Original 5 Napkin Burger 10oz. fresh ground chuck, caramelized onions, gruyere cheese, rosemary aioli, soft white roll ($14.95)

What do you call a cow without legs?

Ground Beef!

I love those kind of jokes. If you’ve got any, send them my way.

Anyway, this past Saturday, I met up with some friends at Five Napkin Burger. What a weird name. Apparently their burgers are too dangerously juicy for just one napkin. Well, why not call it Ten Napkin? It’s missing an ‘s’ too. Either way, the burger definitely wasn’t juicy enough to soak the surface of even one napkin, but it was still delicious all the same. And I say this with a damn serious face. Others at the table will tell you that it’s the hard cider talking, but I tell you.

That burger was damn delicious. And those onion rings? Ohhh mother. I feel my knees trembling.

Stack Of Cornmeal Crusted Onion Rings ($7.25)

To rewind, we met up at 12:30 for brunch. Amit was late, which upon hindsight, was a great thing. Somehow the manager thought we were waiting forever for a table (but we were only waiting for Amit) so he comped us THREE appetizers! Sam was giving his order to the waitress- “Um… I’d like some onion rings” [BOOM, onion rings appear!]. And we all know that in his head he was thinking about the Spinach Artichoke Dip and Pork Taquitos because he did ask whether we’d be interested. Then somehow the other two magically appeared. We were so confused until the runner said, “COMPLIMENTARY!”

A bit of background on Five Napkin. The owners originally opened Nice Matin on the Upper West Side  where they featured the “5 napkin burger” (named after its juiciness, of course). Apparently it was so popular that they started a new restaurant and named it after that burger. I feel so…  unworthy now. Nobody would ever do that for me.

The place serves a ton of beers (totaling 50 for bottles and draft, of which I believe I saw six-ish?), 100 wines, and 10 specialty cocktails. It’s a bit classier than their stated “casual” and it’s probably because of the location.

The pricing is… eh. It’s a splurge considering you’re eating burgers. The appetizers aren’t that impressive. I mean, the spinach artichoke dip was really delicious but they only give you like 5 pieces of the bread crostini which in other words, is left over bread from the night before glamorized in a toaster oven. At least they do give you a few Belgian Endives but unless if you like the bitter leaves, they’re only there for garnish.

Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip endive spears & french bread crostini ($10.75)

Pork Taquitos queso fresco, sour cream & salsa ($8.75)

I could have cared less for the pork taquitos (they were cold!) but the onion rings were fantastic. However, I have yet to have met an onion ring that has been sub par to my expectations. Onion, meet egg wash. Egg wash, meet cornmeal. Cornmeal, meet oil. It’s a match made in heaven.

Before you come here, do your homework. There are like eight different burger options to choose from and unless if you have something against bacon, cheese, or  caramelized onions you’re going to have a tough time choosing. Eventually I settled with the “Original Five Napkin.”  Surprisingly, I was the only one despite this being their signature burger.

So looking back, I think to myself, dang, a $14.95 burger is pretty darn expensive. But then I think about how delicious it tasted. When the burger arrived, my jaw dropped. THERE WAS SO MUCH CHEESE! Then I take a bite. Hm… It’s so creamy. Wait- that’s not cheese… that’s… aioli?!?! You’d think I would have been disgusted but it was just so delicious. I ordered my burger medium rare and it came slightly pink. The burger was just juicy enough and surprisingly, it didn’t soak up the bun at all. But the caramelized onions. That was what did it. And then the gruyere cheese. I have to stop thinking about this right now.

The thing was too big for me to finish. So I packed half of it away. The next day, I heated it up for lunch and THE BREAD STILL WASN’T SOGGY!!

By the way, aioli is a mixture of garlic and olive oil, but in this case, it resembled a runnier version of mayo.

Now the fries. They give you a decent amount. If you aren’t a fan of soft shoe string fries, this isn’t your cup of tea. Me? I love that. However, it could have done well with less salt.

Italian Turkey Burger melted mozzarella, spicy tomato sauce, vinegar peppers, sesame egg roll ($12.95)

5 Napkin Veggie Burger housemade with 5n sauce, b&b pickles, lettuce & tomato, multi grain roll ($11.95)

Looks less glamorous upon assembling.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich hot sauce, creamy roquefort dressing, tomatoes & bacon ($12.95)

Brunch wouldn’t be brunch without dessert. We ended up splitting their Espresso Brownie Sundae six ways, which equates to roughly 3 spoonfuls each, with the 1st spoon being whipped cream, the 2nd ice cream and the 3rd brownie. But in all seriousness, this is worth the $7.50. The salted peanuts? Oh man, heavenly!!

Espresso Brownie Sundae vanilla ice cream, espresso caramel, whipped cream & salted peanuts ($7.50)

There aren’t many places that I’d come back to, but this is one of them, and it’s not because the manager comped us. The ambiance is great; there are tons of windows and the selection of draft beer is a gigantic plus. Any place that can serve a burger without making the bun soggy has reeled in my stomach.

MENU
630 Ninth Ave.
New York, NY 10036
nr. 44th St.  See Map | Subway Directions
212-757-2277

You should also check out:

• Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
• Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
• Bobo in the West Village
• Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
• David Burke Townhouse: Brunch for $39

Black Label Burger: Selection of prime dry-aged beef cuts with caramelized onions and pommes frites ($26)

This morning, I ran to reverse the damage and abuse from my relationship with butter. Last night, that involved a giant ribeye steak smothered in butter, sizzling on a 500 degree plate (brownie points to anyone who can guess where I was). Last week, it involved one of the top ranked burgers in New York City at the revered Minetta Tavern. I’m going to focus on the latter.

On paper, the Black Label Burger is everything an omnivore could ever dream of. Serious Eats did a fantastic article, dissecting the thought and process behind the Black Label. Here are some key points:

• The beef is a combination of prime dry aged ribeye, skirt steak, and brisket from Creekstone Farms, KENTUCKY (whoa, right?). Although the burger goes for a whopping $26, it’s pretty cheap when you compare it to the ribeye entree (the same cut that goes into the burger) which goes for $90 at the restaurant. And why prime? Because the natural marbling requires less external fat
• The bun is a peppered brioche from the famous Balthazar Bakery just avenues across. The brioche is baked a day in advance so that it can harden slightly overnight. It’s not your typical sweet, buttery brioche. If a Kaiser roll could ever be in a brioche form, this would be it.
• The toppings include lettuce, tomato, and sautéed onions. That’s right, no cheese. You can order it with cheese (free of charge too!) but it’s not recommended. I agree, the burger is seasoned and salted enough on its own. But the onions are amazing. Sauteed to the brink of caramelizing, they provide this delicate sweetness.
• Butter: Didn’t think I was going to forget this one now eh? Basically, they slather clarified butter all over the surface of the beef while on the grill.  And no, clarified butter is not just melted butter. It’s melted butter sans milk solids, whatever that means.

Conclusion:

You’ll be surprised to hear that I was not impressed. A big factor is the price. For $26, I could have gotten 5 Shake Shack burgers, 1.5 Spotted Big Burgers, or made 10 of my own. I honestly thought that the burgers Esther and I made last week were better.

I think what really killed the burger was the butter overload. My first bite felt like I was taking a bite out of a stick of butter, which is really gross. The burger was juicy and cooked perfectly. I think sans clarified butter, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But honestly, I just didn’t feel it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s an incredibly rich burger and you can feel it every time the juice just oozes out with each bite. The meat is tender, almost like eating a medium-rare steak. But the flavor is too mild in my opinion. Maybe it’s because I was supposed to appreciate the “natural beef” flavor like you do at a steakhouse, but nope. I thought the Spotted Pig offered a better burger despite it being over salted. So yes, one thing this burger could have used more of is salt! The brioche bun was also a bit disappointing as the juices still rendered the bottom bun soggy. Despite it being brioche and all, I couldn’t find anything special about it (usually, I think burgers with brioche buns are just absolutely out of this world!)

Overall, an above average burger for a way above average price. I think this fellow food blogger but it best when he said (comparing the Black Label to the original Minetta Burger)

Ounce for ounce, penny for penny, the Minetta Burger destroys its super-uber-gourmet counterpart. Furthermore, and I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here, If I’m going to spend $26 on a hamburger, it had better change my life in some way shape or form, otherwise I just feel stupid and cheated.

On the bright side, the fries are delicious…

(Nothing like an Old Speckled Hen to wash down a burger)

Chocolate Dacquoise: Rich chocolate ganache layered with hazelnut meringue ($9)

We did end up ordering dessert, a Chocolate Dacquoise. Let me tell you, this was phenomenal. It was like dissecting a truffle. The top part is this bitter chocolate that crumbles at the touch of the fork yet retains this crunch at the bite. Then there’s a layer of meringue and then a rich, dense ganache, and another layer of meringue. It may not look 100% perfect, but it tasted 100% perfect.

Go for the cake. For sure. Oh, and to meet the Maître d‘, Robert. He’s pretty cool.

MENU
113 MacDougal St.
New York, NY 10012
nr. Bleecker St.  See Map | Subway Directions
212-475-3850

You should also check out:

• Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
• Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
• Bobo in the West Village
• Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
• Five Napkin Burger

You should also check out:

• Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
• Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
• Bobo in the West Village
• Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
• Five Napkin Burger

Saint Mark’s Burger a cheeseburger topped with mushrooms and fried onions (burger $7.70   deluxe $10.20)

Unfortunately, this is going to be the last burger review in a long while. I’m going off to the middle of nowhere tomorrow and I don’t expect to see many burger joints, nor do I expect my mother to suddenly start making burgers.

Paul’s is a place you always pass by on 2nd avenue on the way to Pomme Frites without paying close attention. Its entrance is recessed back along the street so if it weren’t for the ginormous double stacked burgers, I probably wouldn’t have ever noticed it. Gayot lists it as one of the top 10 burgers in NYC and being so close to NYU, Gurpreet and I couldn’t resist a burger break this past Sunday afternoon.

We get there and it’s pretty much empty. There’s around 15 tables covered in picnic plaid and the “kitchen” is essentially the bar and grill to the left when you walk in. It’s a rundown, grubby, no nonsense type of place. There are over twenty types of burgers toppings- from plain old cheddar to fried eggs, bacon, and ham.

Cheddar Cheeseburger a burger topped with cheddar cheese (burger $ 5.60   deluxe $8.30)

*(deluxe served with french fries, lettuce, and tomatoes), burger, served with bacon $0.80, english muffin $0.50, lettuce and tomato $0.35, kaiser roll $0.40, (pickles and onions are free upon request)

Gurpreet choose her beloved cheddar as well as a black and white milkshake ($2.50), a ridiculous steal especially compared to some places that charge close to $6 for a shake of the same size! Her burger seemed a bit easier to manage because there weren’t as many toppings. And of course, she was very happy with the tub of free pickles.

Her burger’s actually intact. Wait until you see what mine looked like…

There it is- a gorgeous mess of grilled onions and mushrooms just sitting on that 1/2lb beef.

It was a mess from the getgo. There were so many mushrooms that some fell off the plate before the plate even made it onto the table. Fries were strewn all over the place and there was no place to pour my ketchup. But while that messy heap looked simply delicious, here was my take on the burger. I’ll start with the cons first…

Cons:

• Soggy, wait, I mean, disappearing bottom bun. How do you expect a greasy 1/2lb burger so retain its juice? They should have put the grilled onion on the bottom bun and then the beef. By the time I tried picking up the burger, the bottom bun had disappeared.
• The burger itself- usually burgers are flavorful and intact. This was neither. It was a tad bit on the dry side and actually fell apart when I picked up the burger (along with the mushrooms and onions).
• The grilled onions weren’t what I expected. I expected those grilled onions that you get on Italian sausages. Instead, I got a half baked attempt at the grilling.

Pros:

• Awesome mushrooms
• You won’t leave hungry for sure

The fries were average. They’re rectangular thick cut and massive. The flaw is that when they get cold, they get that hardened mushyness inside.

So it was an average burger with out of proportion portion sizing. But Gurpreet seemed to enjoy her burger immensely (although she couldn’t finish a quarter of it) so I thought, maybe it’s just me. Later, a friend, who I recommended the place to a few days later, also agreed with me that it’s just alot of food that tastes subpar.

The check was friendly with burgers and fries generally around $10. I probably wouldn’t come here again, but some of their toppings do sound intriguing.

MENU
131 Second Ave.
New York, NY 10003
Near St. Marks Pl.  See Map | Subway Directions
212-529-3033 Send to Phone

You should also check out:

• Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
• Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
• Bobo in the West Village
• Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
• Five Napkin Burger

The Frenchie: 6 oz beef patty with grilled pork belly, arugula, tomato-onion compote, & morbier cheese on a peppered brioche bun with cornichon, mustard & fries ($17)

When Sabrina and I failed to secure a reservation at Babbo last week for last night (seriously, it’s like trying to make an appointment with the Pope!), we decided on DBGB aka Daniel Boulud Good Burger. It’s Boulud’s attempt at making his usual gourmet dishes a bit more affordable. That being said, my 6 oz. burger was $19.

But the restaurant is gorgeous. It sits in a remote area on Bowery next to Whole Foods and the panels of glass are filled with words of French wisdom and famous quotes. It’s as if someone took a white-out pen and elegantly scribbled on the glass.

There’s a huge bar with a dining area (for the non-reservers) and then inside is the main dining room filled with booths and tables. Bottles of wine align the walls to the right with the kitchen and expo station on the left. Everything is stacked so neatly and perfectly that it feels like you’re in some sort of mid-western gourmet factory. Sabrina and I appreciated all that effort in the decor.

The Piggie: 6 oz beef patty topped with daisy may’s bbq pulled pork, jalapeño mayonnaise & boston lettuce on a cheddar-cornbread bun with mustard-vinegar slaw & fries ($19)

Of course, how could I possibly go to DBGB without ordering the menu item named after me or The “Piggie.” It’s Sabrina’s nickname for me (don’t be offended for me, she says it affectionately). And who am I one to reject barbeque pulled pork and a cornbread bun?

As expected, The Piggie did not disappoint:

Pros:

• The bbq pulled pork was so sweet and succulent. Exactly as pulled pork should be. In fact, I’d argue that it was the star ingredient, not the beef.
• That being said, the beef was juicy, but not so juicy that it soaks the bottom bun. It didn’t have as much flavor as some of the other burger’s that I’ve had, but the flavor came mainly from the bbq pulled pork.
• I love the jalapeno and the jalapeno mayonnaise. The mayo is thinly spread on some lettuce leaves. The jalapeno added that extra kick to the assemble.

Cons:

• Didn’t quite taste the cornbread part of the description in the bun.
• Ordered medium rare and was more on the rare side.

Sabrina went with The Frenchie, sans cheese. Our server tried talking her out of it because “The Frenchie without the cheese is like… well, you should order the Yankee.” And Sabrina responded with, “Uh, can I just have The Frenchie without cheese (goddamnit!)?”

What do you know? The server was right. The Frenchie without the cheese is simply not The Frenchie. The “grilled pork belly” was just a fancy name for your average tasting bacon and I didn’t taste much of the tomato-onion compote. But I’m sure the experience would have been a hundred times better with the cheese because without it, the burger was actually a bit bland.

The burgers come with awesome shoestring fries that are cooked and seasoned to perfection. They remind me of the fries that Houston’s serves, but a tad bit thicker and less oily. Sabrina actually enjoyed the fries more than her burger.

Sure, the burger does look small, but I have to admit- with the bread basket and the fries, Sabrina and I were really full. It wouldn’t work for the typical male though.

And what is a burger without some beer? They have alot of ales and lagers on draft and several are only $7, which is really reasonably priced when you consider what bars charge.

Brouwerij Strubbe Pilsner, Belgium ($7)

I ended up getting… that. It was a bit like Stella, I think.

Coffee Mocha Sundae: chocolate sorbet, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, candied macadamia nuts & whipped cream ($9)

Last but not least, as if we weren’t stuffed enough, we got a sundae! The coffee ice cream was the most strong in espresso flavor I’ve ever tasted. The only complaint was that the whipped cream ratio to the rest of the sundae was like 2:1. Another scoop of ice cream wouldn’t have hurt either as it was 2 scoops. Aren’t standard sundaes 3 scoops anyway? Regardless, I loved the candied macadamia nuts and the bits of cookie that just somehow fell into every spoonful. DEEEELISH!

This is the first Daniel Boulud restaurant I’ve been to and I came out quite satisfied. The total bill came out to around $65 without tip. The only one pet peeve that I had was our server. For some reason, I just got this really fake vibe off of him. He tried to push the specials- the juniper beer to the yule log dessert- a bit too much. Nevertheless, the service was timely and the food didn’t take that long to come out. Thumbs up!

MENU
299 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
nr. Houston St.  See Map | Subway Directions
212-933-5300 Send to Phone

You should also check out:

• Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
• Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
• Bobo in the West Village
• Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
• Five Napkin Burger