There’s another French onion soup burger in the game, from Manhatta.
It’s very tasty but it definitely requires a fork and knife, as it sits in a puddle of soup and has some stewed onions and onion rings on the top bun. In any event, it’s one hell of a swanky place in which to get messy. Lots of fun. Check out the view!
I’ll be back in here for a proper dinner soon enough. Until then, this will be a short review.
MANHATTA
28 Liberty Street, 60th Fl
New York NY 10005
I popped into this joint to try their burger and wash it down with a cocktail.
I went with the Old Smokey.
It was really nice – lots of vanilla flavor to it – but a bit too heavy on the amaro. Over all, though, I really enjoyed it.
Here’s the description of the burger from the menu:
Here’s what it looks like:
This thing was near perfect.
This handsome double Pat LaFrieda patty is topped with American cheese, arugula, pickles, caramelized bacon onion puree, and “sauce 17,” which I believe is a house-made buttermilk-based ranch mayo. The sesame seed brioche Balthazar bun holds up nicely to intense scrutiny without flaking or breaking. All around this was unbelievably tasty, and the fries that come with it are pretty killer too. Go get one before this place has lines forming down the block. $23.
MAYSVILLE
17 W 26th St
New York, NY 10010
SOLD OUT!
Me and the butchers put together a nice bundle just in time for the big game. Five pounds of wagyu burgers (ten individual half-pound patties) and three one-pound packs of thick cut Duroc bacon for just $74.99 (discounted from $94.92 for you damn animals).
This wagyu is ground fresh from whole muscle meat and sourced from a top shelf domestic Wagyu/Angus breeding program. This is not “Kobe-style” grocery store BS!
And of course, if you’ve had my Duroc bacon in the past, you know just how sick it is.
Get on it, guys! Your eight pounds of heaven is RIGHT HERE! Order now so you can impress your friends on game day.
Allen Brothers sent me a nice package of steaks to try out here at the Food Lab.
That’s their Exclusive Prime 16-Pack, which will run you about $230. It contains four of each for a total of 16 items: (1) 6oz prime burgers; (2) jumbo steak dogs; (3) 5oz boneless rib eyes; and (4) 6oz filets mignon.
They also offer some massive, real deal steakhouse style cuts like these from their Instagram ads:
I tried their porterhouse:
From what I understand they even supply some of these to well-known steakhouses and restaurants here in the city, so they’re not just home delivery.
Anyway let’s get down to business. You want to know if this shit is good! Okay so here we go – a review of each of the four items in the box.
The Rib Eye
While these are small at 5oz, they pack a nice amount of flavor from the intense prime-grade marbling. The best part is that you don’t have to mess around with any fancy cooking techniques to really nail them. Just sear in a hot pan with some butter or olive oil, maybe some garlic and herbs too for good measure.
The Filet Mignon
Same deal here. Small at 6oz, but really simple to cook and tons of great lean beefy flavor.
The Steak Dogs
Wow. These are amazing. When I first learned about Allen Brothers while hearing their radio ads, I immediately looked them up online and the first thing that jumped out to me were the images of these massive, juicy hot dogs. I wanted them so badly. Well here they are in all their glory, and I’m so glad I got to try them.
I decided to split griddle them, and add some pickles, jowl bacon, and jalapeños. Unbelievable!
The Burgers
At 6oz these are the perfect size for a really nice single patty burger.
I griddled with pepper.
Flipped and added three slices of American cheese.
Topped with jowl bacon and griddled jowl fat onions.
Assembled with pickled and jalapeños. Amazing
I really loved the burgers and dogs the most. I will be getting more of these babies for sure.
A college friend of mine, Harry Georgiou, owns and runs the Mt. Kisco Diner, which has been in his family for years. He’s taken a bold initiative while at the helm, renovating the space to look more like a beautiful restaurant than a typical diner.
It has a fully stocked wrap-around bar, a spacious and beautiful dining room, and comfortable seating. There’s even an outdoor garden area if you want to eat outside.
But that’s not where his initiative stops. Harry and his staff have gotten really creative with their extensive menu. They’ve taken the quality and craftsmanship of the food up several notches from what you might expect at even a really great diner.
Let’s look a few examples right off the bat.
The Gastro Burger is a 9oz proprietary blend of always fresh, never frozen beef (ground daily in-house), and topped with smoked gouda, bacon onion jam, grilled apple, and roasted garlic aioli, all on a nice pretzel bun.
And that’s not the only great burger that they offer. There are 15 different burgers on their menu, including non-beef options and classic beef styles like this Big Top Burger (melted American and Swiss, and caramelized onions and mushrooms on a brioche bun).
These things are gourmet quality at diner prices ($12-$15). They all come with a pickle, and either mixed greens or fries.
Speaking of French fries, the menu has an entire “frites bar” that features six different styles of French fry. I went with the Herbed Truffle Fries. These things were absolutely perfect! Amazing crisp on the outside, nice and soft inside. Not too overpowering with the truffle, and just the right amount of salt and seasoning from the parmesan cheese. Also really fucking beautiful!
I also got a taste of my forte: Steak! I was skeptical at first, as I would typically never order a steak at a diner. But this is not a typical diner, and Harry insisted that I try their skirt steak. I’m glad I listened.
Not only was this plating beautiful and unique, but it had some awesome looking grill marks on it to boot.
As you can see it came with crispy fried union strings and sautéed garlic spinach.
The interior was cooked to a perfect medium rare. It’s been a while since I had a great skirt steak. This baby really hit the spot!
It doesn’t end there. Nope. I had to try one more of Harry’s menu upgrades: the Grown-Up Grilled Cheese. There are a few of these, but I went with the “Alpine” grilled cheese.
As you can see it comes with a cup of creamy roasted tomato soup, but in-between the thick, toasty, country white bread is where the sandwich starts kicking some serious ass.
That’s crispy pancetta, gruyere, caramelized onions, baby arugula, and tomato with white balsamic vinaigrette. Amazing!
I also sampled some or the more normal menu items as well, like bruschetta and chicken quesadillas.
The execution is still on point. No one in the bustling kitchen is cutting any corners. Everything is made very nicely.
I mean they even have a baker on site, making all the desserts in-house, fresh. And they’re all really beautiful.
I tried a delicious slice of lemon meringue pie that I brought home with me (not pictured), but while I was at the diner, I was anxious to drink one of Harry’s mega-shakes.
These are very popular with the kids these days. This Chocolate Chip Cookie Shake is made with vanilla ice cream, a chocolate swirl, and chocolate chips. Then it’s topped with a nice thick whipped cream and a mini ice cream cookie sandwich. I swapped my chocolate chips out for Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.
I’m glad I was somehow able to save room for that tasty and refreshing shake. It was just the right amount of crazy. I know some places are going way over the top with their shakes these days, and I can’t stand it. This was just right.
I really can’t wait to get back up here to try the breakfast selections. You guys should check out their Instagram account to get your juices flowing.
MT KISCO DINER
252 E Main St
Mt Kisco, NY 10549
I was invited into Ms. Yoo to try their burger and help promote it on Instagram. I brought a couple of food photo people with me as well, so we were able to order a bunch of other stuff in addition to the burger.
Ms Yoo is essentially an American joint, but it incorporates lots of Korean flavors and ingredients into each dish that you really walk away thinking you ate a 100% Korean meal. I guess one could call it “fusion,” but it’s not pretentious and douchey like other “fusion” places can be.
First up was this bowl of nori popcorn to get things started.
The salted seaweed adds a nice natural savory element to the snack.
Next up was the beef carpaccio. This baby was gorgeous, topped with watercress, edible flowers and a cured egg yolk.
Then we tried some mac and cheese made from rice cakes (tteok).
The rice cakes are the perfect texture and vehicle to drive a great, cheesy comfort food like mac abad cheese. This one was made with gruyere and cheddar, and had a panko crust.
This was absolutely delicious, especially since it had copious amounts of bacon in it. That dipping sauce you see there is made with tomatoes and kimchi.
There are two varieties of chicken wing: spicy gochujang and honey soy sesame. The breading was perfectly crisp. While I typically like spicy wings best, the honey soy sesame was my favorite between the two.
We also had some bone marrow, which came with a bacon kimchi onion jam. Yeah – wild!
There’s also a really unique and flavorful hot dog on the menu here, topped with a dynamite grilled jalapeño pepper.
And that’s homemade Korean pork sausage on a pretzel roll with some Yoo sauce to boot (a spicy mayo, I think). Easily one of my favorite dishes of the night.
Oh yeah and the burger! This beauty is 10oz of beefy goodness topped with American cheese, Yoo sauce, and a kimchi bacon onion jam that will make you mouth water for days after tasting it.
I’m really looking forward to going back and eating that burger again, actually. And part of the reason why is because I want this as an encore for dessert:
These are honey-butter chips, and they’re the closest thing that Ms Yoo has on the menu to a dessert at the moment (there will be a dedicated dessert menu in time). These are just fried root veggie chips, like taro, potato and sweet potato, but they’re dressed in a sweet, yet savory and spicy, honey-butter glaze that’ll blow you away. Absolute must try.
UPDATE 6/16/18
Had the delicious pork belly bossam. This is mandatory.
Also tried the flank steak. 7/10 – just needed more seasoning.
MS YOO
163 Allen St
New York, NY 10002
The Norm is the restaurant inside the Brooklyn Museum. I was recently invited in to try their burgers and to help promote them on social media.
The space is gorgeous here, and it truly fits with the nice artwork and artifacts on display in the museum.
I browsed the menu while drinking a bloody Mary. This was nice and savory, and had just the right amount of spice to it.
The burgers were delicious. The first one I tried was “The Norman.” Topped with cheddar and bacon, and some house made pickles, lettuce, tomato and onion.
The second one was an interesting Japanese fusion type burger. The patty contained mushrooms as well as beef, and it was glazed with a teriyaki sauce, and topped with caramelized onion, pickled daikon and carrots.
I also tried the pho flavored ramen. This was an interesting fusion of Vietnamese and Japanese soups. The Sun noodles were perfectly cooked, but the addition of too much fish sauce muddied the flavors that were cooked into the broth with the various cuts of beef.
It definitely smelled like pho though, because of the herbs. The soft boiled egg and flank steak on top were also perfectly cooked, like the noodles.
This ramen was indeed tricky. My wife and I both liked it enough to finish it – even after crushing two burgers with fries – but we were perplexed by the competing flavors within. Not bad by any means, just different.
I think the mushroom burger embodied the same feeling, only we loved that one and the ramen we just liked. I’d definitely go back to try more stuff here. They do a great job, and are definitely thinking outside the box.
THE NORM
at The Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Pkwy
Ground Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11238
I tried some smoked wings and a burger at this joint in Hudson. The wings were pretty good, but had more of a tomato and red pepper sauce on them as opposed to something more traditional like Buffalo sauce.
The burger needed a bun upgrade, but was otherwise pretty great. Standard double patty style with “special sauce” that was reminiscent of Thousand Island dressing.
Beautiful dining space.
And really nice cocktails and homemade sodas.
WM FARMER & SONS
20 S Front St
Hudson, NY 12534
These are some of the most creatively flavored wings I’ve ever tried!
Not only are the sauces and flavors great, but the chef will cook them to your desired level of crispiness as well; tender, extra crisp, or extra extra crisp.
I think my favorite wing flavor is the tandoori dry rub with a close second going to the lemon dry rub.
We also tried American Gold, which was a surprisingly good mustard-based sauce:
Black pepper teriyaki:
Vietnamese mango chili:
And traditional buffalo:
Every one of them was excellent. You really can’t go wrong.
Even the variety of dipping sauces is staggering, and also all good.
The red onion rings were killer, as were the buffalo cheese fries with bacon, jalapeños and scallions.
And the glazed burger?!?? BRILLIANT! You can have a different burger experience every time you eat here by selecting a different wing flavor to glaze the burger with each time.
So fun. I can’t wait to go back. Best wings I’ve ever had in my life.
INTERNATIONAL WINGS FACTORY
1762 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10128
Ethyls Alcohol & Food might be my new favorite place to hang out. Not only is the bar an awesome throwback to NYC’s dirty 70s, but the food and drink quality is top notch and really reasonably priced. You might think you’ve taken a time machine back to the 70s.
Check out the decor.
The place doubles as a gogo dancing bar late on certain nights, and there’s even a small stage for live music. They even host movie and bingo nights!
It’s the safer, cleaner, sometimes family friendly girly bar of the dirty 70s, I guess.
But the food. Man. Let’s get into it.
The fidollaburger. Five bucks.
The double – my favorite.
The stack, a double topped with an egg, guac, lettuce, tomato, onions and bacon.
The Coventry sub, a burger log topped with port wine cheese, watercress, bacon, sautéed onions and gogo sauce – all on a pretzel bread sub roll.
Wings.
Mexican cheese stuffed mole meatballs.
Disco curds.
Fried chicken sandwich.
Banana Spiders – shredded, fried plantains.
Fish tacos.
Everything is delicious and nicely cooked. I’m dead serious you can’t choose poorly from these items.
The same goes for the cocktails. We tried a bunch of them, including a negroni on tap. The newest addition to the cocktail menu is replacing the negroni though, and it’s called the Gent. Bartender Julia mixes up amazing cocktails here, like the spicy tequila and blood orange concoction called “Hot Blooded.”
Get up there and try some of the delicious shit. The new French Connection burger is one of the best I’ve ever had.
ETHYL’S ALCOHOL & FOOD
1629 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10028
