Melvins’

I am on a diet. Lots of sacrifice, but I make an exception for Melvin’s. This is not some cookie cutter fastfood place. The burgers here are the real thing. Get yours all the way — cheese, mustard, onions, chili, and slaw. The hot dogs are great as well. If you really want to appreciate this area, buy a bag of burgers and hot dogs and go the four miles to Jones Lake State Park — eat your lunch in the lake picnic area. You will definitely fall in love with this sweet spot in North Carolina!

No vacation trip to White Lake or Myrtle Beach is complete without making the pilgrimage to Elizabethtown for this tasty meal. I get my burgers «with no», meaning mustard, chili, and slaw with no onions. The hot dogs are great too, but the burgers… they are the masterpiece.

I stopped by Melvin’s while passing through town. I had a double burger and hot dog. Both were great. Slaw and chili were awesome. Ordered and paid at the counter, and my order was ready by the time I paid. Great service, good job!

As I plotted out places to stop for meals on this tour of North Carolina I tried to choose places that we love to eat and that Andrew and Aunt Annie have not been. Melvin’s easily made the cut. Aunt Annie had been with us at Cain’s in White Oak when they were still good and at Melvin’s, but Andrew had not. I wanted him to get a sample of this, so kept my fingers crossed that it would be what I remembered.
It was the same. I eat a lot of burgers and am tolerant of a wide range of styles and quality. I try not to compare across styles; pub burgers vs smashed flat-​tops vs char grilled; simple versus embellished and so on. I guess Melvin’s fall in the flat-​top category, since that is how they are cooked as they are gradually smashed from a sphere to a truncated cylinder. It is fun to stand in the window and watch the process. The wonderful grill crust comes from the act of frying them in their own fat that is rendered from the rows and rows of patties cooking at the same time. This is not your 95% lean grass fed organic buffalo meat. If you are squeamish about high-​fat ground beef, do not make the trip. But wonderfully, the finished product is not greasy. The grilled crust encloses a melt-​in-​your-​mouth, moist patty that is seasoned with a little salt and a little finely ground pepper. They are served on a soft white bread bun with homemade chili sauce, very fine slaw, mustard and onions. I get mine without onion, but that is the only change.
Andrew and I each devoured two and debated another, but elected the better part of valor. He and Aunt Annie actually debated seriously, trying to get back there from New Bern on the way back to RDU a few days later. What a wonderful place. It is a pleasure to watch the process as people pass smoothly and quickly through the line at lunch. Tons of these burgers get carried out but I can’t imagine driving anywhere with a sack of these without dipping in and unwrapping one within a block of the store. Of all of the styles, mentioned above, many of them truly awesome, a burger from Melvin’s (make that at least two) would be what I would choose to have available on a desert island. May they always be there because I shall return.

You can have your ²⁄₃^rd pound patties and your fancy toppings. I want Melvins for the rest of my life. They offer burgers, cheeseburgers, and hot dogs — skip the cheeseburger, as that slice of American cheese just isn’t necessary on this kind of burger. Melvin’s serves small patties with an amazing grill crust, incredibly tender texture, with chili sauce, sweet fine chopped slaw and yellow mustard (no onion for me, thanks) on a simple white bun. These are so good I’m considering stopping by on the way back to the airport and having some for breakfast. Get two, they’re small.
This is the style that I want every time I eat a burger, but we can unfortunately never recreate it at home. Watching them cook on the flat top in the front window, they’re using pretty finely ground beef, molded in to almost meatballs, and smashed flat on the griddle. It’s definitely not low fat meat, and there are enough on the grill that the burgers are almost frying in the grease, resulting in a great grill crust. However, the burgers them selves are not inordinately greasy, even if there is a crazy amount floating on that griddle. Basically, this has to be the product of the critical mass of the full griddle and that frying effect — no way could you do this on a normal grill at home, unless you were to add more grease to achieve that crust.
Maybe it’s better for my waistline that I won’t be able to do this at home… I’m not sure I would eat anything else.

Cheeseburger all the way… Done deal! Quick service. Don’t forget about the sweet tea!!!

There is absolutely not enough room for me to rave on how much we love this place. The burger was the best I have ever eaten and my kids love the hot dogs! The Cole slaw and chili make the whole experience fantastic. The line was rediculously long when we got there but the staff is on point. We made the line, ordered and before we even paid… we had our food in hand! We found a seat and the staff on the floor was just as impressive. As busy as she was the girl on the floor never let our glasses get empty before she was by for a refill! We will definitely be back and recommend to all!

Everyone should try an all the way hamburger. It’s to die for! This is a must try restaurant for the newbies. If the line is out the door. Just be patient. They’re amazingly fast at getting your order to perfection.

Best homemade burger ever! Voted one of the top 100 restaurants to dine in North Carolina. If you visit and the customer line is bulging to the back door, stay calm and wait. The service is unbelievably fast. Visit Melvins’ often enough and they always know what you like. Friendly atmosphere and employees.

Living out on the west coast there’s 4 things I miss the most from back home: Mello Yello, Boiled Peanuts, Carolina BBQ, and Melvin’s Burgers.
Sorry mom and dad, but you didn’t make the cut.
Since I was a little child it was a tradition that whenever we went to visit family in the area we stopped in for a couple of their burgers. Although the lines have always been long the staff are quick, and even in a line of 20 people you can expect to wait about 10 minutes. They’re that fast at making your order.
Needless to say, the combination of burger patty, cheese, chili, mustard, and coleslaw makes for an extremely delicious combination of which no one in Los Angeles seems capable of understanding this basic cooking art much less replicating it. They are proof that the best burgers come from simplicity, and that exotic burger ingredients like aioli and arugula should find a home in the dustbin of culinary history.
So for those of you wondering what I’ve described above tastes like go ahead and make one yourself. For me, I’ll wait until my next trip back to NC and make a quick detour to taste a bit of my childhood growing up in the Tar Heel State.

Love this place! Burgers are excellent, service is good, and even if the line is long, the wait never is!

Its a classic burger with chili and slaw, nothing to special. They are fast, they are crowded and they are… well all I can say is decent. They are far better than any fast food burger you will get and far faster at that. The chili, if that’s what you want to call it, is runny and has little to no substance/​flavor. The slaw was pretty darn good so that is a plus but in the end it is just another burger, well a step above another burger.
If you are really looking for the best that NC has to offer when it comes to burgers you need to head to Southport (side note: there are actually things to do in that town as well so that’s an added bonus!). When you get to Southport go to «Eric’s Grill» and you will find the best burger in NC. The chili is plentiful and tasty, the slaw is home made and on point and the burger is perfect. The best I have ever had.
I’m sorry, I wanted to love Melvins’ but I think it’s more of a local small town love affair than it is a great food destination. Eric’s blows melvins out of the water any day of the week and to add to it Eric is actually nice to his customers and Military friendly.
Final advice? Skip Melvins and that small town and head to Southport, you can thank me later.

Wow, definitely not worth the drive. I’ve had better burgers at McDonalds. The burgers were way over cooked, crunchy on the outer edge, not to mention small. Won’t be back

You know your’re in a good burger joint when they tell you they don’t have French fries… Or lettuce. And not like they ran out, those aren’t things they ever have.

Loved the burger and the hotdog but did not understand why they do not sell fries. Maybe it is an issue of space.

Great all around burger! Homemade burger with homemade slaw and chili. Great place to eat and very friendly

I don’t know how I’ve gone through 29 years of life without having a burger from the south!
Coleslaw and chili in my burger? Who would have known how much this would tickle my tongue!
Word from the locals is that the burgers don’t taste the same since the establishment was bought out. But, I have nothing to compare it to! I will definitely be checking out the farmers market where the original owners sell the ORIGINAL burger (meat) and let y’all know how it compares. (Did you catch that?.. I’m turnin southern on y’all lol)
Service is fast, within 30 seconds your order is ready!
2 homemade cookies for $ 1: macadamia but, oatmeal raisin, sugar, chocolate chip. No option to mix and match
We got here at 1145 JUST in time to beat the 10 person line up behind us on our way out.
Con:
Burger is pretty small $ 2.55 (cheeseburger)
Cash only

My boyfriend’s parents live in E-​town and every time we visit, he raves about Melvins’ burgers, but we never get a chance to try them because we always visit on a holiday. Over Memorial weekend, though, I finally got my chance. I waited in the car thinking it would only take about 10 minutes, but 40 minutes later, a sackful of burgers comes back. There was a line out the door that day. Small burger, yet excellent. The coleslaw is that crunch factor that you look for and the burger itself has that great griddled taste. Worth the wait? I’d say so. With there not being a lot of variety in the area, Melvins’ is a great option.

I have some of my best of friends that grew up in Elizabethtown, NC which told me that this place has the best hamburgers anywhere, hands down. I have come down with them to visit their hometown on many occasions, and they are not exaggerating, Melvins has the best hamburgers I know of around these parts.
You will find it on one of the «main strips» there in E’town, and it looks much like any other local eatery in this size town. But believe me, you will want to get there early enough to get a seat, especially on weekends, because this place gets a line for their hamburgers and hot dogs… yes, it’s that good. A local legend and regional favorite. Even though there may be a wait in line it won’t be long. They have it down like an assembly line, and it takes no time hardly to complete orders.
I usually like my hamburgers and hot dogs pretty low maintenance, ketchup, mustard, mayo sort of thing. But if you are getting a hamburger here, I recommend you get what seems to be their speciality, one with cole slaw and chili. You won’t regret it, I haven’t each time, amazing good.
Whether you are lucky enough to get a seat or get yours for take out, you will enjoy your hamburger/​hot dog experience here. It’s definitely a highlight of my visits down in E’town.

Darn good burgers and hot dogs… but so far out of the way… and yet… worth a trip every once in a while.
I haven’t been to Melvin’s, aka The Pool Hall, in quite a while, but that doesn’t mean just thinking about their burgers and hot dogs doesn’t make my mouth water! Mustard, slaw, chili, and onions. You don’t need anything else.
The place is über popular, but even if there’s a line, the trip’s a breeze. The line moves really fast. The only challenge is getting a table.
Delish!