Tag Archives: burgers

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown East, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews

BV’s Grill

May 31, 2015 Johnny Prime 4 Comments

BV’s Grill overall score: 84

UPDATE: BV’S GRILL IS NOW CLOSED

I picked up a discounted Groupon for this place. I paid about $60 and got $100 off the bill. Check out the review:

Flavor: 8
The rib eye here was really nicely done. I was almost going to give it a nine here but I decided to go with eight because there was a bit too much scrap on the plate when I was finished. Nicely cooked, well rested, juicy, tender, flavorful and all that good shit. Check it out:

My wife ordered the BV Burger, so I had the rare opportunity to kill two birds with one stone here: burger and steak in the same review.

It was nicely cooked to medium, with a thick slice of lightly grilled white onion on top of the melty cheddar. The bun was soft yet strong, and the meat had a nice beefy flavor. It was definitely above average, and a very good deal for $17 with fries, in my opinion. Here’s the cut:

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 8
You’ve got a decent selection of all the main four cuts, plus some good quality beef going on here. There are some alternative cuts like flank or skirt as well.

Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions are generous here. My steak was about 22oz, if I had to guess. Plating was pretty basic, not too fancy. The creamed spinach (pictured further below) was definitely enough for three.

Price: 9
My rib eye was still priced in the $40s, so I was happy about that, especially given the overall good quality of the meat. That, plus the Groupon deal, made this a great buy. Here’s our bill:

Bar: 9
This place has a really awesome, spacious bar, and an outdoor patio/dining space that is really nice in the warm weather. They also stock some good quality beer on tap, like Delerium, in the event that you’re not sipping on a martini.

Specials and Other Meats: 8
There were three specials being offered, but none of them were steak. First was a two-for-one shrimp cocktail app (eight pieces instead of four). Second was a fish item, I believe. And third was this incredibly refreshing chilled watermelon soup:

It had a hint of spice to it, along with another fruit flavor – maybe apricot? Delicious way to start the meal.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 8
I started with this thick slice of bacon. It was nicely cooked – soft inside, crunchy edges, and lots of piggy-flavor, as it was also a smoked applewood variety.

The creamed spinach was the perfect texture. I thought it was the right balance of creamy/cheesy to leaf spinach. It might have needed just a touch more salt, though. Still great.

The french fries that came with my wife’s burger were good and crispy, but they were a bit dry. Nothing special about these babies. They’re just there to fill your gut:

We skipped dessert because we were stuffed, but there were some really enticing items, like chocolate pecan pie and soft serve ice cream (a personal favorite).

Seafood Selection: 9
There’s a ton of seafood on the menu. Lots in the apps/starters, and a fair amount of good quality cuts of fish in the entree section, as well as that special I mentioned up above. Solid showing.

Service: 9
Our waiter was great. He was attentive, fast, and really nice – same with the hosting staff. A great place to eat. The bread basket was pretty good too:

That butter in the middle is soft, whipped and light with great seasoning. I think it is likely made in-house. It’s the best butter I’ve had at a steak joint to date.

Ambiance: 8
I actually love the layout of the place, the decor, and the brightness from the massive windows and open-concept space. I think the only down-side is the location, midtown east. I bet it does really well during the workdays, but is dead on weekends. It’s a shame too because this would be a fantastic location to do some summertime day drinking.

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, Midtown West, Pub Food

1 2 3 Burger Shot Beer

April 22, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve walked by this joint on many occasions. Today I finally had the time to go in and see what it’s all about.

The name comes from the daily specials offered: $1 burgers (sliders), $2 shots and $3 beers – ANY beer on tap, other than the ciders. Not fuckin’ bad!

The joint is set up like a college style sports bar. Lots of TVs throughout, with seating at the bar and along the opposite wall.

They even have some drinking games like the wheel of death pictured below, along with beer pong, and there is an outside drinking area in the back as well.

So I came with a coworker and we noticed outside that if you bring a friend you can get their daily lunch special in a two-for-one deal. The daily lunch special is three sliders, fries, and a beer for $7. Normally that will cost you $10 if you order the items separately, on their own. With the “bring a friend” special we got six sliders, two beers and two fries for $7. AWESOME!

The beers are probably only 10oz, but they don’t restrict you on the draft options, which is nice. I got a Hoegaarden and my buddy got a Rebel IPA.

The sliders are nice and tasty. They come topped with American cheese and grilled onions, nicely jammed between a mini potato bun. Deeeeelicious. I can easily put away a dozen without even blinking.

The fries needed salt. They were decent, but seasoned with a salt substitute sort of thing. Perhaps paprika and some other herbs. The portion size is a bit small if you were ordering separately at the full $4 price tag.

Since I’m a fat fuck, I also needed to try some other items. First was this Philly cheese steak. It comes with finely sliced steak, ooey-gooey cheese and onions on a hot dog style bun for $5. I ate the fuck out of this thing. It was way tastier than the sliders, for sure. But maybe you can get a better one at a larger size for just a few bucks more down at Shorty’s, nearby on 9th Avenue in the 40s.

Wednesday is double wing day. When you order wings, they double it for free. I recommend that Wednesday is the ONLY day to try the wings here, as they are small (which I actually like, but most people do not) and don’t come with many per order (four or five), at a price tag of $7. Since we came on a Wednesday, our order was $7 for nine or ten wings. They’re breaded and fried crisp before they are tossed in the Hell’s Kitchen wing sauce, which is a standard mild to medium spice level. If you get these on a non-Wednesday, you’ll probably feel like you got ripped off.

Overall this is a great place to grab some grub and suds, especially on a nice day, since the place has an open and airy feel. Go with a friend during lunch to get the most bang for your buck. That two-for-one special on the $7 lunch deal is amazing. Just add some more sliders to the order to get a real filling meal out of it.

1 2 3 BURGER SHOT BEER
738 10th Ave
New York, NY 10019

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.

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

Porter House

March 3, 2015 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

Porter House overall score: 90

My wife and I came here after hearing good things abut this place forever. I was looking forward to trying some of famed Chef Michael Lomonaco’s dishes. Check out how the meal went:

Flavor: 7 (increased to 9)
My wife and I had the cowboy cut bone-in rib eye. We ordered it medium rare. It was pretty much cooked properly, if not very slightly undercooked (which I don’t normally mind). The first few bites were great…

…but then we started having some stringy bits, gristle and not-so-flavorful uncooked pieces.

The down side was that there wasn’t much fat cap around the eye either, which meant my favorite parts were missing. We ended up with lots of scraps (maybe 12oz worth) – even when sharing the approximately 24oz piece of steak – which I ended up bringing home for making stock. Bummer.

UPDATE 9/27/17

The prime rib, available on Wednesday and Thursday, is a 9/10. Very juicy and comes with a delicious bone marrow side.

UPDATE 6/7/18

I also got to try the porterhouse (9/10)

The chili-rubbed rib eye (9/10)

And the veal chop (8/10)

Dry-aged strip (9/10).

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9
You have a ton of selections here. Two different rib eyes (bone-in cowboy, and chili rubbed 45-day aged), a filet, a porterhouse for two, and two different strips (bone-in and boneless). Everything is aged and prime, and the filet is black angus. They masterfully hit all four basic cuts. It’s just that the cuts were not executed nicely.

Portion Size & Plating: 9
Portions here are good. I’d say our steak was about 24oz, the apps were large, as well as the sides.

Price: 8
Prices are high here ($63 for the bone-in rib eye). Normally I’d say that you are getting top quality beef and an amazing view of the park from Columbus Circle, not not all seats have such a nice view, and at $63 my steak should have been fucking perfect. I think it’s fair for the slight up charge based on location, but they need to execute at that price point. The apps all hit their marks, however, and they were reasonably prices along with the drinks. This improved, though, on a second and third visit.

Bar: 8
The bar here is pretty decent for being stuck inside a mall. There was a good crowd here, and I can definitely see myself chowing down on a burger and throwing back a few beers. That’d be better than dropping another $63 on a steak, for sure. They have some nice cocktails and a great wine selection as well. I really liked the Peacock Tonic, which had muddle cucumbers, Hendrick’s gin, tonic and rosemary.

Specials and Other Meats: 9
There are lots of alternative cuts of meat here. There’s a roasted chicken, lamb, veal, duck, pork and even a minor cut of beef like skirt (or the steak frites cut that they use for the lunch menu). On special, there was only a soup of the day, which was New England clam chowder. I was hoping for a bit more.

Lamb t-bones and duck steak were both excellent.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 9
We tried three apps. First up, the hand cut filet mignon tartare. This was really great. The capers popped, it was dressed just right, and seasoned well.

Next was the roasted bone marrow. This was also delicious. It was lightly salted, and oh-so-smooth to spread onto the grilled country bread. Excellent.

They recently made this even better by adding morels to it.

The fois gras and chicken liver pate was interesting, though I thought it needed a sprinkling of salt. This would shave been better served with the raisin and nut bread that they passed around in the beginning of the meal (see below) instead of the toasted bread that it came with, stacked like Jenga blocks.

We also tried the creamed spinach. Unfortunately I wasn’t a fan of this at all. It was a little watery, too much cream in the ratio, and also had a very strong nutmeg quality to it that reminded me of all the pumpkin spice bullshit you get shoved down your throat in the pre-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas madness. I almost didn’t want to take it home, but I felt like it’d be such a waste if I didn’t. Maybe if it wasn’t pouring rain outside I would have found a bum to give it to.

We skipped dessert since, after our steak, we were a little underwhelmed.

But on another visit, I think I tried every dessert imaginable, and they were all great:

Seafood Selection: 9
There’s a good variety of seafood in this place. They offer the chilled seafood towers, caviar, scallops, shellfish and crab cakes on the app menu. The three main seafood items on their entree menu looked nice too: lobster, salmon, and swordfish (the steak of the sea, as I call it). Cheers for putting a man’s fish on that menu!

Service: 9 (increased to 10)
No problems to report here, and equally no “stellar marks” moments to report. It was a regular meal that went smoothly, just the right pace, with friendly servers, bus boys and waitresses. On a second visit they treated us to a round of drinks and desserts for no apparent reason at all. Amazing.

Ambiance: 8 (updated to 10 after remodel)
I was hoping for a better atmosphere here, being that the place overlooks Columbus Circle and the corner of Central Park. Unfortunately only some of the seating overlooks that area. The restaurant is nicely lit and decorated, but the white table cloth atmosphere gives it a slightly more formal feel than I was looking for. Nothing wrong with that, but the crowd did seem a little older and stuffier.

I went back in for a burger. This double cheeseburger is only $16 on the bar menu. The burger itself is smothered in delicious, gooey American cheese, and topped with red onion jam and pickled jalapeños. It is damn near perfect, given its placement on a potato bun. Perhaps just a leaf or two of iceberg is all it needs.

The chips were way over-seasoned. My mouth is still sweating from eating them. I think lots of Old Bay or something similar. Heavily salted as well. Skip those unless you plan to suck down several beers to quench your thirst afterward.

PORTER HOUSE
Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Cir.
New York, NY 10019

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.

Burgers, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Union Square/Flatiron

Pete’s Tavern

November 9, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Pete’s is the oldest continuously operating establishment in NYC. It opened in 1864 and has not closed or switched locations since.

What’s cool here is that the old cashier’s cage is still right there at the end of the bar. It used to be that the cashier would sit in the cage with the money/register to be protected from being robbed.

They even have this funny old sign for how to live on $15 a week:

The bartender Phil was awesome too; really friendly guy, easy to talk with, outgoing and generally just made the place a great spot to hang out. I hadn’t ever been in here before (shame on me), but he suggested coming back around Christmas time when the lights are up at the bar. Definitely. Thanks Phil!

Anyway we saw this burger on the menu and figured it had to be tried for our second burger of the night:

It turned out to be a bit of a let down. The meat was excellent, as to be expected, but there was not enough cheese. Also the tomato was sliced too thick – almost as thick as the burger patty. The waffle fries were done perfectly though.

A friend of mine met up with me and my buddy here while we were eating before he met with some broad for a date. He was hungry too, so he ordered the regular burger and we all shared:

This was much better eating: definitely better than the huntsman burger. Although my buddy was a little cranked about a pricing discrepancy (bar menu on the wall that he ordered from did not match the printed menu that he was charged from), and the burger was cooked a little under how he wanted it (I would have been fine with that temp – look at it – it looks perfect!), it was indeed a good burger. I think I would take the Old Town burger over this one though, but it was close.

In sum, this was an amazing bar to hang out in. It’s an absolutely amazing piece of NYC history, and it will definitely stay that way with staff like Phil at the bar, who make the place even better.

If burgers ain’t your thing, then try one of their extremely fair-priced brunch deals that range from $12-$15 for three courses, or maybe their delicious corned beef sandwich:

PETE’S TAVERN
129 E. 18th St.
New York, NY 10003

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown East, Restaurant Reviews

Dag’s Patio Cafe

October 31, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I picked up a Groupon for this joint recently: $16 for two burgers, two fries and two shakes. They were out of shakes, so they gave us beer and wine instead. Not bad!

So this place stands out as one of the better burgers that I’ve had recently and the reason is because of two things: (1) ratio of bread to meat to toppings, and (2) the potato roll. We tried the applewood bacon cheddar burger with grilled onions, and the Dag burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and American (fuck yeah) cheese. Both were wonderful.

For point number one, regarding ratios, I implore you to look at the cross-section of the burger. Look at it. Not too much bun. Meat is a decent thickness, but not so thick that you have to unhinge your fucking jaw. Just a couple of basic toppings so you aren’t stacking up shit on top of shit and building a skyscraper.

As for point number two, the potato roll holds up to intense scrutiny like no other. It is strong, yet soft. It is flavorful and it absorbs juices. It is magical.

As I was browsing the menu a few other items caught my eye. Typically I will try a Chicago dog before any other hot dog menu item (Chicago beats New York on hot dogs, but New York beats Chicago on pizza). However I was enticed by the Dag dog, so I gave that a try.

The Dag dog was essentially the same as the bacon, cheddar and grilled onion burger but in dog form. It was nice. Not too sloppy, as a Chicago dog can sometimes be. They also split the dog and griddled it up nice on the flat top.

The fries were nice too. A thicker style but not quite steak fries. Nicely crisped on the outside and soft inside. A good sized portion too. The overhead pic from above shows the accurate portion size pre-gorging. The pic below was taken after I attacked those shits for a few minutes, dipping them in the Sri Racha ketchup and Tabasco mayo that I masterfully mixed up at their fixin’s bar.