Category Archives: Burgers

Burger King’s Halloween Whopper

October 12, 2015 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

My wife and I pulled into a roadside rest stop on our way to a wedding out of town. I figured I would take the opportunity there to try the new Halloween Whopper, with the black bun and A1 sauce.

You hardcore burger fans might remember that Japan had a similar burger in their Burger King chains recently as well. Anyway, here’s a quick video of my first impressions:

The Halloween Whopper is actually pretty tasty. Just like a regular whopper but with a pungent kick from the A1. And yes – the rumors are true: it actually does make your shit turn green! So I guess that makes it a trick as well as a treat.

Burgers, Nolita/Soho, Press Reviews

Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer

October 9, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little bar style burger joint in Soho slings some really great burgers.

The place proudly advertises that they use Pat LaFrieda beef in the grind. It pays off because the meat is really fantastic, and the burgers are cooked to a nice medium rare.

We tried a few different burger styles. The All-American is a classic patty with American cheese, lettuce, pickle, tomato and a Thousand Island type sauce. The burger is served open face style so you can stack it however you like.

Each comes with a side of fries as well.

And it is cooked to medium rare whether you like it or not:

It tasted exactly how you want your burger to taste. Big bold flavor, melty cheese, and perfectly seasoned beef cooked to pink through and through. The potato buns here are strong, sweet and pliable too. Excellent.

This steak au poivre burger was topped with blue cheese and served with a peppercorn gravy. The cheese didn’t overpower, and the peppercorn sauce really made this burger stand out as what was probably the best of the night. I felt like I was eating a steak!

The Texan has cheddar and bacon, with an onion ring on top. This had great classic beefy flavor, with a robust kick from the bacon.

And the Greg Norman is made with wagyu beef and topped with arugula and blue cheese, with a buttermilk dill sauce on the side.

The beef on the Greg Norman was top notch. That shit was so funky, earthy and savory that I just wanted to keep going and going. It was probably the best wagyu burger I’ve ever had. Look at how amazing this redness is…

We gave the onion rings and sweet potato fries a try as well, which you can substitute instead of regular fries for a small up charge. I liked the regular fries the best of the three, but here’s a shot of the sweet potato jammies for y our edification:

In addition to having a great beer selection, they also have some nice shakes as well. My wife tried a coffee flavored shake, which was really creamy and tasty:

They even do some fun collaborations sometimes, like this St. Patrick’s Day burger (Pat LaFreda) that is topped with Katz Deli corned beef.

Oh, and they serve some dynamite wings as well.

BLACK TAP
529 Broome St
New York, NY 10013

Burgers, Downtown, Press Reviews, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Jeremy’s Ale House

October 2, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

What can I say about Jeremy’s Ale House? This bar was a regular stop during my old law school days, because my counselors-in-training and I could score 32oz beers in styrofoam cups for very cheap, on a pauper’s budget, all while having a blast near the picturesque South Street Seaport and Brooklyn Bridge locale of lower Manhattan.

My wife and I were married on a yacht that used to sail from the Seaport too, and with a pair of my groomsmen having gone through law school hell with me, this was naturally where the wedding party landed after disembarking. In short, this place is associated with the most incredibly important parts of my life. As such, being invited here for a press dinner was really exciting for me and my wife, and we jumped at the opportunity.

This place is nothing short of iconic. It used to be located a bit closer to the bridge, but it has since moved. It hasn’t lost any of its charm and character, however, other than the awesome outdoor beer garden that it used to boast. The new spot has some elevated curbside seating near big windowed doors, which is cool in its own right.

It still has the incredible collection of cut ties and bras hanging on the walls, ceiling, and over the bar, fabled to be swindled from alcohol-lubricated businessmen and women who wandered into the bar after a hard day of work on Wall Street or the Financial District in dire need of shedding their stuffy monkey suits with a carefree romp at the famed dive.

Even my wife contributed an over-the-shoulder boulder holder to the collection:

The walls are filled with everything from jocular anecdotes and silly images, to reflective and somber NYPD, FDNY and EMS tributes to fallen heroes of 9/11.

Jeremy’s served as a safe house after 9/11 for people who were destined to still be in the area working cleanup. Jeremy kept the place open, and in that spirit of giving back to his community, he’s also throwing a fund raiser to help fight breast cancer at his other location, out in Freeport, Long Island.

Jeremy himself is a really outgoing and inviting person. His warm and honest persona fills the room with a sense of familiarity and comfort.

Much of his staff has been with him for several decades, like Milton, aka “Monstro,” who has worked behind the bar and ran the kitchen and staff for coming up on 30 years (Jeremy, seated: Monstro, right).

Jeremy has been in the saloon game for nearly 45 years now, first opening his doors back in 1970! He reminisced to us about how the first bras graced the walls of the older locations via auction, with the money going to charity if the women felt awkward about taking the cash that was offered… but sometimes the pot would go up to nearly $200, and the girls would take it because in the 80s that was a lot of scratch for a bra! About a week’s worth of pay, for many. We also talked about how the neighborhood changed so much between then and now, and how NYC laws governing food establishments caused him to make changes or operate differently, depending on the mayor and what safety concerns they pushed in their agendas.

I was only acquainted with Jeremy’s from 2000 onward, just a third of the time it was open. And throughout those 15 years I really had no idea what was happening in the kitchen in terms of food. I never even gave food a second thought here, because, well, there were quart-sized beers!

As it turns out, Jeremy’s serves up some pretty great pub food, and Jeremy himself is somewhat of a recipe innovator and amateur chef.

We first tried some of his lobster bisque, which currently is not on the menu. He does give it out to customers on occasion, but right now it is an off-menu hush-hush item.

Jeremy spent years perfecting New England clam chowder recipes at home, spoiling his family in the process, who can now no longer eat the chowder at restaurants because the homemade version was so much better. The secret, Jeremy says, is in using heavy cream and half & half instead of milk, and a bit of sherry. You can see that a little shot of sherry is served alongside the chowder for mixing (or drinking, like I did).

The bisque here is made from a commercial lobster base and then enriched with some of Jeremy’s chowder methods. He adds pepper, creams and sherry (no starch for thickening), and then tops it with a generous portion of “lobster essence” (bits of lobster that are ground up and re-combined) and imitation lobster meat for substance. I have to say, it was pretty good for pub food!

Next up was a side-by-side comparison of the dry batter seafood and the grilled seafood: Scallops, shrimp and calamari.

Jeremy is partial to the dry batter preparation, because it seals in the natural juices and flavors of the seafood. The grill, on the other hand, gives it a fired-up taste and the seafood takes on some of the grill flavors. I’m more of a fan of that method.

Speaking of fresh seafood, if you order the shrimp cocktail here, you’re given a choice of whether you want it hot with drawn butter on the side, or chilled with cocktail sauce. The reason you’re given this choice: everything is prepared fresh, to order. When you want it chilled, the shrimp gets flash-cooked and then instantly chilled in an ice bath before it comes out to you. Pretty awesome, because the shrimp stay tasty and juicy. All too often I get shrimp cocktail that tastes like absolutely nothing, because it was cooked a month ago, frozen, and then thawed out prior to serving. The result is a rubbery, bland and flavorless piece of dog shit. Fuck that. Jeremy’s Ale House does it legit. And it is also worth noting that Jeremy makes his own tartar sauce for the pub. He uses extra relish and a bit of ketchup in the preparation to cut the sour with a bit of sweet. Very nice.

The food tasting continued with the special half pound burger that comes topped with bacon, American cheese and tomato on a pretzel bun.

The pretzel bun is fresh and supple. Really excellent. The bacon was thick and crisp, perfectly cooked. The cheese was melty and gooey. The only downside? My burger was a bit overcooked. But I have to say, for a dive bar, this burger is pretty freaking awesome – especially for just $10 (they offer smaller burgers for about $5 or $6 as well). Also, look at the mountain of fresh homemade potato chips that comes with the burger:

While I was digging into this fucker, Jeremy called out for Monstro to bring us over one of the Jersey tomatoes that he uses both at home and at the bar for salads, burger toppings and also just for snacking. These were picked fresh from near his hometown in southern New Jersey (he grew up in NJ, but he is originally from England). They have a slightly thicker skin than most tomatoes, but that helps to seal in the juicy freshness and sweet qualities of the fruit (yes, tomatoes are technically fruit, not veggies). These particular tomatoes were light on seeds and that slimy goop in the center, which was great for me because I hate that garbage. Jeremy even sent us home with a bunch of fresh tomatoes.

The next item to come out was the fried chicken finger sandwich. This is about six ounces of fried chicken on a pretzel bun with pickles and fried onions. Excellent!

What a great bar sandwich this is: The chicken was tender, the breading was crisp, the pickles were of good quality and the onions were a great topper.

While we were on the subject of chicken, Jeremy explained to us how he has (and is currently working on) some options for people who are trying to be more health conscious. He had Monstro bring out a cooked patty of his chicken burger, which is made of one third leg and thigh meat, and two thirds breast meat. But it doesn’t break up or taste like ground chicken. It eats like a pounded-flat piece of thigh or breast meat. It is incredible. Here it is: six ounces of amazing chicken, grilled to perfection:

This patty was by far my favorite item of the night. And we just had it plain! Usually, this gets served on a bun with toppings and a side of chips, like the other sandwiches – we were just trying out the patty on its own for shits and giggles. Actually, I was slicing up some of the Jersey tomatoes and eating them together, with a little bit of Jeremy’s incredibly spicy homemade hot sauce on top:

That hot sauce is so fucking good. But be careful, because it will make your face numb! Simple too: smoked habanero, vinegar, garlic and salt. Generous as he is, Jeremy sent my wife and me home with a few containers of the sauce, after I suggested that he bottle it and sell it.

We were getting stuffed, but Jeremy wanted us to keep trying things. He and Monstro were discussing what else we could sample when my wife asked, “What is your favorite thing to eat?” They both answered, “The hero.”

What you have there are two different subs. One is spicy, with sliced cherry peppers included. Both have salami, ham, cheese, lettuce and a nice vinegary sandwich dressing on top. The bread is fresh, crusty Italian bread – the only thing worthy of such a sandwich. Monstro hollows out a bit of the bread’s interior so that all the fillings can fit inside the sandwich without being too massive to bite down on. I’d say this was probably my second favorite item from the tasting.

What an awesome place. I’m really glad Jeremy reached out to me for this press meal, because up until now, I just looked at this place as a joint for big, cheap beers. A watering hole, a dive bar. Now I know its a great place to eat, too!

JEREMY’S ALE HOUSE
228 Front St.
New York, NY 10038

American, Burgers, Fusion, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Fuku+ and Ma Peche

September 21, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

In need of a fried chicken fix, and with no real deal fried chicken joints in my area, Fuku+ became the spot to hit on a Sunday evening.

My wife and I tried the “mini me” sandwich and some bites. All of the chicken is dark meat, so you’re getting good flavor and tenderness each time you sink your teeth in. One thing to note: the green sauce that comes with the bites is fucking incredible. It’s a jalapeno jelly of sorts. Spicy, sweet, thick and the heat stays with you a few minutes.

Each item was $6, so reasonably priced. I just feel that the mini me sandwich needs lettuce, tomato and mayo and it would be perfect. All that comes with it are two slices of pickle. But the breading and crisp are nice, and the potato bun rocks.

While we were there we ordered some fried chicken from Ma Peche to go; their famous habanero fried chicken. Kind of a let down, in my opinion. The batter was overcooked and slightly burned, and it lacked seasoning. The habanero kick was barely present at the aftertaste mark. Also one of my drumsticks was not fully cooked on the inside. Bummer. At $30 per order (pictured below are two orders), this is simply not fucking worth it. You’re better off going to Fuku+ for a few orders of the bites if you need your fried chicken fix.

On a second visit to Fuku+ with my friend Matt Bruck, we sampled a few other items. First was the “Juicy Lucy” burger, which is made with a cheese-stuffed Niman Ranch patty, topped with grilled onions and special sauce, and slapped between a nice, soft, supple-yet-strong potato bun.

This fucker was cooked to about medium well, despite the waitress warning us that it would be “cooked through,” presumably to well done (so that all the cheese inside adequately melts down). Some reviews online reported that this was a rubbery, overcooked burger. We didn’t have that experience, though I do sympathize. The all-natural burger, being cooked and formed a bit differently than a traditional patty, certainly has a different texture than you might expect. The flavors smack of teriyaki or some other Asian influence. It reminded me a bit of the burger I had in Maui at Bully’s (the roadside joint I will mention in my forthcoming Maui blog post).

Next we had the mission Chinese chicken fingers. These are nice and spicy, and it’s the only white meat chicken you will find here at Fuku+. These were breaded with a crispy crust that was steeped in chili and five spice. Really nice, and I highly recommend it.

Last was the pickled mussels. These were okay. They were a little bit unwieldy, being served in a jar and meant to be eaten on the provided toasty slices of French bread. They were definitely pungent and had a touch of spice from the pickling process.

FUKU+ / MA PESCHE
Chambers Hotel
15 W. 56th St.
New York, NY 10022

Burgers, Diner, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Big Daddy’s

September 19, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Big Daddy’s was running a special for National Cheeseburger Day (9/18): buy one get one free. My wife and I came to sample the wares. The place has a fun throw-back feel to it, with random memorabilia from the 80’s and beyond.

We started with a Cookie Monster shake, which was vanilla ice cream blended with Oreo cookies. Delicious. It was a little too thick at first, but after about five minutes it was suckable. Just right.

I had the Big Mac Daddy burger with American cheese. Essentially this has grilled onion, tomato, lettuce, pickle, and special sauce.

It was cooked nicely to medium, just as ordered. The patty was good, though maybe could use a bit more seasoning. Perhaps one too many slices of tomato. Good cheese coverage, but they should swap out the buns. They were a little stale and crumbly, and my wife’s bottom bun was rock solid – an ass should always have some jiggle, even just a little bit.

I ordered tots with mine, and my wife got fries with hers. Both were good, but I think we both liked the tots better. They were crispier and had a good crunch.

BIG DADDY’S
2454 Broadway
New York, NY 10024

Burgers, Chelsea, Flash Deals, Midtown West

Burgers & Cupcakes

September 15, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: This place is now closed.

This joint ran a Groupon special that got you two burgers, an order of tries, and two cupcakes for $15. Not bad.

I went there with “Chicken Sandwich Sam,” a buddy of mine who insists on getting grilled chicken sandwiches on many occasions when we are going out for cheeseburgers. His looked good, but mine looked better:

That’s beef, baby. With American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion. While the bun was small, the burger packed a good amount of flavor. It was fired up correctly to medium and had a good crisp to the patty edges.

The fries were natural cut steak fries. Not too doughy or greasy, with a nice crisp given the style (these usually aren’t as crispy for some reason). Course salt was a nice touch:

For my cupcake, I went with marble cake (chocolate and vanilla) topped with a peanut butter frosting. The cake was dry, but the peanut butter frosting was nice, even if it was only just a smear of Jiffy. Not even close to Cake Dealer quality, but the place makes for an interesting concept.

BURGERS & CUPCAKES
458 9th Ave
New York, NY 10018

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown East, NY Strip, Other Cuts, Porterhouse, Press Reviews, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews

Charlie Palmer Steak

August 7, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Charlie Palmer Steak overall score: 89

NOTE: This joint has MOVED locations.

My wife read an article about Charlie Palmer’s new steakhouse opening up at the old Rothman’s location. They were offering a 15% off promotion since it was their soft opening, so we jumped on it. My wife also made mention that we were celebrating a birthday on her OpenTable reservation (this will be important later).

Flavor: 9
We had two cuts of steak: the bone-on rib eye, and the teres major. I had never heard of that cut before. Apparently it is off the shoulder area, and is tender like a filet. To me, it was somewhere in between a hanger and a filet in flavor. It had a great char on the outside and was cooked perfectly medium rare on the inside.

The rib eye was really nice. Also perfectly cooked, and very juicy with only a little bit of bleed out going on. My only gripe is that I think the rib eye needed some more seasoning. I found myself dipping into the sauces too often for a boost of flavor, but the sauces were very good (see below).

Here’s a shot of the bernaise sauce, though I think I enjoyed the horseradish cream and the Charlie Palmer signature steak sauces a little better:

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 10
This place has a really big selection of cuts. See below:

I was excited to see stuff that I had never heard of before, so that’s a big win for this joint. Also the presence of high end meats makes for a dynamic dining experience: you can always come back and try something new each visit.

Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions here are average. I know the trend is “bigger is better,” but that’s not always the case. At least here you know you are getting great quality. The plating is pretty nice too, which you will see in the shots below.

Price: 10
This score is subjective, I know, because we got an incredible 15% off promotion, AND our waiter, Charles, took a few items like sides and desserts off the bill because we were celebrating a birthday. That was pretty awesome. Had we not had those benefits, I may have scored this an 8 or possibly even a 7. Prices are really starting to skyrocket these days. I know rent is high, but it may start to turn diners away when they see a steak for almost $60.

Bar: 9
The new modern bar is nice. It’s got a direct line of sight to the street, through large windows that open like shutters, so that’s cool. It is definitely going to be a vibrant lunch and after work spot in midtown, especially since they kept the magnanimous bar tender Mike from the old Rothman’s. He’s somewhat of a famous cat in there.

The drinks were really nice too. My martini was mixed perfectly, and the “Doctor’s Note” was absolutely delicious with the Laphroaig added in there for smoke.

Specials and Other Meats: 8
There were no specials read to us at the table, so not sure if this will be something they plan to add once the main opening happens. Otherwise, they do have a nice selection of other meats to choose from aside from beef. As a side note here, they do offer a seven course tasting menu that looks out of this world.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 9
We started with the chicken liver and fois gras pate, which was creamy and rich, yet not heavy at all. The fig jam that it came with was delicious, with healthy chunks of the fruit within:

Next was the yellowtail sashimi served up on a salt rock. Very nice and fresh, with a touch of herbiness:

We shared a shellfish platter for one ($38). It came with two each of crab claws, oysters, clams, and shrimp, with a half a lobster tail and a single lobster claw. Not bad, but I felt the clams were not that great (may have been a larger variety than Little Necks), and the amount of shellfish was a bit lacking for almost $40, though probably fine for one person I suppose.

On the side we had a nice variety of items. First was grilled oyster mushrooms. These were meaty and earthy. Very nice:

Then we had a truffle twice baked potato. This was the star of the show. It was like mashed potato mixed with cheese and truffles and then put back into the baked potato carcass. Really good shit.

Then we tried the Jersey corn. Nothing special here but it was very tasty and fresh, and nicely seasoned.

For desert we had two items: a cheesecake pudding, which was fucking delicious. Lighter than a cheesecake and really silky smooth, with graham cracker crumble on top.

The other was a blueberry and raspberry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. This was heart warming and comforting.

Seafood Selection: 8
There’s a great deal of seafood on the menu. We only got to try the shellfish platter, so I can’t really judge this category based on only that item. Next visit.

Service: 10
Charles, our waiter, was amazing. He had some nice suggestions for us, and he was really nice. I was really shocked that he had some items taken off of our bill because we were celebrating a birthday. Total class act! I hope you readers are fortunate enough to have him as your waiter if you decide to go.

A few other mentions here: the table bread was really good. Three different types of bread in a sack. One was a sliced dinner roll, another was a really tasty and crispy-crusted Italian bread, and the last was a potato and onion roll that had actual pieces of potato and onion in the bread.

Ambiance: 8
They’ve made a good improvement on the old Rothman’s decor. Although I tend to prefer traditional over modern, the modern they chose for here is toned down and elegant. Take a look:

There’s even a small private dining area in the back:

And the cutlery is pretty cool looking, and felt really natural in your hands:

SECOND TRIP UPDATE

On a second trip, my wife and I noticed that they changed up the decor a bit (those ball lights were replaced, and the private room got a make over). Still a similar vibe though. Charles is unfortunately no longer working there. Bummer! But hopefully he is on to bigger and better things.

We used a Gilt City deal that got us an app, a porterhouse for two, a side, a glass of wine each, and a signed cookbook. My wife, of course, got that at a heavy discount as well, so I think our entire meal with all the perks cost her like $15 less than the porterhouse itself.

To start, we got this awesome thick slab pork belly/bacon dish that came with a fried quail egg and potato hash, served in a hot skillet. This was probably the best bacon dish I’ve ever tried. Sticky, crispy, meaty, fatty and packed with flavor.

We also tried the Alaskan king crabcake with fried green tomatoes and corn relish. This was really tasty, and it reminded me of a similar dish we had at Minton’s. The tomato added a nice zingy tart punch.

At first bite, I thought the porterhouse was a bit under seasoned, but the dish was served with a bowl of freshly shaved sea salt for you to flavor to taste. Excellent! Check out the beautiful presentation of this steak. I usually hate the “sizzling platter” for a steak, because I worry about the steak continuing to cook while it sits in the skillet. But nothing got messed up here, as you can see from the perfect medium rare cooking temp.

On the side we had the truffle mac & cheese. We were excited about it because the truffle baked potato was so good last time, but this ultimately fell flat. The pasta tasted grainy and watered down. The cheese sauce lacked punch, and the truffle was more aroma than flavor. I would have likely ordered those oyster mushrooms again from above, but they were no longer offered on the menu.

For dessert we shared what was probably the best carrot cake we have ever tasted. It was moist and flavorful without being overly rich. So good.

A nice bonus was being able to meet Chef Ryan Lory, who I have been following on Instagram for a while now. I encourage you to do the same – his food pics are really awesome, and most of his shots are what he is whipping up for the tasting menu in the kitchen at the steakhouse. Check him out below, getting some tourist love:

THIRD TRIP UPDATE 6/25/17

I was recently invited into Charlie Palmer to help influence for their new 50/50 burger, which is a grind that’s half bacon and half beef. It’s available on Fridays for 50% off through Labor Day.

I have to say, I really liked this burger. Honestly, it didn’t look like much coming out, and I was skeptical of the grind for various reasons (can’t cook bacon – even Neuskes, which is what they use – to medium rare and hope for a good texture). But this thing was majorly good.

It had the sear quality of a steak on the patty, and it was cooked nicely to medium rare all the way though. No rubbery bacon content, and you got that smokey sweetness without it being overboard for the sake of “baconness.”

The fries are really something special too. Somewhere in between regular thickness and potato sticks – shoestring, if you will. Beautifully cooked and nicely seasoned.

Martini game is still on point.

And this time I tried a bolognese tagliatelle pasta dish that was really rich and flavorful. Nicely prepared.

As for the steaks, this time I tried a bone-in strip steak.

A solid 8/10 for flavor. Wonderful ashy char on the outside and nice temperature inside.

Asparagus was good.

Really enjoyed the tomato-based steak sauce with the mashed potatoes.

Olive oil cake dessert was a bit dry in parts but still flavorful.

I was bummed out to see that their oyster mushroom side was no longer offered, and neither was the terres major or the rib eye for one. On the bright side, we did get to meet Charlie Palmer himself. Such a nice man, extremely hand-on and talented.

OLD ADDRESS:
CHARLIE PALMER STEAK
5 E 54th St
New York, NY 10022

NEW ADDRESS:
Archer Hotel New York
47 W 38th St
New York, NY 10018

American, Burgers, Downtown, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Pier A Harbor House

July 26, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This joint is awesome in the summer time. The music is going, the doors and windows are all wide open, and everyone is at the bar or eating outside along the pier.

I tried the burger. It was very under seasoned, but it did have a really nice char. The potato bun was slightly stale, but the rest of the toppings and the ratio of toppings to meat was correct.

They also cooked it just right, so this place is on the right path to a good burger. It just needs some minor tweaking.

Fries were pretty good. Thick, seasoned style fries that had a good crisp exterior and a soft interior.

PIER A HARBOR HOUSE
22 Battery Pl.
New York, NY 10004

Burgers, Midtown East, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Taproom No.307

July 20, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Some friends of ours took my wife and me here for brunch/lunch over the weekend. I was impressed with the beer selection, and I really enjoyed the burger. I got a classic American cheeseburger, with lettuce, tomato and onion. They topped it with some chipotle mayo, which was nice.

It was cooked to medium, which was just how I ordered.

I went with tots instead of fries. They were awesome. Nice and crispy outside, soft inside.

If you’re a beer and burger person, this is definitely a great place to get down on some brews and burgs. Go for it! They have a lot of other great food too, including a full brunch menu, personal pizzas from a nice brick oven in the back, salads, etc.

TAPROOM NO.307
307 3rd Ave.
New York, NY 10010

Burgers, Midtown West, Porterhouse, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews

NYY Steak

July 19, 2015 Johnny Prime 6 Comments

NYY Steak overall score: 85

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

Ever since moving back to NYC, my dad and I have been talking about hitting the relatively new New York Yankees Steakhouse in midtown. We were finally able to set up a visit (they’re only open on weekends during dinner hours, and my parents usually visit during lunch hours on weekends, so we had to reassess the normal visit routine). So my parents came in with my oldest nephew. It was hotter than Derek Jeter’s balls in a Phoenix double header that day. My wife, my parents, my nephew and I were all sweating our asses off. We were walking around Central Park in the lead up to the reservation when out of nowhere it began to pour. Rain was coming down hard, as if Poseidon and Zeus were having a golden shower party in the sky. We ran out of the park and, lucky for us, a bus was heading down 5th Avenue just as we exited. The bus let us off just around the corner from the restaurant, where we were finally safe from the downpour. Check out the count below:

Flavor: 8
I ordered the 27oz long bone rib eye. It was perfectly cooked, nice and juicy, tender, and didn’t have too much inedible gristle on it. However I felt like it was just a hair under-seasoned. Nothing worth complaining about in the slightest. The most awesome part about the steak, for me, was the custom etching of your name into the bone. Upon taking our order, Michael, our awesome waiter, asked my father and I what text we wanted etched into our rib bones. WHAAAT?!??!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!! Check it out!!! This shit is now on my (Mickey) mantel at home.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 7
You have all your major cuts here. Filet, strip, porterhouse and the rib eye. Everything on the menu is prime and aged in house. When you head downstairs you can actually see the meat man carving up cuts and trimming the meat into portions.

Portion Size & Plating: 10
Portions here are massive. Aside from the steaks, whatever else you order is a very generous size. You’ll see what I’m talking about below for some of the items pictured. In addition, the plating is really clever. The bread plates are in the shape of a baseball field, and each dinner plate has the unique jersey number of a famous player (7 for Mantle, 9 for Maris/Nettles, etc).

Price: 8
The cost is a bit on the high end, but this is to be expected in a place that dons the Yankee brand and that is located in such a big, beautiful space in costly midtown. The really good thing here is that you get a LOT for your money – well worth the cost, in my opinion, and very good quality food.

Bar: 7
The bar is nice and sleek, with a few television screens broadcasting baseball games, as you might expect at a Yankees steakhouse. They mixed a nice martini too, which is always important to me.

Specials and Other Meats: 9
There is a really amazing $42 price fix special here. You get your choice of salad or the bacon app to start, then a choice between a 6oz filet (you can upgrade to 8oz), chicken, or salmon, composed as a plate with mashed potatoes and broccolini. Well done NYY! Broccolini is a personal favorite of mine, so I was glad to see that on the menu. Here is a shot of the bacon app and salad (a few people ordered this at the table). The bacon app is actually a half order of the normal sized app. Still generous in my opinion.

Other than this, they basically feature an on-menu steak of the day that the chef recommends for whatever reason.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 9
We selected a few apps from the main menu. My dad and I had the lump blue crab. I was expecting a portion half this size, and with crappy meat, but this was AMAZING. The meat was tender and juicy, and served with a little salad on top and some croutons, cucumber and tomatoes. Delicious.

We also had french fries. These were great too – very crispy and really well seasoned with some parmesan cheese and coarse salt. For some reason I forgot to snap a photo of these beauties. My sincere apologies. But I did get a shot of the amazing chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich with a fucking chocolate Yoohoo shake. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS FOR ONLY $16!!! And it was GOD DAMNED DELICIOUS!

OH YEAH! We also had this freaking thing: a 151 rum flamed ice cream volcano. Yes. Ice cream was beneath the flames and caramelized coating. So cool.

Seafood Selection: 8
My wife had the salmon with her price fix meal. It was really nicely cooked to medium rare as she requested. Mild, but very flavorful. Based on this I would definitely come and try some of their other seafood offerings.

Service: 10
As I mentioned above, Michael was a great waiter. He was helpful, he knew his meat, and had great suggestions for us. When I made the reservation, I randomly put “congratulations Jeremy” in the text box on Open Table. I guess they pay attention to those things, because they printed up a special menu with my nephew’s name on it saying congrats.

A few other service notes: the manager was very generous and offered us some after dinner drinks on the house. Port, Sambuca, and cognac. This was incredible! We were blown away by the service.

Another item worth mentioning was the bread. They offer a cheese bread roll with olive spread, and a pretzel bread roll with mustard butter. Very tasty stuff. And last, a trio of salts/peppers was presented to us as well. A himalayan pink salt, a fluffy sea salt, and a pepper from Madagascar that was pretty spicy for peppercorn.

Ambiance: 9
The space is really neat here. It used to be a bank. They have some private dining rooms on the ground floor with a converted vault as one of the private rooms. They have a big, high ceiling open room with two levels on the main floor, featuring larger-than-life sized photos of the great Yankees from the beginning on up through today. Last, there’s a 100-seat room on the upper floor, which features more memorabilia and some smaller framed items. Not only this, but the waiters are all wearing pinstripes beneath their vests and ties in honor of the greatest baseball team ever. The menu even reflects this greatness, with 27 wines by the glass to go with the Yanks’ 27 championship victories. Nice touch.

Beside the bar I noticed a cool feature: steak knives with MVP names on them: many are players, but some are honored guests and frequent diners. Pretty cool.

POWER LUNCH!

For $27 you get a salad, your choice of burger, chicken sandwich, or salmon (7oz), and dessert choice of cheesecake or creme brûlée. Awesome deal. The burger was pretty good, though the bun didn’t quite hold up to the immensity of the meat. Fries were perfect – nice and golden brown. Salad was basic and refreshing, and the creme brûlée, though served with a fork, was right on the money – creamy smooth and really bright.

On a third trip, my wife and I came in to take advantage of a free baseball hat and free Yankees tickets promotion that NYY was doing. Each diner gets a hat, and you get a voucher for Yankees tickets, which you can turn in at the stadium box office for tickets.

So we tried the steak tartare and tuna tartare as apps. Both were awesome. The steak was hand cut, but very soft and tender. Really nice flavor. The tuna was thickly chopped on a base of avocado and served with sesame rice chips and sesame oil for a distinctly asian flavor profile that was very refreshing.

For our main course we split the porterhouse for two (38oz). It was overcooked on the edges, but the coarse salt and pepper gave it a nice crust and flavor. The filet side was super tender, but the strip side was a bit tough in parts, and also overly charred, which gave some bites a burnt, ashy flavor.

On the side we had the mac and cheese. This was a spiral pasta with a variety of non-traditional cheeses. It was okay, but a little too funky for my liking. I’m more of a cheddar type of guy when it comes to mac and cheese.

We skipped dessert this time, but I noticed that they no longer offered the chipwich or the ice cream lava mountain that we had on the first trip. Bummer. I also noticed that the three-course price fix was no longer offered, and there was no booze cart that came around at dessert time. Hmm. I took a few points for this here and there in the updated review.

NYY STEAK
7 W. 51st St.
New York, NY 10019

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Charlie Palmer Steak overall score: 89

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NYY Steak overall score: 85

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carnivore connoisseur