Category Archives: Burgers

Burgers, Midtown East, Other Cuts, Porterhouse, Press Reviews, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews

Empire Steakhouse East

March 10, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Empire Steakhouse East overall score: 85

The Empire Steakhouse empire just opened a midtown east location.

My friend Matt was asked in for a press meal and he graciously invited me to tag along. We were able to try a bunch of stuff with our group, so I will get right to it.

Flavor: 9
We tried two cuts: the tomahawk rib eye, and the “Emperor’s cut,” which is a T-bone steak from the rear portion of the animal that has a much larger tenderloin side. I’m not quite sure how this is different than a porterhouse, unless what they offer as a porterhouse is more accurately described as a T-bone, which generally has a smaller tenderloin side.

As you can see above, it looks a bit overcooked. With such a large hunk of beef, that is always a concern. Pair that with the hot plate presentation and some graying of meat is bound to happen. Much of the cut was fine, however, and the large tenderloin was very flavorful. The sirloin side was a little tougher, but this was a welcome texture change from the super soft tenderloin side. Flavors were very meaty, there was a great sear on the outside with a good crust, and the steak was well seasoned. In any case, I’ve decided to also include this cut on my porterhouse page even though it is also on the “other cuts” page as a T-bone. I feel like some diners may expect this was a porterhouse. I do, however, think the price tag on it is a bit hefty when compared to their porterhouse for two. I’m curious about the porterhouse and why it is so much cheaper that this cut. Is the porterhouse on the menu actually a T-Bone, which would mean that the emperor cut is actually the true porterhouse? 8/10.

The tomahawk rib eye was by far the better steak at 9/10. There was a good amount of funk to it, likely from the aging process, and it was cooked perfectly to the specified medium rare. The fat cap was a good size too, as you can see from the up-turned slice below. There is almost an equal portion of eye as there is cap.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 10
All of the major cuts are prime and/or dry aged. The quality here is definitely a cut above (knee-slap). There are many sizes of porterhouse, multiple versions of the rib steak, several filets and even some off-cuts like the T-bone. In addition they offer A5 grade Kobe Wagyu filet and rib eye, imported from Japan.

Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions here are all fairly large, and plating is simple, without too much flourish. For some items, however, they do make a solid attempt at beauty. The seafood platter, for example, is gorgeous (see below). And all plates were cleaned and wiped of any splash before coming out to the table.

Price: 9
Menu prices seem to be pretty good. There are some items that are very fairly priced, like a porterhouse for two for $96. I think the tomahawk steak ($65), and the emperor’s steak for two ($120) are a bit steep, but there are other alternatives. For example, if you want a rib eye you can choose the regular bone-in at $49, which is under the average price point for midtown steak joints. The porterhouse might be a cheaper alternative to the emperor’s steak, but, like I said above, if you’re all about the tenderloin, then that emperor’s cut might make more sense. The cool thing here is that you are getting great quality for that price either way.

Bar: 8
The bar area is pretty nice. It’s not huge, but it makes the best of the space, with street-side high tops and large door-sized windows that open out to the sidewalk. The bar has a good selection of single malts as well, and they make a good martini.

Specials and Other Meats: 8
There were no specials read to us, but this place does offer a fair amount of alternative meats, like lamb, veal and chicken. I didn’t notice any pork other than our bacon app. We tried the rack of lamb. This shit rivaled the beef. It was super flavorful, really well seasoned and perfectly cooked.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 7
I’ll just fire these off quick. First the seafood platter. I was a little bummed that there were no clams, oysters or mussels. Also, the lobster was completely flavorless, as were the shrimp. That was probably the only thing lacking in this meal, and that’s what is dragging down the score here. But the lump crab meat was absolutely delicious. No lack of flavor there. Also, it was beautiful when it came out to the table.

As you can see we also tried the Canadian bacon. This was great. I highly recommend this when you come here, as there are very few other bacon apps that are quite as good. Pictured below is just a half of one slice (we ordered two slices to share among four people).

We also tried the creamed spinach and truffle mac & cheese. Both were excellent. In fact I was wishing I wasn’t so full on meat, because I wanted more of that mac & cheese!

Last, we also had some onion rings. These were lightly battered on the outside, tender on the inside, and lightly seasoned. We all liked them a lot.

For dessert, we shared an apple strudel and a slice of chocolate mousse cake. Both were amazing. The chocolate mousse cake was light and fluffy, not overly sweet, and had a really nice oreo cookie crust on it. Delicious.

The strudel was even better, in my opinion. The flaky dough was crisp but not hard, so you could eat it with a fork without having bits of crust shatter and fly all over the table. The apples had a nice hint of cinnamon and nutmeg to them. Just perfect.

Seafood Selection: 6
There’s a shitload of fish to choose from here, but from the small amount we had (shellfish app) I am concerned. That lobster and those shrimp… so disappointing. But entree fish is a whole different ballgame. Bass, salmon, sole, tuna, crab cakes, shrimp, scallops and lobster (up to 4lbs) are all on the hot menu here. Since I didn’t try any, I can’t really opine on anything except for the shrimp, lobster and crab meat from the appetizer. Giving the benefit of the doubt for the actual fish, I have split the baby here with a 6/10.

Service: 10
Impeccable. The guys here really know their cuts, and they are super attentive without being in your face. They were very patient with our photo-taking as well. HAHA! I may as well mention the bread and sauce here too. Same as the other location, they serve up nice warm onion bread rolls, and the steak sauce is pretty good!

Ambiance: 10
This place is absolutely gorgeous inside. There’s a beautiful spiral staircase just past the bar that goes up to what I assume is a private dining area. There’s also a nice back room with a long “last supper” style table for somewhat isolated large groups, with a large screen TV that plays a digital fireplace video. And beautifully upholstered booths and elegant tables are arranged under what has to be a 25ft ceiling in the main dining room. The back wall has a glass, temperature-controlled wine shelf that goes from floor to ceiling.

THE 1LB KOBE BURGER

You may have noticed a portion of a burger in one of my shots above. Well, when you’re eating with one of the guys from the Gotham Burger Social Club, you fucking try a burger.

Special thanks to Jill for taking this great shot of the guys:

Anyway here’s the burger:

This baby was juicy as fuck. I thought the patty might be too big at a full pound, but I was wrong. It didn’t overwhelm the bun or build up too high, somehow. The inside was cooked somewhere between rare and medium rare.

There was a great beefy, full flavor to it, as it is Kobe quality. We went with a mild cheese, Swiss, that wouldn’t overpower the meat flavors. This was really fucking good. At $37 (with fries and toppings) I guess it better be! They also offer a standard burger at the bar for $17.

To sum up, this place edges out the other location by a point, and has better marks for flavor, but it may end up being a bigger spread if I ever get back in to try a seafood entree. That section definitely has some wiggle room.

EMPIRE STEAKHOUSE
151 E 50th St
New York, NY 10022

Burgers, Midtown East, Other, Restaurant Reviews, Union Square/Flatiron

Resto

February 20, 2016 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

UPDATE – This joint is now CLOSED.

Resto is a small Belgian joint that recently became known for having a really good burger, in addition to their kickass beer menu. I apologize for the obnoxious watermarks on these photos, but I’ve been having way too many issues with people jacking my photos and using them for their various social media pages and websites without giving me the photo credit.

My two buddies and I started with lamb ribs and steak tartare.

The ribs were awesome. They were tasty and fatty, and the honey and pear sauce was delicious. It came dressed with some dried figs and fresh pear as well.

The tartare, however, was a little lacking. I feel it needed less pickled flavors and more pepper and egg. The meat quality was good, but it had an odd meat flavored gelatin mixed in as well.

The burger is a pork and beef blend. As such it gets cooked through. I thought this would be a problem, since I like a burger to be medium, but the meat retained good juiciness. Topped with red onion, pickles and gruyere, this baby is a very nice addition to the NYC burger scene. They chose the right bun too. A simple potato roll.

The steak style fries were good too – nicely fried and seasoned.

For dessert we had this ice cream and waffle sunday. It was drizzled with caramel and topped with shaved almonds. The crispy pieces of warm waffles were the perfect contrast to the ice cream.

RESTO
111 E 29th St
New York, NY 10016

Burgers, Midtown East

Salvation Burger

February 18, 2016 Johnny Prime 8 Comments

April Bloomfield’s newest spot, Salvation Burger, is a dedicated burger joint that has been marketed as a fast casual bar atmosphere. However with a full wait staff, hefty pricing and less than speedy service, it falls more in line with a traditional restaurant than a fast casual burger joint.

This place has already built up some serious hype from the foodie community in the two short weeks that it’s been open. Instagram, Eater, Thrillist, and all sorts of NYC-centric publications are buzzing with glee over this place. My conclusion is that the hype is ill-placed, to put it lightly. Now allow me put it not-so-lightly…

The burgers are a fucking rip off, and they’re mediocre-tasting at best. Their “Salvation Burger” comes in at a whopping $25. It LOOKS pretty, but it also looks small:

The table next to us said, “Oh, this place has sliders!” They do not. However, while the burgers DO look small, they actually eat big. I was full. The Salvation Burger is probably 6-8oz, which is a decent size, but at $25 for a fucking burger I am expecting perfection in the execution. Let me explain…

Our waitress informed us that the chef suggests medium rare. Perfect. When good ground beef is involved, I’m all for medium rare. However ours was nearly raw. I didn’t mind as much, but my wife did, because parts of her half were rubbery and cold (we shared). My wife, like me, loves a medium rare piece of meat. We are regular steak eaters (obviously), and we regularly order our beef medium rare. On occasion I will even get a filet cooked black and blue. A FILET, with very little fat content. With ground beef, however, or a rib eye, for example, you need a bit more heat to render out the fat content. This burger was simply not cooked properly. Furthermore, the caramelized onion and tallegio cheese completely overpowered and over-funked the flavor of the beef. Failure.

We also tried the classic, which is two 3.5oz patties covered with American cheese and topped with pickles and special sauce.

This was the better of the two burgers in the flavor department, to me anyway, because I enjoy a classic American style double above all else. Unfortunately, however, the patties were way overcooked to a bone-dry-if-not-for-the-smothering-of-cheese well done. There was a good crisp in that first bite from the sear on the patty; I had high hopes! But then the grainy texture of overcooked meat kicked in, and the day was ruined. What a shame.

Both burgers could benefit from a leaf or two of crisp lettuce (which is similar to the comment that I made about the burger at The Spotted Pig), but on the plus side the buns were excellent. Soft and easy to get down on, yet supple and strong enough to hold up to the wetness of the shit between.

The fries were perfect. They were crispy and golden brown. Despite not coming with the burger (separate $5 charge for fries), they were a good value; one order is enough to share among two people.

We also each tried a milkshake. My wife had the orange creamsicle, which she liked very much, and I had the toasted marshmallow. The toasted marshmallow shake was a bit too salty. I understand the idea behind adding a pop of salt to this shake to simulate the toasted marshmallow, and to bring out certain flavors, but this was simply too much salt. And, again, at $7 a pop for milkshakes, one should expect perfection.

I am not a cheap person by any stretch of the imagination, nor am I a big complainer. I drop cash willingly on food, and I’m especially eager to do so when I find it to be worthy. I don’t even mind so much when I am not 100% satisfied with a meal. Every joint has an off day. But here, I left feeling disgusted with the amount that I paid for two underwhelming burgers, two mediocre shakes (on average) and an order of fries. All in, I spent $77. Look at this fucking bill.

For that price I can eat for three days and have more meal-satisfaction at a place like Lucky’s Famous, Steak n Shake or Genuine Roadside. In fact I would take those burgers over these any day of the week. What a complete and utter rip off. Sorry, fellow food enthusiasts, but I just can’t get onboard this hype train. Fuck that.

SALVATION BURGER
230 E 51st St
New York, NY 10022

American, Burgers, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Union Square/Flatiron

The Clocktower

February 13, 2016 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

My wife and I came here for an early Valentine’s Day date. We chomped though a good deal of food, so I’ll just get right to it.

The decor here is incredible. It’s elegant yet old fashioned-inspired. High ceilings, big fireplace, wide-planked dark wood floors, dark wainscoting, etc.

The bar is a destination in itself, and they make some really unique cocktails that utilize ingredients you’d never expect to see in a drink, like chicken stock and pea puree.

Table bread is a nice warm and toasty loaf that’s served with a soft, freshly salted whipped butter.

We started with a dashi cured smoked salmon appetizer that was topped with puffed rice, greens and a soft boiled quail egg.

This had a bright and acidic pop to it. A great way to start the meal.

Our next course was a burger, which we shared.

This this was pretty much perfect. By far, this was the best thing we ate here.

It was seared to a nice crisp on the outside, and a beautiful medium rare on the inside.

On top was lettuce, bacon, red onion, pickle, cheddar cheese and special sauce. Nothing too fancy – just really good quality shit. The bun was toasted and warm on the outside but soft like a potato roll on the inside. Just the right balance.

The fries were thick, long and hand-cut – like John Bobbitt’s dick – only crunchy on the outside and soft inside, like mashed potatoes. They could have used a little bit more seasoning or salt, but they were so perfectly cooked that I didn’t mind.

Our awesome waiter Jake, who had really great suggestions on drinks and food items, cleared the table and presented us with these kickass plates as we awaited out main course.

For our main course we ordered the cote de boeuf for two, which was a 40oz bone-in rib eye that came with gratin potatoes (two servings), a green bean salad, and bone marrow jus.

This thing was beautiful. The sear on the outside was like a salty and crisp meat bark, and the aroma was out of this world. It was dressed up with some lightly roasted garlic cloves and thyme.

As you can see, the meat was cooked to a gorgeous pink medium rare, and every bite was tender and juicy. The fat was so soft and mushy too – completely edible. Nine out of ten!

I wasn’t much of a fan of the bone marrow jus. For some reason it wasn’t working for me in the flavor department, but it did smell wonderful.

The potatoes were pretty good. With gratin style potatoes, I always find myself wishing that the chef had done several thinner crisped preparations and then layered them before serving, that way there is some more of that delicious top crunchy texture as you work your way down into the middle.

The green bean salad was nothing to scoff at. It was topped with truffle and tossed with foie gras! This thing was so earthy from the truffles, the truffle oil, the toasted hazelnuts and the foie that it was almost like having another meat course.

By time dessert rolled around we were pretty full, so we just shared this chocolate custard item with a cocktail that was made from cheerios milk and bourbon called “The American Seriel Killer.”

To our surprise, Jake later brought over a tin of shortbread, brittle and English toffee, along with a special dessert plate of grapefruit sorbet since he learned that we were celebrating a special occasion. Killer service here.

I highly recommend this place. At $25 the burger may seem a bit steep at first, but it’s a half pound of some of the best eating you’ll ever have, and it also comes with those delicious fries. Similarly, at $135 the steak for two may seem steep, but you get three sides with it, and I guarantee you will go home full and satisfied.

UPDATE 12/26/2022

We came back! This time for Christmas dinner. We tried the steak tartare, the scotch egg, the Beef Wellington, the prime rib, and the sticky toffee pudding. Everything was great! 9/10 on both the prime rib and Beef Wellington.

THE CLOCKTOWER
5 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10010

American, Burgers, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Tribeca

Church Street Tavern

February 3, 2016 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

I went to Church Street Tavern with my wife and the founder of The Dishelin Guide and the DishEnvy app to finally check out their acclaimed burgers. The talk is accurate. These burgers are fantastic! We tried two: The Wellington and the CST Burger.

Let’s start with The Wellington: the patty is topped with mushroom duxelles (french for chopped mushrooms, onions and shallots sauteed with butter and herbs), foie butter and a cheesy pastry crisp that mimics the puff pastry that typically surrounds a Beef Wellington dish.

You can see it sticking out the side here like a piss-clam tail, or a limp geoduck phallus.

I guess those words aren’t the best to use when describing delicious food, but that’s what comes to mind. Anyway, I was expecting the burger to be wrapped in the pastry, just like traditional Beef Wellington (pictured below), but that wasn’t the case.

The burger was good. It was cooked to a nice medium rare, and the toppings were delicious. The bun held up nicely, didn’t crumble and wasn’t too stiff.

The better burger of the pair, however, was the namesake CST (Church Street Tavern) Burger, which was topped with bacon-onion jam, aged cheddar, and arugula.

It was seved on the same toasted brioche bun, but this burger had a much better flavor to the meat, perhaps from better seasoning and searing. Cooked to a perfect, juicy medium rare, this burger really hit the spot. I’d definitely go back for another.

The big surprise of the evening, though, was this amazing porchetta sandwich that we saw on the menu.

It’s a nice, tender pork sandwich with sauteed spinach and melted Swiss cheese. There were even some crispy pork bits in there for texture. The spinach had a nice hit of garlic to it without having any chunks of the breath-killer hidden inside. And the Swiss was surprisingly tasty to me. I didn’t expect to like Swiss with Italian pork, but it worked. I highly recommend this sandwich.

The fries here are equally satisfying. They’re slightly more squat and thicker than most places, but they’re cooked perfectly and generously-yet-simply seasoned with salt and herbs.

The bar here is pretty nice too, and at happy hour you can get $4 select beers. I had a Session lager:

CHURCH STREET TAVERN
313 Church St.
New York, NY 10013

American, Burgers, Flash Deals, Fusion, Japanese, Ramen, Restaurant Reviews, Union Square/Flatiron

Jack’s Sliders & Sushi

January 29, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife scooped up a flash deal for this place that offered five courses with a bottle of wine.

We got to sample a little bit of everything. I’ll hit you with a rundown of everything below:

The first thing I will say is that this place needs to do better with the pacing of the service. Everything pretty much came out all at once. The table was extremely cluttered as a result, and things inevitably spilled. I don’t mind too much, but maybe the kitchen needs to think about that when they receive orders.

We “started” with the spicy salmon salad to share. This was essentially a bed of lettuce topped with onions, diced salmon sashimi and spicy mayo. I thought it was delicious. Simple and tasty.

The two sliders we tried were “Jack’s” and “The American.” “Jack’s” had bacon, onions and a spicy mayo, while “The American” was a simple lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese burger. The better of the two was Jack’s. It was nicely seasoned, had a good char, was cooked just right, and even had their dog logo pressed into the bun.

We devoured these with an order of the old bay and herb french fries. These were excellent: golden crisp! Glad we ordered these above and beyond what the flash deal provided.

Our next course was ramen. We tried the pork and beef bowls, skipping a sushi choice. The pork ramen was bland and lacked flavor – even the pork meat itself, which looked great, was just a little too boring. In hindsight, I wish we ditched the pork ramen and went with a sushi roll instead.

The beef ramen had a good salt level, decent thin-sliced meat, and a thicker broth. That was the winner of the two, but I would say that if ramen is your game, then you should go to another place. This place is better for the burgers and sushi, and the ramen comes off more Chinese in flavor than Japanese.

Our next item was braised short rib. The veggies here were useless. They tasted frozen or over-steamed or something. Not much flavor. But the beef itself was good. The meat was soft and tender, and the fat was all edible.

Our wine was actually good. We went with the merlot instead of cabernet, chardonnay or pinot grigio. I thought it was going to be a headache-inducing acid reflux fest, but it was smooth and mild.

For dessert, we tried two ice cream sandwiches. One was a sugar cookie with cookies and cream ice cream in between, and the other was red velvet cake with taro ice cream in the middle. Both were good, but we liked the sugar cookie better. The cookie held up better than the cake as “sandwich” material.

Overall this was a decent meal. Skip the ramen, stick to the raw fish and burgers, and get the fries. That should keep you happy.

JACK’S SLIDERS & SUSHI
171 3rd Ave.
New York, NY 10003

American, Burgers, Florida, Restaurant Reviews

The Whiskey

January 20, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

For our first meal down in Orlando, my wife and I tried this whiskey- and burger- centric place for lunch.

They had something like 200 types of whiskey, rye and scotch. Impressive.

The food turned out to be pretty good, so let’s get right into it.

We started with some cocktails and an order of whiskey sauce wings.

The wings were pretty good. Not QUITE as crisp as I like, but the flavor was tangy, garlicky and sweet from the sauce.

I ordered “the whiskey” burger, which has smoked gouda, bourbon bacon, whiskey onions and a dill aioli. Pretty solid burger!

It was cooked to about medium well, despite my order of medium, but the burger was good and juicy from all the toppings.

I had the regular fries with my burger, which were crispy and well seasoned.

My wife ordered “the royal,” which was similar to mine, only with wagyu beef and garlic aioli.

Her’s was cooked to medium rare, nice and pinkish red throughout a thick patty.

She also went with truffle parmesan fries, which were a nice touch.

American, Burgers, Florida, Restaurant Reviews

Louie’s Backyard

January 6, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

We decided to take in the water view for a quick lunch here at Louie’s Backyard in Key West. I went with a burger, which, here, is topped with provolone cheese, caramelized onions, roasted poblano peppers and sri racha aioli.

I didn’t get much heat from the aioli or peppers. The burger patty itself was nice, though cooked a little too much in my opinion. The steak fries were pretty good. I usually don’t like these, but they were very crispy.

My wife had this really interesting smoked salmon and egg brik turnover. The outer shell was light and crisp, and inside was a runny egg yolk and perfectly cooked salmon.

My buddy went with this really great duck confit dish. Super tender.

Definitely give this place a try if you’re in Key West. The bar outside is nice too, even if you don’t sit to eat.

American, Burgers, Florida, Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Restaurant Reviews

Beach Bunnies

January 6, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Right on A1A in Las Olas sits this ocean-side burger and two-for-one giant margarita joint.

The burger was apparently voted “best in Ft. Lauderdale,” but I’m hoping there are better options out there.

The burger was good and juicy, but lacked seasoning on the patty itself. It could benefit from more cheese too, perhaps.

Fries are sold separately, and you can cheese either seasoned curly fries, or sweet potato waffle fries.

The chicken tacos were pretty decent, despite the cheese being your standard bagged/shredded style.

American, Burgers, Press Reviews, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, West Village

The Malt House

December 29, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I came to this cool village joint for a press dinner.

The interior is like an old world tavern, with lots of exposed brick, warm tones and wood beams on the ceiling.

The beer selection is really great, both on tap and in bottles/cans.

Chef Armando cut his teeth at STK and Five Napkin Burger before taking on the executive chef role at both this Malt House location and the newly opened, massive Financial District location.

The bar room is really well apportioned, with an L-shaped stretch that also has some tabletop seating nearby. At happy hour they offer nice food selections and cheap drink options, along with dollar oysters! There’s also a full menu at the bar for the other eats, and they offer flights of beer (four for $10), American whiskey and Scotch whisky.

Here’s what we had on our press tasting:

All the apps came out on a big platter, with the exception of the mussels, of course:

The onion rings had a nice bacon flavor to them. They were fluffy without being too bready, and the onion inside was cooked through.

The baked, fried and grilled wings were excellent – the best of the “fried stuff,” for sure. They had a mild buffalo spiced roquefort sauce on them, but that didn’t take away any of the crisp to the skin.

One of the more unique items on the menu is the fried cheese curds. You just don’t see them all that much around here. They were like small bite-sized bits of “cheese sticks,” only less melty and more airy and bready.

The fried pickles were crispy as hell! They were sliced paper thin first, and then battered and fried. These went nicely with the homemade ranch sauce.

The ranch sauce, by the way, was the best of the three sauces we had (the other two: a house sauce that was similar to thousand island, and a chipotle mayo).

The star of the openers, however, was the crock of mussels that were steamed in a sauce made from roasted tomatoes, chorizo, garlic, herbs (rosemary, for one) and white wine. Delicious.

Chef Armando hits back to back home runs with the burger and the mahi mahi tacos when it comes to the entrees.

The burger is a blend of short rib, chuck and brisket that makes for a tender, juicy and superbly flavorful patty of beef. Topped with onion marmalade, pickles, bacon, lettuce, red onion and cheese, you really can’t go wrong.

The fries on the side, however, were a little bit lacking in comparison to the incredible burger. Not as crispy as I like, and a little heavy on the grease flavor. The truffle fries had a better crisp to them, but I didn’t get much of the truffle flavor, and they were cut a little thicker than I like for French fries.

The tacos are super refreshing, with really nicely cooked fish and fresh ingredients. I’d definitely go back for these.

We seriously tasted an astonishing amount of food on this press event. Next was the open-faced strip steak sandwich on a French baguette, topped with melty gruyere, red onion and arugula.

The steak was pre-sliced but thick, making it good for the open-faced, knife-and-fork format.

The lobster mac and cheese was topped with a generous portion of lobster claw and tail meat, and it had the flavor of truffle oil to bring some earthiness into the dish.

We even tried a salad with grilled chicken. Pretty good. It was nicely dressed and the chicken breast was perfectly cooked.

For dessert, we sampled both the creme brûlée and the chocolate cake. My favorite between the two was the creme brûlée. It was smooth and creamy, nice and evenly textured.

The chocolate cake was served warm, with a scoop of house made vanilla on the side.

The cake was slightly dry, but the ice cream was a good way balance that: eat some ice cream with each bite of cake, and problem solved.

But what can I say: The Cake Dealer really spoils me when it comes to cake and bake.

To sum up: I’ll definitely be back here for some drinks, burgers and tacos. Great shit. Awesome US craft beer selection (like Bourbon County) that rotates out often, and excellent burgers. Most likely I will come for happy hour and indulge in some dollar oysters too.

THE MALT HOUSE
206 Thompson St.
New York, NY 10012

Empire Steakhouse East overall score: 85

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carnivore connoisseur