Tag Archives: burgerporn

Burgers, Flash Deals, Pizza, Upper West Side

Big Nick’s

May 25, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

As usual, I nailed a sweet Groupon deal for this pizza … and burger … and everything else you can imagine joint… I think $11 got me $20 worth of food.

The menu here is like a diner; TONS of shit, and you wonder how they can sling it all in such a small kitchen.

We started with a pair of regular pizza slices (not the jumbo sized ones that they offer). It was thick with cheese, crispy and tasty. I’ve had better elsewhere, even at dollar joints, but this was satisfying.

The burger was a standard diner style burger (you order “deluxe” to get lettuce, tomato, pickle and fries) – nothing too fancy. It was juicy and cooked correctly, but a little lacking overall when compared to other burger places that have been popping up and serving some seriously good shit.

Next we tried a cheese dog, which, from the description, we were expecting to be massive. It was a little underwhelming when it came to the table.

It was tasty on it’s own, but we added lettuce and pickle to it, from my burger platter, to jump it up a little.

French fries absolutely need to be hit with a little salt when they come out of the frier, as does any fried item, really. This place must not practice that culinary canon. My fries needed salt badly. At least they were crispy, though. I hate this style of french fry to begin with, so it was a double whammy. But when they are done correctly they can be delicious. Herbs and parmesan cheese would help big time on this kind of steak fry, in my opinion.

On the whole, everything was really just barely average. Maybe if Big Nick decided to focus on one aspect of the menu, instead of being so expansive like a diner, they could excel. Good little neighborhood joint that’s fine as a quick go-to place, but a little overpriced in relation to the quality, especially if you’re not presenting a Groupon.

BIG NICK’S
70 W 71st St
New York, NY 10023

Burgers, Diner, Flash Deals, Harlem

Harlem Shake

May 25, 2015 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

Harlem Shake is a cool little diner/burger spot up on 125th & Lenox.

Also… It’s this:

Anyway, my wife and I grabbed a sweet deal for this place through Amazon Local. I think we paid about $8 or $10 for $20 worth of food. Taking the new subway fare hike into account, though, we nearly broke even with 4 x $2.75 to get there and back for two people. So we made it worth our trip by buying a fuckload of food. Here’s an aerial view of what we ordered:

That’s $39 worth of delicious.

First was the classic burger:

This was constructed with two thin patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and special sauce. It was perfect on the soft potato bun. Really good job. A much better tasting burger than their two thin patty competitor Steak & Shake, though I’m not sure I’d venture all the way up to Harlem for this when Steak & Shake is literally a stone’s throw down Broadway from us.

Next up, the classic fried chicken sandwich:

This had crunchy slaw on it, and pickles, but I think it was in desperate need of mayo. They have some next to the registers, so make sure you grab a packet or two if you order this. I liked it, but was sort of expecting a more juicy, thicker piece of chicken.

Let’s keep it rolling here with this amazing “jerk dog:”

This snappy, tasty dog was topped with pickled slaw, diced jalapeños, pork rinds and jerk sauce (not to be confused with semen, jizz, boy batter, man mayo, or cum). The pork rinds added a really interesting crunch element, and the hot dog bun was of the perfect pillowy potato variety.

Our last entrée item was the cherry pepper and bacon relish grilled cheese, sandwiched between two buttery and toasty slices of good old-fashioned white bread.

This was sweet, spicy, tangy crunchy and gooey all at once. Such a nice concoction. I’ll definitely be trying to make these at home soon.

The fries were nice. A natural cut style, nicely seasoned without going overboard, and with a decent crispy crunch to them. They could have been better, but I wasn’t complaining.

For our first drink we had a watermelon cooler, which was delicious. I was half expecting some sugary, diabetic coma-inducing watermelon “drank,” but this was a delicious, natural tasting watermelon juice. Not too sweet, not too pulpy, and extremely refreshing. Big fan of this:

Next, of course, was a vanilla shake. At nearly $6 I was expecting a let down, but this was a good size and it had great flavor. It was light and easily suckable – like a guy with a 2-inch pecker, and unlike some joints where they basically give you soft serve ice cream in a cup and expect you to blow an aneurism trying to suck the shit through a 3mm diameter straw. Fuck that. This was ready to go; no melt-wait time needed. Nicely executed:

So that’s that. Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this place. If you live nearby, it is definitely worth a visit. If, however, like me, you will need to get on public transit to make it here, then make sure you try to score a coupon first… and go with the intention of delving into a ton of grub to make it worth your trip. Go for and gorge thyself!

HARLEM SHAKE
100 W 124th St
New York, NY 10027

American, Burgers, French, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Kingside

May 15, 2015 Johnny Prime 1 Comment

My wife and I stopped into Kingside for a quick meal because it looked amazing inside, and we had heard good things about the burger.

So let me get right down to business here about the burger:

As you can see, there is no lettuce, but there was a crunch element from this vinegary pickled and minced veggies giardiniera relish. Check it out below (hint: it’s not the white or red one):

Not my go-to for a burger topping, but it at least satisfied the need for crunch. It had a hard/crusty bun, which is a big mark for the negative column, but it wasn’t unwieldy or painful. It was similar to The Breslin in texture, and for this particular burger, I think, it sorta worked. There wasn’t enough cheese. Another melty slice would have been ideal. But the soppressata was a nice touch on top. I wish the patty was flatter and wider, or just larger/wider in general, to make for better coverage of the bun. Essentially the bun was too big, and there was excess bread. It was cooked to a nice medium, which is how I ordered.

As for the other stuff we tried: we had a way overpriced octopus app. One tentacle for $19, it tasted like tunafish, and didn’t have that charred snap on the outer portions. Otherwise it had a great soft texture inside, and serving with the hearts of palm was unique.

My wife’s order of mussels and fries were good, in a cream based sauce, but not the best we’ve had. The mussels were, for the most part, meaty and large, which was nice.

The fries here are amazing. They’re super crispy and perfectly cooked, just a little over salted perhaps.

The bread at this joint is nice too. Warm, toasty sesame Italian bread sliced and plated beside some warm tomato sauce with garlic herbs and olive oil swimming within:

But overall this place is just too overpriced. My burger was $22 with fries, that octo app was $19, and my wife dropped about $6 for about 8-10oz glass of iced tea that was filled with ice. Total rip for that. To sum up: skip the apps, get extra bread, and be ready for a few pet peeves on an otherwise tasty burger.

KINGSIDE
Viceroy Hotel New York
124 W. 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Diner, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Flame

May 11, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I popped in here for a quick breakfast and we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, and the cheapness ($4.65 for two eggs any style with toast and hash browns). My lumberjack meal (pictured) was only $7.45 for two eggs any style, ham, bacon or sausage, and pancakes. It is standard diner fare, but the poached eggs were perfect. I had a small shell bit right on top, but other than that it was perfect.

Pancakes were good too.

Looking forward to trying their burger next.

UPDATE MAY 2015

So I finally got back in to try the burger. It’s very basic, nothing too crazy to write about. The bun is toasted, which I hate, and I think the burger patty was probably frozen. But at $9.75 for the deluxe, which comes with battered fries, lettuce and tomato, its not a bad buy.

FLAME
893 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

American, Burgers, Midtown East, Restaurant Reviews

The National

May 9, 2015 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

My wife and I tried this joint out today for a quick dinner. When we entered, we were hit with this beautiful staircase. Who knows where the fuck it goes, though…

We thought it was odd that no bread was served to us, but the app came out pretty quick, and it had some sliced pieces of toasted bread with it. Steak tartare:

This was pretty good. It was coarsely hand cut, which I am usually not a fan of, but it was soft and had good flavor. We didn’t realize there was a quail egg yolk sitting in it for mixing until we were halfway done with the dish. It was sorta buried under the meat. The tartare had a good spice to it from some cherry peppers. Nice touch.

For her entree, my wife ordered the appetizer mussels. This was a good sized portion, but it came with one lousy piece of bread for soaking up the delicious green coconut curry sauce at the bottom. It was topped with sliced garlic, pickled chili peppers and cilantro.

Definitely a winning dish, so I recommend ordering it. We asked for more bread and were finally given our table bread, which we should have gotten earlier when we were seated. Soak up all that delicious sauce shit at the bottom!

I had the burger, with added cheddar. The burger, as-is on the menu, does not come with cheese. They had either cheddar or gruyere when I asked.

There was some slight slippage when eating due to the slippery tomatoes (one slice would have been fine), but the burger had a great beefy flavor and the toppings were excellent. Pickled red onion, so I wasn’t dying of thirst all night long. Pickles, lettuce. Nice and simple.

As you can see above, they were wise to dig out some of the bread so as not to have a burger stacked high to the sky. Good shit. The bread was nice too. Strong yet soft. And it came with some really tasty golden crisp French fries.

Not bad! I think we ordered the right sort of shit here, so if you stick to these items I’m sure you will be pleased. My wife has been here before, and she said the octopus app, which I was thinking of ordering, was not that great – nothing special.

THE NATIONAL
557 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10022

American, Burgers, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, West Village

Minetta Tavern

April 27, 2015 Johnny Prime 4 Comments

After coming here a few times for drinks back in the day, the place has taken on new ownership. Now there is a massive buzz about their amazing “Black Label Burger,” so I had to give it a try.

My wife and I decided to sit at the bar for our meal.

We started with a pair of cocktails. For me, it was the Bull Shot, which was made with vodka, oxtail broth, lemon, and worcestershire sauce. It was really great, and super manly.

My wife had a spicy bloody Mary with jalapeños, southwest spices, pickled okra, celery, and pickled green bean. It tasted very fresh.

We ordered the Black Label Burger, which, for $28, comes with a shit load of fries. I didn’t realize, though, that it didn’t have any cheese. That sucked.

Anyway the burger meat was perfectly cooked to medium rare (even though I ordered medium), and the sear on the outer crust was crispy and packed with crunchy meat flavor. It was topped with sautéed onions and I also put the lettuce and tomato on top as well.

The fries are the best I’ve ever had. For real. And they give you enough to feed three people with ease. These are so perfectly seasoned and so crispy, that you may be tempted to run to the bathroom quick and jerk off thinking about how good that first fry was before going back for more.

Speaking of jerk-sauce, they are served up with a really nice house made mayonnaise. Very nice. Contrast with the hellishly disgusting pickle they serve alongside the burger. Thank God it wasn’t already ON the burger. It was a sweet pickle, but flavored with cinnamon or some nonsense. Eww. All in all, a great meal. The Minetta Burger is served with cheese and costs over $10 less. Maybe next time I will try that. Cheese is absolutely necessary on a burger. Anyone who tells you otherwise can go fuck themselves.

SECOND VISIT

On a second visit, my wife and I had a psychotic meal with the man behind The Dishelin Guide and the Dish Envy app, which is soon to be released for public consumption. This was sort of a two-way celebration. First, it’s been four years to the day since I started this blog; and second, for our friend’s app.

Alright enough bullshit. Let’s get down to business on this fucking incredible food we had. As an appetizer, we shared the black label burger. Our food companion had never tried it before, and I was convinced that my last experience could be better. We added cheddar cheese to it, because every burger needs cheese. It isn’t steak – it’s a burger, people! With that addition, I was correct. This was WAY better than my last burger here. Juicy, perfectly cooked, and really great with the melted cheese. You could still easily pick up all the great beef flavors going on in the grind.

The three of us shared both the cote de boeuf and the pork shank. Take a look at this fucking delicious chunk of beef. It comes with two hulking marrow bones and a wedge of salad. Who cares about that bullshit? Not me, so I didn’t photograph the salad. Anyway they present it to you like this before they take it back to slice it up:

Here’s the slice job. Very beautifully plated:

The meat had a great crust all over and was still nice and pink throughout the eye of the meat. The fat cap was a bit underwhelming and gristled, but the flavor of the eye made up for that in spades. If this was a legit steakhouse review, the score would probably be a 9 for flavor. I’ve had better, but this is just a really impressive dish to pull off on a regular basis. We need to give credit where credit is due. Well done, Minetta Tavern. Delicious.

My wife took down most of the pork shank. Unfortunately the skin didn’t get crispy like we expected, but the meat was fork tender and really tasty.

On the side we had these really nice potatoes that were described as “punched.” Basically, baked, crisped and flavored with rosemary salt and garlic while being pressed. I absolutely loved them, but I was so focused on the meat that I didn’t get a chance to really savor my portion. I just kinda wolfed it between bites of meat.

For dessert we tried the cold nougat ice cream pie thingy. It was really nice, almost marshmallowy in texture on top, and with the flavor of a cold candy bar on the bottom. It was topped with a chocolate cherry sauce and some crushed pistachios.

Here’s the William:

Oh and I slammed one of these too. haven’t had one in years and it was fucking great. I will need to stock up the fridge at home now:

MINETTA TAVERN
113 MacDougal St.
New York, NY 10012

Burgers, Chelsea, Diner, Restaurant Reviews

Empire Diner

April 20, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS JOINT IS NOW UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP

Chef Amanda Freitag’s upscale diner (which I like to refer to as a “finer”) really delivers some solid menu items. My wife and I popped in for lunch when it was crowded and took a comfortable seat at the large, old fashioned art-deco inspired bar area.

We started with some cocktails. I had a jalapeño bloody Mary, and my wife had a riff on the Pimm’s Cup cocktail. Both were masterfully mixed. Look at the size of the basil floating in my wife’s drink! It was a mutant leaf.

Our meal came out a bit backwards, as the pop tarts arrived first, and we sort of assumed they were more of a dessert item. I guess they are there for the brunch menu. They were filled with apricot jam and had a nice, light texture to the strudel-style dough pocket. Very nice, and actually kind of filling for only $6 a pair.

I had the burger. This is a top contender. It comes garnished with red onion, cheddar cheese, pickles and a Big Mac style special sauce. Really tasty, and the gooey cheese is enough to solve any problems in the event your patty comes out cooked too much. At first, I thought mine was a little beyond medium, but it was fine once I got into the center a bit more. The bun is brioche style, but it isn’t flaky or weak. I prefer a potato bun, but this was fine.

This is a great buy at $13, because you get the salt and pepper fries in a pretty good portion size on the side as well. And let me just say: these fries were fucking amazing.

My wife ordered the fish and chips. The portion size was pretty large, although her plate came with less fries than my burger plate. The fish was a large single piece that was enveloped in a really nice batter. My wife referred to it as “fish Wellington.” The fish itself was a cod; nice and flaky, and perfectly cooked.

American, Burgers, Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Burger & Barrel

April 20, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This place easily comes in as one of my favorite burgers in the city. I tried the bash burger (bacon and onion jam), and the classic (lettuce and tomato). Both came with American cheese as the standard, and both were fucking amazing: great bun, and astounding meat flavor. The fries were perfectly cooked and seasoned as well, and the batter on the onion rings was so crisp and delicious.. I’ll definitely be dining here again, especially for the prime rib dinner.

The bash burger was so good that you didn’t miss the crunch from the lettuce or the coolness of the tomato:

The classic was firing on all cylinders. Every aspect of this thing worked. Tomato was sliced a little thicker than I normally like, but it was not unwieldy because the other stuff was all the right thickness.

It’s no wonder this place, which is run by the same folks at Bowery Meat Company, is running away with all sorts of burger awards.

UPDATE 4/20/15

I went back yesterday with my wife and my parents to celebrate me and my wife’s 6th wedding anniversary.

We did the prime rib dinner for four, which you will need to reserve in advance because they need lots of time to prep the roast (I think it cooks for 8 hours). Check out the menu:

We started with a few brews since we were walking around a lot that afternoon and needed some refreshments:

The family style apps were pretty delicious. First were these little chicken lollipops. Super crispy skin, some Korean style BBQ sauce drizzled over with sesame seeds and some greens. These are addicting. I only wish there were eight instead of six in the order, that way we each could have eaten two. They’re a little too good to stop at just one, despite the massive amount of food yet to come.

The tuna tartare was nice, light and refreshing. It was topped with an avocado spread and served with waffle-cut potato chips. Everything was just right on this dish.

Next up were the individually ordered salads. Since there were three to choose from, we had one of each and then an extra that was doubled. So we ordered two of the beet salads. The beets were perfectly roasted, and the toasted walnuts gave good texture and crunch to the salad. The goat cheese was so soft and velvety, and the orange segments added a citrus pop that really made this salad stand out as the best of the three.

The kale salad had butternut squash, faro and cranberries. This was dressed nicely with a honey mustard vinaigrette.

The last of the salads was apple and arugula with shaved fennel, pine nuts and parmigiano, lightly dressed with a light apple vinegar.

The star of the show is this Creekstone Farms roasted prime rib.

This is a LOT of beef for just four people. The waiter said that it comes out to about 14oz per person, but that is a serious understatement. I think my cut alone, which wasn’t as big as my dad’s, was about 24oz.

So thick and juicy. The seasoning got way down into the meat, and the crust of spices along the outside edges was incredible. The fat was pretty much all edible meat jello – so tasty. Not one bite became monotonous or boring, as is the case many times with prime rib. This had a ton of character. I can’t even describe to you how amazing the restaurant smelled when they carried this bad boy out to us. They also served it with two sauces: bordelaise and peppercorn poivre sauce. Both were great but I tended to hit the peppercorn sauce a little more often.

Even the sides were amazing here. First, I’ve never tasted a tater tot so good in my life. They were perfectly crisp, and herbed up nice with rosemary flavor.

The brussels sprouts were crispy and light, but packed a ton of flavor. I could eat this like a snack while watching TV.

The spinach was perfectly seasoned and sautéed in garlic and oil – no heavy cream to weigh down the meal.

And the potatoes were so unique. They seemed like they were ripped up, baked and fried fingerlings with caramelized onions. They had a really dynamic texture of crisp and soft mixed throughout.

Finally, for dessert we had apple fritters with chocolate truffles, topped with ice cream and caramel sauce. These were like little doughnuts made from apple. Nice and crisp on the outside, with a perfectly cooked apple on the inside. I’m usually not a huge fan of chocolate but that truffle was excellent!

The staff was really great here, and they brought us out a complimentary pair of mini bottles of rose champagne when they overheard us talking about the fact that we were celebrating an anniversary. Really nice touch, and the champagne was tasty!

Overall this is one of my favorite places to eat in the city right now.

The bar has a great, fun atmosphere, and every item I’ve tried here is pretty much an example of the best I’ve had. This doesn’t come as much of a shocker though, because all of the restaurants in their group as just as amazing. If you haven’t been here yet, get your ass down here ASAP and try some of the items pictured above. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

UPDATE 3/26/18

Subsequent return trips to B&B for the prime rib:

BURGER & BARREL
25 W. Houston St.
New York, NY 10012

American, Burgers, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Upper West Side

The Smith

April 16, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to try the burger at this joint for a while, and, now that the Lincoln Center location is right in my neighborhood, it was a perfect opportunity.

The menu I found online is pretty nice, and I was surprised to see a full selection of all four major steak cuts. We went on a Wednesday, which is fried chicken night, but we were unfortunately provided with a limited menu when we were seated due to some gas outage problems in the area. Bummer.

Luckily some of the basics that we wanted to try were still available though, like the burger and the rib eye.

First, I will note that the sparkling water was free here. I’m not sure if that’s always the case at all locations, but I was in heaven. I love bubbly water.

For alcohol drinks, I had a local pilsner from a Long Island brewery out of Oceanside called Barrier. I love their Mr. Pete wheat beer (amazing with oysters), but that wasn’t on tap. My wife had the Johnny Be Cool, which was a refreshing bourbon, lavender and honey concoction.

The food took a long time to come out, as the place was packed for a Wednesday evening. That might have had something to do with the gorgeous weather outside (the joint has a massive 20ft wide sidewalk seating area). But at least we were able to snack on some of their nice bread while waiting. I just wished it was warm.

Here’s the burger plate, which comes with thick-cut, house made potato chips (they were crispy and well seasoned, though a few were a little over-burnt for my liking).

The burger itself was a nice thickness, toward the upper end of my acceptable stack-height range. It was a good stack with all the essentials like lettuce, tomato, onion and special sauce to keep the meat juices from soaking the bun. The cheddar was fine, despite my preference for American, and the bacon was good and crisp. The bun was a little too crisp for my liking though. It held up fine throughout the eating process, but it did irk me a bit. Switch to a potato bun, and this burger is a serious contender.

My wife had the rib eye, with me eating a generous portion of it.

Pretty good size, but the meat was not the greatest quality. It had a bit of gristle and a poor showing for a fat cap, but I enjoyed the eye meat. Especially with a little bit of the chimichurri sauce that came on the side. I wasn’t expecting Strip House level cooking technique, but the steak was definitely cooked unevenly. It was more like medium in most parts than medium rare, which was how my wife had ordered it. The picture below looks like a spot where it was actually at the right temperature:

In the end, I think medium was probably the better cooking temp, because medium rare may have left us with some stringy bits given this particular chop.

The steak came with a baked potato, which my wife said was her favorite part of the meal. It was cooked nicely and had some tasty chives and sour cream in the crease.

I’d definitely come back for a fried chicken dish or even another burger. The ambiance is great and the pub type menu items seem to be the way to go here. It seems like we may have had a rough visit because they were dealing with some gas problems. That’s a shame.

THE SMITH
1900 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

Brooklyn, Burgers, Downtown, Food Halls, Press Reviews

Umami Burger

April 12, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I took a stroll through Hudson Eats and took down one of these burgers. I gotta say; it WAS pretty good. We had the manly burger and an order of truffled up fries. Very nice, though with a Six Point Sweet Action the total came to about $28. I can totally get behind the big hype on this joint though. Truffle burger might have to be next!

On a second visit to this location, I lost a little of the oomph for this place. My wife and I ordered a sunny side burger (with the egg on top), a truffle burger (sorely in need of a crunch element), and the Korean fries (big let down).

The sunny side burger was pretty great, mostly because the softness of the bun and burger were broken up by a parmesan chip and some arugula. However, the meat was well done – very overcooked.

The truffle burger was delicious, with truffle cheese and all that oniony goodness. It was cooked to about medium well, which is okay for me but not ideal. The meat tasted overworked (very uniform and springy), a little greasy, and like it was not fresh/formerly frozen. I’ve had better burgers at diners. Worst thing about this was that it was in dire need of a crunch element. No lettuce? Come on, people…

The Korean fries sucked. They were sweet potato fries with some kimchi on them. Soggy too – no crispy crunch whatsoever.

The onion rings, however, were pretty good. They were very fluffy with an almost dough batter fried around them. Pretty fun and quite filling in the tummy.

I went back to the location in Williamsburg recently for an 8-burger tasting, and I have to say this place is back on the up. While our meal was free due to it being a press event, the quality of all the burgers we tried was top notch. They still need to work lettuce or crunch elements into their burgers, but overall it was a big success.

UMAMI BURGER – HUDSON EATS
Brookfield Place
225 Liberty St
New York, NY 10281

UMAMI BURGER – WILLIAMSBURG
158 N 4th St
Brooklyn, NY 11211

carnivore connoisseur