As if congressional dining options weren’t sketchy enough , a Senate aide is now all salty about a purported bait and switch, calling into question the integrity of the American Grill’s signature Senate Burger.  

According to the fed-up food spy, Restaurant Associates has replaced the Angus beef patties previously featured in the double-decker gut bomb with smaller, lesser quality patties while continuing to charge the premium rate ($6 solo; $8 to have extra crispy fries and a fountain drink ride shotgun).  

In all honesty, we’ve not paid that close attention to the building blocks of the congressional burger offerings before (too busy breaking down the specialty misfires ). And Restaurant Associates, per usual, did not respond to emails inquiring about the composition of the Senate Burger vs. the other grilled meats served around the Capitol complex.  

So we got to munching.  

A regular burger from the American Grill is, in fact, nothing to write home about.

There’s bread. There’s beef.  

And that’s about it.  

A fully dressed, half-pound Senate Burger, on the other hand, delivers the goods.  

Granted, the twin patties benefit from the addition of sweet pickles, zesty jalapenos, savory onions and two layers of melted American cheese. But all that loving is piled on for just a few bucks more than the plain burger — a modest investment for a majorly improved dining experience.  

Both the plain hamburger and Senate Burger do, however, appear to be forged from the same beef patties.  

Having never tasted the “original” Senate Burger, we cannot definitively say whether RA did, in fact, downgrade this meat stack on the sly.  

But if RA deliberately ditched the higher quality beef without trimming the price tag, that should leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.