Tag Archives: cheeseburger

Five Guys Burger & Fries

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

After gaining fame upon hearing that the president likes to sneak away and break his diet here, this joint came on my radar as a must try. There’s a little spot just a couple of streets away from me, so I got to sink my teeth into some grub here one night on a “bang bang” steakhouse, burger joint night.

I went with the large double cheeseburger. It was nice. Juicy, lots of gooey cheese, seasoned nicely.

The fries were tremendous in size. I ordered the smallest size and they put them in a paper lunch bag that was almost 3/4 full with the fucks. Pretty good too. A little greasy, but all were crispy even after carrying them home in the bag.

This is a pretty solid place, and I’ll definitely be going back.

A second visit was excellent. Cheeseburger (2 patties) with fresh jalapeños, onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo.

Nice to know where your food comes from I guess…

FREE PEANUTS!

FIVE GUYS
43 W 55th St
New York, NY 10019

American, Burgers, East Village, Union Square/Flatiron

5 Napkin Burger

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I came here to the Union Square location for the first time with a few buddies before watching one of the US World Cup games.

I had a breakfast burger of some sort, which came with ham and egg on top of that bitch. It was really good, perfectly cooked too, as you can tell from the cut shot.

This was exactly what we needed before stuffing our bellies full of beer before the game, and hours of screaming and yelling for our team.

On a second visit I had the classic cheeseburger. The breakfast burger was better, in my opinion, and the bun is still in need of improvements. Switch to potato!

My wife had an asiago turkey burger, which was good but a little rubbery. I guess that shit happens when you eat turkey.

We did try some wings and an app that was essentially a fried pickle and pastrami fritter. Pretty good showing.

The down side is that they wouldn’t honor the wings or happy hour specials at the tables, despite the bar being filled.

Last item was the smokes shake, which was very nice. The roasted marshmallow on top really brought those flavors home.

5 NAPKIN BURGER
150 E 14th St
New York, NY 10003

Burgers, Upper West Side

Shake Shack

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Here’s the place that has pretty much been voted the undisputed heavyweight champion of the burger shops. Lines galore, out the door, at nearly every location at any hour of any day – even the sabbath, where you will most certainly find bad, rule breaking NYC Jews cramming both meat AND cheese into their non-Kosher bellies. Throw some bacon on that motherfucker and it’s a one way express ticket to hell, my friends. This burger is amazing. What’d I have? The smoke shack burger, along with some fries, a vanilla shake and a Chicago dog for good measure. Because why the fuck not?

SHAKE SHACK
366 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10024

Burgers, Midtown West

Steak & Shake

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS LOCATION IS CLOSED

I love that I live about half a dozen streets away from this little spot. The food is so cheap and so good at this midwest import joint. Lots of people give this place the old “ehh, it’s okay” treatment, but people… come on… The burger patty is thin. So what? There are two of them, and they have such a delicious crispy coating of grill mess that the flavor is out of this fucking world.

Shakes are really good, and fries are thin but natural style, with the skin on some. Very nicely seasoned and crisp. Go online and buy a $20 gift card and they throw in an extra $5 on the house. Can’t beat that shit in my eyes.

The Frisco Melt and Steakburger are solid secondary menu choices as well:

STEAK N SHAKE
1695 Broadway
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Long Island

All American

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

All American is an absolute MUST if you are ever out on Long Island. The place is basically a landmark at this point. My parents used to go back when they were in high school, which is just down the street from the restaurant.

The burgers are solid. Basic thin style burger patty, but the taste and atmosphere is nostalgic. A throwback to a simpler time. Everything is delicious, so you really can’t go wrong.

ALL AMERICAN
4286 Merrick Rd
Massapequa, NY 11758

American, Burgers, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Melt Shop

September 21, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I saw posters for a new joint opening up in my hood. A GRILLED CHEESE JOINT!!! Not knowing when the doors would open, and being anxious to try out the grub, my wife and I took a slightly longer walk over to a location already in operation on 50th & 7th.

Since I have been on a massive burger kick lately, naturally, I ordered the Melt Shop Burger. It comes with pepper jack cheese, cheese sauce, burger sauce, caramelized onions, and sweet pickles (wish it was half sour), all on sour dough toast that’s grilled to perfection. It was full of cheesy, oozy meltiness.

My wife had the original grilled cheese (American on white) with some added fried chicken and bacon inside. This was great too – absolutely perfect mix of ingredients.

On the side, we had an order of loaded tots: bacon, cheese sauce, grated parmesan cheese, and sliced jalapeños. These could have been a bit more crispy, but they were good even though they turned to much under the “load.”

Best item of the day, however, goes to the fucking nutella fluff milkshake. Holy shit… If you don’t know what fluff is, it is spreadable marshmallow. When I was a kid, my mom used to make me peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. The elevation of fluff with nutella and a bit of chocolate in a shake format was fucking brilliant.

It was also nice to see that they had several bottles of sri racha sauce there like any other normal condiment. YES!

You guys should definitely check this place out some day. I see big things happening for this little franchise. The deals they offer make it even more worth your while, like $3 Abita beers and 50% off your first delivery order (Go to www.meltshop.com and use promo code SAYCHEESE).

MELT SHOP
135 W. 50th St.
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Flash Deals, Upper East Side

Burger Bistro

September 21, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I noticed a sweet little Groupon deal for this place the last time I was browsing the site. For $10, you get $20 worth of food. I jumped on it, not fully realizing that this place was way the fuck up on 87th and 1st Avenue. Inconvenience aside, my wife and I walked up after spending the day on Roosevelt Island to do some photo exploring.

Here’s what we had:

Fried artichoke hearts. These were tasty, juicy, crisp, well seasoned, and came with a really nice horseradish cream dipping sauce. A bit pricey at almost $9, but pretty good.

The burger was pretty good. Nicely cooked, nicely seasoned, a good amount of cheese, and the potato bun was just right. I went with American, lettuce, tomato and onion.

We ordered some “seasoned fries” to go with it. They looked beautiful but completely lacked any salt. The seasoning used on them reminded me of one of those Mrs. Dash type “salt substitute” disasters. Also, they weren’t very crisp. Disappointment, although I must admit they LOOK awesome:

Moral of the story here: The Groupon deal is definitely worth it for the burgers. Maybe try the regular fries though.

BURGER BISTRO
1663 1st Ave
New York, NY 10028

Burgers, Midtown West

Bareburger

June 13, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife had a pretty great deal for this place. Basically one of us ate for free, is how the deal worked out. Two burgers, two drinks. No complaints on price, that’s for sure.

I had bison meat in my “Southern Burger,” which was pepperjack, applewood smoked thick cut bacon, pickled green tomatoes, fried onions, and whole grain maple horseradish mustard – with a fried egg on top. It was good and everything, but there was just ONE green tomato that didn’t cover the burger circumference. Also the bison that I chose for the beef patty was too dry. My thought was to add the fried egg for the runny yolk to add fat back in, but they overcooked the egg.

My wife had a lamb burger with a shitload of stuff that she custom picked (not a burger listed on the menu). The lamb meat tasted pretty great, as I recall, but she wasn’t blown away either. We’ve both had better burgers. Fries weren’t crisy enough either – a little sog going on. What a shame.