Hooters, Las Vegas

Okay. Before we begin, for those of you who are naive, Hooters is not a bird sanctuary. Not the feathered variety anyway.

I've had this urge to go to a Hooters restaurant since I became a fan of Girls of the Playboy Mansion years ago. Holly Madison was always my favourite, and before she was on Hugh's arm she had worked at the legendary Hooters restaurant.

We had two main culinary aims whilst visiting America; fine dining and burgers. This one certainly was not fine dining, but was my favourite burger experience in Vegas. You walk through a busy casino to get to the restaurant, which is situated at the back of the Hooters hotel. You're greeted by a a friendly girl in a teeny football shirt and the tiniest orange hotpants I have ever seen. The girls are all stunningly beautiful (which you would expect) but it feels in no way seedy or uncomfortable. Hooters is all about family fun.

We both ordered the house special burger which came with amazing skin-on curly fries. We also got some of their hot wings and a side of cheese sauce.

This picture does the burger no justice whatsoever. The restaurant was quite dark so it was hard to get good snaps. It was a fat burger with crispy bacon and American cheese. You can pretty much build you burger any way you want at Hooters. They even ask how you would like it cooked. This burger was my idea of heaven. I may have eaten better quality burgers whilst in the States, but this one ticked every box. It was literally dripping with meat juices (not grease), pink, served on the all important brioche bun and tasted out of this world. I felt relaxed, and by the end of it, morbidly full.

Sides. Ahh... the sides... I only ate one of the wings as I was concentrating all my powers on the burger and fries. However, I can confirm they were massive! They were hot without being ridiculous and had a nice crispy skin. Because it was football night, there was an offer on which included a pitcher of beer and 20 wings. Hell's teeth. They were serving them on beer trays - the portion size was so colossal. A heart attack waiting to happen. Which is rich coming from me.

The cheese sauce was one of the happiest moments of my life. Imagine melted American cheese mixed with a few chillies. There you go. Cheese dreams are made of this. I ate nearly an entire pot. It was so good I insisted telling our waitress all about it, despite the fact she worked there. I miss cheese sauce.

We looked so destroyed by our feast that our waitress brought us our bill. Not a chance! I had spied Key Lime Pie on the menu and was not leaving that establishment without sampling it. It was unreal. Really tangly filling covered by soft meringue and a dollop of fresh whipped cream. Divine.

Next time I'm in America I'm definitely going back to Hooters. Great service, fantastic food and a relaxed atmosphere.