a working one. Other than that, the service was adequate -- not stellar, but no serious problems. On the plus side, our burgers arrived in just fifteen minutes, and our tea and soda glasses were kept full. Since Glory Days has a bar, I find it disappointing that they don't offer to flavor their iced tea with fruit syrup. A request for fruit-flavored tea will only get you the raspberry faux tea from the soda fountain.

Hunny ordered the Bleu Cheese & Caramelized Onion burger, opting for sweet potato fries as a side. It looked impressive when it arrived but, unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be as good as it looked. We puzzled over the "mystery sauce" that accompanied it, since there was no mention of it on the menu. Despite being ordered well done, he found several pink spots in the meat, and the caramelized onions were excessively greasy. The bleu cheese turned out to be less than ideal as a topping -- applied unevenly, some bites were overpowered with the flavor while others had none. At least the sweet potato fries were good.

I selected the Glory Burger, a super thick patty sitting atop BBQ sauce and onion straws and topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and a fried egg. I chose the parsley red potatoes as my side dish. Also ordered well done, my burger was extra browned, just the way I like it, and thoroughly cooked throughout. Be warned that this thing is impossible to eat with two hands, like a normal burger. In fact, even after I cut it in half, it was such a sloppy mess that I ended up cutting it in pieces and eating it with a fork. The flavor of the burger itself was quite good, and I think the bacon and cheese added to the flavor, but the BBQ sauce, onion straws and fried egg didn't add much more than additional fat and calories. Next time, I think I'll opt for a less-dressed version. The potatoes were nicely seasoned and well prepared.

Both of the burgers came with a a crisp pickle spear and a nice portion of fresh tomato and red onion, but the lettuce looked a bit past its peak. Speaking of onion, we have to wonder why Glory Days chooses to add a thick slice of raw red onion to these particular burgers, as they feature plenty of cooked onions. The other puzzler of the evening was the fact that members of the management team walked by our table a number of times, but never so much as made eye contact with us. That isn't good business any time, but when a customer is making notes and taking photos of the food, one would think that just might result in some minimal acknowledgement from management. But then, their web page still contains an announcement for an event from October -- which also says something about how the business is run.

The best part of the meal was the tab, totaling under $17 (before tip), thanks to the Monday special. Overall, the experience was generally disappointing. Admittedly, we normally enjoy the lively atmosphere and on previous visits we've experienced better quality food and service, so we'll likely return eventually.