Category Archives: Burgers

Burgers, Midtown West, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Brickyard Gastropub

December 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Brickyard is a bar on 9th Avenue near 52nd Street that has some pretty fair-priced lunch specials.

The one I tried was $10 for a burger and fries, with just $3 drafts of anything on tap. I went with a nice refreshing UFO wheat beer to start off.

The burger was actually pretty decent, but the meat needed more seasoning, as well as an additional slice of cheese. The fries could use a bit more crisp to them as well. Not bad though: burger, fries and beer for $18 with tax and tip included. The pickle spear that came with the burger was a half-sour too, which I really liked.

BRICKYARD GASTROPUB
785 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

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

Corner Bistro

December 20, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Corner Bistro has long been hailed as one of the best places in NYC for a burger. About 12 years ago I sunk my teeth into a burger here, and only just recently had the chance to come back and try it again.

Most beers are under $4, and the bloody Mary was $7.

The hype is well placed. It IS a great burger and a very fair price (Bistro Burger for under $10). It was nicely cooked, but could benefit from slightly fewer raw onion circles and perhaps a second slice of cheese.

The fries were nicely golden, but lacked a little salt. Nearly perfect.

Better eating experience overall at Gotham West Market, despite the ambiance not being even close to the original. Also tots beat fries here.

CORNER BISTRO
331 W. 4th St.
New York, NY 10014

American, Burgers, Midtown West, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Hooters

December 16, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Yes, Hooters… Did you think I was some kind of food elitist?

We all know the wings are pretty decent here. But Monday night is “Bunday” at Hooters, which means burger specials (ranging from $9.99 to $12.99) and $2.50 beers (bud, Bud Light, and Michelob Ultra). Three beers and a “Big Baja” burger (provolone, jalapeños, salsa) with fries (more like a half order of the curly fries) or tots for $25, right around the block from my apartment? Yup – I’m there.

Looks pretty good, right? I’m a professional photographer, though. I can make Jessica Simpson look good. In any event, the burger was fine – properly cooked and tasty. I’ve had better, and I’ve had worse. You go here for the deal, and if you’re a desperate pervert or don’t get cable or internet, you go for the tits. My buddy came for (the tits and) the BBQ bacon cheddar burger.

THIS HOOTERS LOCATION IS NOW CLOSED

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown West

Smokey Burger

December 14, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Smokey Burger is a little organic burger shop on 44th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. I found out about it through a Living Social deal.

I went with the signature “Smokey Burger” which involved cheddar, grilled onions, mushrooms, and chipotle sauce. This was an above average burger. The bun (I chose white) was supple yet durable. No ripping or tearing. The meat was properly cooked to medium and pretty nicely seasoned. Looks gorgeous, right?

But my wife’s “Cabana Burger” was the winner. It was topped with a sunny side up egg, and had a little bit more of a robust kick to it from the pickles and turkey bacon. Why not real bacon, you ask? This place happens to be halal, for you practicing Muslims out there.

On the side we had an order of onion rings and an order of fries. Both were a little bit limp or soggy, but nevertheless tasted good because they were well seasoned.

I also had a vanilla shake, which was incredible. For $6 it is well worth it, though I wish it was double the size. Very tasty.

SMOKEY BURGER
339 W 44th St
New York, NY 10036

American, Burgers, Midtown West, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews, Upper West Side

Landmarc

December 13, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED (TRIBECA IS STILL OPEN)

My wife and I took a nice long lunch on Friday to check this place out. After we randomly saw Marc Murphy (owner and chef) one day on the street nearby, we figured we needed to check out this location. I’ve been to his Tribeca location several times (great skirt steak – 9/10), prior to creating this blog. The Time Warner Center location is right outside my apartment, so this was a nice easy place to hit. As a side note, I think it’d be cool if Chef Murphy opened up a seafood joint called “Watermarc,” to compliment the Landmarc brand.

We started with the octopus salad. Portion size was great here, for all dishes. The octopus was cooked perfectly, without the skin. It was buttery soft, and served warm, garnished with olives, onions, potato, and some greens. Really nice.

For my entree, I went with the burger (though I will be back for a rib eye soon).

This was excellent. The robust, artisan style potato roll was really soft, yet toasty and durable. The meat was seared to a great outer crisp, and cooked perfectly pink inside without any bleed-out.

It was topped with American cheese (my choice), and served with fries and a salad. The salad was pre-dressed, and sort-of sitting on top of part of the fries, which made that portion soggy. A better service idea would be to put the fries in a side cup.

I put some of the salad greens on the burger, along with the tomato, and lightly half-soured pickles and onions that came with the dish.

Easily one of the best burgers I’ve had in Manhattan to date. If you are into the burger scene, check this place out.

My wife had the bone marrow app for her entree.

Look at how large this order is! FOUR BONES and a bunch of really great, toasty-warm bread (same stuff they give as table bread).

Nice and fatty. And served with onion jam as well. Heart healthy? Haha. Who cares it’s fucking delicious.

On a second trip, we tried the foie gras terrine. This was really delicious. It was creamy as all hell. No grainy texture, and no gamey taste.

The fried calamari was crispy, perfectly cooked, and well seasoned.

The Sunday pasta special was lasagna with short rib. Unbelievable. They put the short rib in the layers of pasts. This is a real winner of a dish. Make sure you try to come on a Sunday for this.

We also tried the rabbit cavatelli with spinach. This was delicious as well. The rabbit was shredded meat, very tender. The cavatelli were soft and light. I usually like a little more al dente, but these won’t weigh you down. The chili peppers were a nice touch.

My rib eye steak was undercooked (it came to me rare instead of medium rare) and a little too wet (not properly seared). The flavor was okay, but the gristled cut made for extra work. They also plopped it directly on top of my french fries, so all the liquid bleed out made my fries extremely soggy and utterly useless. if I had scored the flavor on my traditional steakhouse rating system, this would probably come in at around 6/10. Skip the steak here (skip the rib eye anyway), and go with the other items I raved about above.

We also had creme brûlée and lemon honey sorbet for dessert. The sorbet didn’t have the right texture. It was too hard and icy. The creme brûlée, on the other hand, was pretty much perfect.

LANDMARC
The Shops at Columbus Circle
10 Columbus Cir., #3
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Midtown West

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen

December 12, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Heading into the bowels of Manhattan at Times Square / Port Authority is something close to pure hell. Having a burger depot there is the only solace and reason for ever going there, other than to catch a dirty bus out of town.

Schnipper’s is a massive burger factory, yet they still generate some wait time after you order. This joint is a notch above standard fast food, on par with a Shake Shack type of environment.

I got a cheeseburger with crispy onions, lettuce, tomato, pickle and Schnipper’s sauce. Add to that an order of fries, and a vanilla shake. My total was $18.15.

A bit hefty, but I’ll bite. The burger was good; maybe just needed a touch more seasoning/salt. It was nicely cooked to the proper temperature.

The fries were pretty satisfying and on par with a McDonalds-meets-Burger King fry (lightly battered thin, crispy fries).

The shake was good because I didn’t have to dislocate my neck bones to suck the shit up through a single straw. Other joints should take a lesson from Schnipper’s on that angle. Shakes should not be too thick to the point where you need a fucking spoon. They are shakes, after all – not ice cream fucking sundaes.

SCHNIPPER’S QUALITY KITCHEN
620 8th Ave
New York, NY 10018

American, Burgers, Chelsea, French, Fusion, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Montmartre

December 8, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSING IN MARCH OF 2016!!!

A waiter named Jeremy over at Capital Grille (midtown west) recommended this place when we got to chatting about the city’s best burgers. He certainly knew his food shit, so I was excited to finally get here to try the burger. The same owners are involved with Bar Sardine, which also slings an excellent burger, so I knew I’d be in good hands at the very least.

Jeremy’s suggestion was a good one! This baby, although slapped between two buttery pieces of sourdough toast (as opposed to on a proper bun), was packed with great flavor. The meat is dry aged beef, and it was seared to a perfect temperature: pink center, good crust all around to lock in the juices, and well seasoned. Above and beneath the patty is a bernaise cheese spinach and pickled onions, respectively. Loved every bite. The bernaise cheese brought a little funk to the party (with a nice nod to steakhouse “creamed spinach,” I might add), and the pickled onion was a great twist on the much needed acid. The fried were natural cut, nice and crispy, and well seasoned with herbs and sea salt. Take a look at this shit:

UPDATE AS OF 8/25/15

My wife and I stopped in for a quick dinner after a Tabelog event nearby. We kept it pretty basic. First was a nice snack of fresh radishes with country bread, whipped butter and salt flakes. The radishes were actually pretty spicy and had a great pop to them.

My wife had the mussels. Many of them were pretty small inside the shell. I don’t like them too big, but I also don’t like them too small. The broth had some fresh herb notes to it, like maybe tarragon. I’ve had better mussels elsewhere, but that’s not to say that these were bad by any means.

I ordered the hanger steak frites. It was perfectly cooked to medium rare and had a good sear on the outside. The sauce with it was garlicky and gave it pop. The texture of the meat was slightly off. It reminded me of some of the odd meats my wife and I used to get in Mexico from the resorts. Almost like it was over tenderized using an MSG type of product. I’m sure that’s not what was done here, but it just had that feel to it. Otherwise I liked it. I’d say its about a 7 out of 10, possibly an 8.

MONTMARTRE
158 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10011

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

The Spotted Pig

December 7, 2014 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED!

It was PACKED when we arrived at around 1pm on a Saturday, even after all these years of being in business. Good for them! We were looking at roughly an hour wait unless we grabbed a seat at the bar. So we put our name down on the list to be seated, and headed upstairs to the second bar in hopes of scoring a seat a little faster. To our great fortune, a group of four people were getting up from the bar to be seated at their table. When I went to grab a pair of stools for my wife and I, a woman slid over one seat and was claiming the two bar stools in the middle of the four. I asked her politely if she could move over in one direction so that my wife and I could sit, but the loser wouldn’t move.

Four spots open up and she jumped into the center two, by herself, while waiting for her guest, who wasn’t even there yet? That’s just bad social etiquette. She was nasty, too, and had horrible breath. When I explained that there are four available seats and four people who want to sit, she started to argue “but we are getting lunch.” Newsflash: so are we! And she was getting aggressive and loud! So I alerted the manager. He politely asked her and her guest, “Ken,” who had lightly shoved me at one point after his date called me “scary,” to move. They wouldn’t move . The manager kindly sat us right away when they wouldn’t shift, I assume effectively jumping us ahead in the wait line. We ended up with a much better seat anyway, downstairs, with plenty of elbow room.

My wife had one of the $14 cocktails called “Novo Mundo,” made with a Brazilian rum type booze (cachaca), egg white, sugar and lemon.

I had a pair of Naragansett beers, which I like to call Manhattan’s new PBR, because it’s cheap, in a can and because I’ve been enjoying it way before it made it onto the Hipsters’ radar. They always seem take what I like and fuck it up. Whether it is gentleman’s caps, twisty butcher mustaches, vintage graphic t-shirts, bacon, beards or beers. Fucking animals.

We ordered some starters. The pickles were WAY the fuck overpriced, at $6 for what is typically a free amount at a place like Keens. The deviled egg was a little pricey at $4. Both items were tasty. The pickles were bright and tart, and consisted of carrots, gherkins, radish and green beans.

For the entrees, my wife ordered sisig pork. It had some bits of pig ear and other nice things, topped with a runny fried egg. Essentially this is their English “bubble and squeak” dish, but with Filipino spices and herbs like cilantro. It was good, lots of pork meat, but too salty, and a little greasy as well.

The burger I ordered was good, perfectly cooked. The bun was great, durable and grilled. The negatives: the Roquefort cheese was a little overpowering of the burger meat, and it definitely could have used a slice of tomato and some lettuce. I’ve had this burger in the past, about 10 years ago. I think it may have cost around $16 back then. It’s $21 now, but since it comes with “fries” the cost is very fair.

The shoestring potatoes had fried garlic slices and fried rosemary mixed throughout, and tasted and felt, crisp/texture-wise, like the old school potato sticks snacks.

The banoffee dessert was very good – not too sweet; just right. Essentially this English dessert pie is made from bananas, cream and toffee made from boiled sweetened condensed milk.

THE SPOTTED PIG
314 W. 11th St.
New York, NY 10014

Burgers, Recipes

Thanksgiving Leftovers: The Stuffing Burger

December 2, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

A number of variations on this gem can be concocted depending on what’s left in your fridge after the annual gorge-fest known as Thanksgiving. I had an abundance of leftover stuffing and ham, so that’s the route I went this time. Check it out, assholes.

STEP 1: Sculpt your stuffing into burger sized patties. My patties were pretty sweet since my stuffing also had sausage meat already incorporated into it (Momma’s recipe is amazing).

STEP 2: Fry off some ham. Get it nice and brown/crisp on the edges.

STEP 3: You should have some hammy oil in the pan now. LEAVE IT! Put your patties in and let them sizzle up like a regular burger.

STEP 4: Flip once, when they are browned.

STEP 5: Add first layer of cheese. If possible, cover the pan so the cheese begins to melt from the steam that builds up.

STEP 6: Pop some ham on that bitch.

STEP 7: Add second layer of cheese (and cover if possible).

STEP 8: Take the burgers off the pan with a spatula and fry up some eggs for the top.

STEP 9: Top off your burgers with an egg or two.

STEP 10: EAT.

I had no buns in the apartment, but since the burger is primarily made from bread, there’s really no need for a bun anyway. Just fork and knife it.

American, Burgers, Restaurant Reviews, West Village

Bar Sardine

November 26, 2014 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

My awesome wife and I rocked the shit out of this place with my awesome cousin and his equally awesome wife after said awesome cousin told me how awesome the burger was at this place. I must say that I agree with the call that this burger was as every bit as awesome as described. But we also had some other awesome shit as well.

What, you might ask? How about this awesome cucumber, coconut water and gin drink?

The awesome appetizers we took down consisted of three awesome plates of food.

First were these awesome deviled eggs. These little fucks were whipped up with black bean paste, soy sauce and black garlic, then topped with some sliced onion and a dot of sriracha sauce.

Next up was this awesome plate of roasted carrots. These were topped with puffed, caramelized squash seeds and served alongside a spicy hummus. These were fuck-yo-mamma-in-the-ass good. Light, yet hearty and filling.

Last of the starters was what I consider to be the most awesome cheese in the entirety of the cheese industry. Burrata. Here it was served with some confit tomatoes and anchovies, with a little toast and olive oil as well. I’ve had better/softer burrata at other joints, but this was a really tasty item.

Now that the awesome foreplay scene is done, we can eagerly move on to the full blown penetration. I’m talking’ some deep, cervix-mashing penetration.

This “Fedora Burger” is… how can I put this… awesome. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, topped with house made pickles (light, maybe a quarter sour, more like cucumbers than pickles), crispy potato shreds, red onions, smoked cheddar and BBQ mayo. The bun was strong yet soft and pliable – it stood up well to the burger, and it even had a little toast to it for good measure. Take a look at this little slut:

And like all awesome sluts, they’re still pink on the inside.

My awesome wife ordered the special for the day, which was a Cuban sandwich. This sandwich was a big ol’ bitch. Extremely buttery and toasty on the outside, and porky grilled cheese-like on the inside, this Cuban was intense.

However, as awesome as the Cuban was, that fucking whore burger shined brighter than the mother fucking North Star in comparison, as if leading all of our taste buds directly to Jesus God-damned Baby Christ in his hay-filled and barnyard-animal-surrounded manger.

The little fucking poor-ass drummer boy even tried to use a pair of half-crisped herbed french fries to wail away on that perfect burger-drum for the King of Kings on his birthday. The fries packed some good flavor but still needed a little crisp to make them worthy of the word awesome.

The place got awesomely packed. I snapped a pic of the bar area and some wall art, as well as the not-so-awesome bill, which was a little high but worth every penny.