Asking for a “Curly Fry Nacho Cheese Burger” at the De Anza cafeteria and being met with a bewildered expression is probably one of the worse experiences I’ve had here. Luckily, the burger wasn’t.

I went into this warily, thinking I was not going to like it at all. I’m a burger fan and a curly fry fan, but I’m not a fan of nacho cheese or jalapenos. It sounded like too much for a burger. Even for the category of completely heart stopping burgers.

The Nacho Curly Burger left me pleasantly surprised though, despite the fact the poor cook had to ask for help when it came to creating this cheese-dripping monstrosity.

The burger patty itself is standard for De Anza, decent by all accounts but not remarkable. The real showstopper here is the nacho cheese poured over that patty.

It’s surprisingly good for nacho cheese. Many nacho cheeses just taste like a soupy hell zone of preservative mush. This one actually tastes like cheese, and it tastes mostly of melted American cheese that you would normally find on a burger. However, the jalapenos give it a little extra flavor since they are put on while the burger is cooking.

Unfortunately, the flavor of the cheese is mostly lost among the jalapenos. When you bite into a jalapeno, as opposed to just getting the cooked-off flavor of them, you lose the whole flavor of the burger. The jalapenos replace the taste of the cheese and fries with that of just meat and vegetable. Which really takes away from the whole cardiac arrest inducing experience of the burger.

The cheese does have a few downsides. The curly fries get a bit soggy and chewy in the cheese after a while. Luckily, the buns are toasted and make up for the texture of the fries.

Despite all its flaws and general weirdness, it’s a good burger. My recommendation is to eat it as soon as you get it, and maybe take the jalapenos off it you want to guarantee the full grease flavor for that impending heart attack feeling.

Nice Buns! is a weekly column with changing writers about De Anza’s Burger of the Week.