The Burger Garage.

There are a lot of cuisines that Astoria and nearby LIC do well – Greek food in Astoria rates highly – but the one thing I’ve been clamoring for was an exceptional burger joint to open. It doesn’t have to be Shake Shack good but it should be something that makes me think “hey, I’ll walk or hop on my bike over there for a burger!” There are some bars with a decent to good burger but in my five-plus years here, I hadn’t found an amazing one.

Then The Burger Garage opened this past summer in LIC and I was hopeful again. It seemed like it had a good pedigree with the owners’ family having opened the famous original Palm restaurant and they sounded like they knew what a good burger should be. My enthusiasm waned as I compiled a Good News/Bad News for Eater and every positive review seemingly came from someone shilling hard for them. Sure, it’s possible that they really loved the burgers here but it sounded way too gushy considering the generally okay impressions I’d seen from most. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that it’s probably not a Shake Shack in Queens. I’d also heard plenty of complimentary things about the place from fellow burger fan Won so we, along with his wife Cindy (who also holds the distinction of being one of my oldest friends), decided to come here for dinner so I could finally try the burger.

Single Burger.

I got the single burger, a 4 oz patty with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. It’s assembled nicely and then wrapped tightly in foiled paper to prevent a messy eating experience. The char on the patty was a good one but the flavor just wasn’t hitting the spot for me. It wasn’t exactly bland but it wasn’t seasoned as well as it could have been. Just a dash of salt in the ground beef or even on the burger when it hit the griddle would have made all the difference to me. It didn’t help that the patty was a bit on the dry side. In total, it was an okay burger.

Half Fries + Half Fried Onion Strings.

At least the fries and onion strings were tasty though somewhat greasier than I would prefer. But they had a decent amount of seasoning that only required the tiniest dash of salt from the shaker. And they were all very crispy which is all I really ask for in my fried sides.

The Burger Garage. 25-36 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101. [Show/Hide Map] (718) 392-0424.

Xi’an Famous Foods.

Ever since I first saw the Xi’an Famous Foods stall in the basement of a Flushing mall, featured in an episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, I’ve occasionally visited them before and after Mets games. When they announced they were opening a location in Manhattan’s Chinatown, I was excited since that meant I could eat their food without having to first see the Mets lose (tough times, these past few seasons). Not long after, they opened up a location in the East Village and with my Eater internship located conveniently close by, it was only a matter of time before I’d wander over.

So on a very cold winter evening after interning but with time to kill before my darts team’s match, I stopped in at the EV Xi’an for something particularly spicy to warm – okay, fire up – my body. In that regard, they would not disappoint.

Savory Cumin Lamb Hand-Pulled Noodles.

I went with the savory cumin lamb hand-pulled noodles since those noodles are one of the reasons to come here in the first place. I remember watching them pull those noodles behind the counter at their Chinatown outpost as one thick piece of dough became thinner, lighter strips of noodle with just a few stretches and some deft pulling. Stir fried with some seriously spicy pieces of lamb – we’re talking cumin and a lot of peppers – and you have the makings of an insanely tasty dish. You’ll break a serious sweat eating this one, trust me.

Stewed Pork Burger + Savory Cumin Lamb Burger.

I recently made another visit so I could try the two “burgers” they offer – one with stewed pork and the other with the same savory cumin lamb they use in the previous noodle dish. Obviously, though perhaps not from the above photo, these aren’t actually burgers but rather sandwiches. Why they didn’t just call them that, I have no idea. Perhaps they wanted to cash in on the burger trend? Regardless, these are both great sandwiches with the stewed pork including little bits of the the fatty skin for a slightly gelatinous contrast to the meat. The lamb, as mentioned, is the same wonderfully seasoned lamb from the noodle dish so that the sandwich is great is a given.

Xi’an Famous Foods. 81 Saint Marks Place, New York, NY 10003. [Show/Hide Map] (212) 786-2068.

Le Relais de Venise l’Entrecôte.

In my time dining in New York City, I’ve pretty much seen every different menu option a restaurant has to offer – a la carte, prix fixe, and tasting menu. But until I dined at Le Relais de Venise l’Entrecôte, a domestic branch of a French chain, I’d never seen what they have to offer. A food menu with one – yes, one- option. When you dine here, you will have the salad, the steak, and the fries because that’s all there is to eat here, dessert notwithstanding. You’re a vegetarian? Tough. Can’t eat beef for religious reasons? Forget this place even exists.

I’m perhaps being a bit rigid in my description – after all, you do get to choose how you want your steak done. But then again, it’s either rare, medium, or well. They don’t do that medium-rare or medium-well malarky here. Maybe that’s just something the French like to do? But when you only do one thing and one thing only, you better damn well make sure you do it right. Actually, you’d better hit it out of the frickin’ park if that’s all you do.

Green Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette.

My meal – oh right, everyone’s meal – started with the green salad with mustard vinaigrette. It’s like any green salad you’ve ever had with a nice mix of different greens dominated mostly by lettuce and a vinaigrette that gets some good creamy texture from the mustard, then topped off with some chopped nuts. Nothing to write home about but it’s a good start to the meal.

Steak Frites.

Then there’s the steak, a small cut of strip steak that’s then sliced thinly onto the plate before it’s drizzled in a rich, creamy, slightly peppery sauce. Cooked to rare which is something I prefer not to do but when not presented with the option of medium-rare, it would have to do, the steak is perfect. Each slice has a slightly brown ring on the outer edge before it’s unrepentantly red on the inside. The sauce is piping hot so it almost does the job at turning the steak into a medium-rare though it’s probably somewhere in between the two temperatures. The fries here are incredibly crispy but turn soggy quickly when they swim in the sauce. Not to say that there’s something wrong with that – there are worse things in the world than to eat potato products soaked in a fatty sauce – but it’s still sad to see these fantastically crunchy fries turn into mush.

Oh, and just as you’re about to dive into that last slice or two of the steak, the server comes over with a tray of more steak. And it’s your steak! Incredibly enough, that first plate with its decent helping of steak, not to mention the fries, was just the first act in this production. More fries and sauce to go with the second helping of steak? Why, yes, I think I will have some more fries and sauce.

Le Relais de Venise l’Entrecôte. 590 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022. [Show/Hide Map] (212) 758-3989.

Minetta Tavern.

In New York City, there are overhyped burgers and their are excellent burgers and at Minetta Tavern, you have both, all in the same burger. Since its introduction over a year ago, their Black Label Burger has proven to be a very popular one while simultaneously drawing a significant number of detractors. Well, I suppose it’s not entirely unfair – after all, we are talking about a $26 burger here. But it’s some of the arguments against it that are truly logic-defining. Case in point – a Shake Shack burger is $3.50 and you can get seven of them for what you’d pay for the Black Label Burger. Is the Black Label worth seven Shack burgers? Of course not. Would I rather be able to dine seven times on a Shake Shack burger than just once on the Black Label? Absolutely not. That’s where people lose me. You can’t simply trade the experience. That’s like asking a Mets fan if they’d take seven games at Citi Field against the Nationals or just one versus the Phillies – no sane fan would take the Nationals games.

I’ve actually had the Black Label Burger before this visit but I didn’t try to take any photos that night because JP and I were sitting in the darkest corner in the bar area. It just wasn’t worth the effort. Sure, I still could’ve written about it then but I figured I’d just use the lack of photos as an excuse to make a return trip. When Lucy suggested we do this last month, it didn’t take any convincing to make this happen.

Roasted Bone Marrow.

But before we got to the burger, we had to start with the Roasted Bone Marrow. I know what you’re thinking. “More BEEF!?” Yes, because ain’t much in life more awesome than nicely roasted bone marrow and that’s exactly what you get here. Three decent lengths of sliced bones whose marrow and plenty of fat is positively oozing out. Seasoned with salt and parsley, then spread on crunchy baguette soldiers and, for some contrast, a little shallot confit on top, it’s an amazing bite. Also a wonderful way to whet the appetite for the main course…

Black Label Burger.

That would be the Black Label Burger, of course. I won’t go on and on about the burger and how it’s prepared – you can read about it on A Hamburger Today if you want to know more – but I will say that this is one seriously well-constructed burger. Besides the usual things I like to see in a burger like proper seasoning and being cooked to correct level of doneness, this burger has one serious quality in its favor – the crust. I’ve never had a burger that had as crunchy a crust as the one here. I’m not talking the kind of crunchiness when its been burnt to a crisp but rather one that takes salt and pepper on the surface, then mingling both with the oil and clarified butter until the griddle’s heat forms the perfect crust. And then there’s the bun which is certainly a tall one but is more pillowy than dense and the sweetness is balanced by the patty’s salt content as well as that of the sauteed onions atop the patty.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that a burger this fine could have nothing less than a comparable quality of fries to go with it and that’s just the case here. Crunchy and salty, it hits the spot perfectly. Even better, these pomme frites stay crispy for a long time – I was munching them a good 20-25 minutes after they arrived at our table and they were still crunchy.

Coconut Layer Cake.

For dessert, we split a slice of the Coconut Layer Cake, with crème fraîche pastry cream and toasted shavings. It’s a solid fluffy white cake and the pastry cream is sweet but not cloyingly so. The coconut shavings are a nice touch but they get to be a little much at the end.

Minetta Tavern. 113 MacDougal Street, New York, NY 10012. [Show/Hide Map] (212) 475-3850.

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen.

A little over a year ago, Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen celebrated their first anniversary with a free shake with hamburger purchase. I, along with a great many other freeloaders, showed up for our free shakes and, as this was my first-ever visit, I thought it’d be a good time to try the burger there. Remember, this was a time before there was a Shake Shack only a few blocks further north so this was the place for a moderately priced burger.

It was okay. The burger fell clearly into the area that I’ve come to classify as “not worth it” with “it” being whatever you want it to be – price, the trip, etc. When Shake Shack Theater District opened, it got re-classified as “not worth it with much better options in the vicinity,” which pretty much turned it into a place I’d probably never set foot in again.

But then they quietly made a switch to Pat LaFrieda-supplied beef and it popped back up on my radar again. When they announced they’d be celebrating their two-year anniversary with $2 burgers and $2 PBR’s, I figured it was worth a second try. This time around, I made sure to show up well after the lunch time crowd so I’d have the best chance of getting a well-executed, well-made burger.

Hamburger.

I’m so very glad I gave their burger a second chance. The patty is formed the same way as it was the first time I visited but that’s about the only thing that stayed the same. Mostly flattened and spread out rather than thick, there’s plenty of surface area here to form a really solid crust. That it does so while still staying juicy to the point of it saturating the bottom bun is an amazing thing. Of course, the most important thing is how it tasted and all I have say is that it was a strong beefy flavor, all the more enhanced by a liberal, though not excessive, salting of the beef. The bun is also a nice touch – toasted so that it doesn’t become a total mess and a decent chew.

Fries.

I always say you can’t do a burger without some sort of fries and the ones here are solid. Crunchy but creamy on the inside and helped by a good dash of salt. These aren’t freshly cut fries obviously but they’re a worthy complement for the burger.

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen. 620 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018. [Show/Hide Map] (212) 921-2400.

Pork Bánh Mì, cut in half.

Bánh Mì Saigon wasn’t always my favorite New York City bánh mì, mainly because I’d never had it. For years, I’d been more than content with those from Paris Sandwich – after all, they really did have the best baguette and a good filling to bread ratio. Also, the total bánh mì package was pretty darned tasty. But I’d heard from enough reliable sources (i.e. fellow food enthusiasts) that Bánh Mì Saigon’s sandwiches were ones to be reckoned with so I just had to get me some of that.

Man, am I glad I did. Back in the day, tucked away in the back of a narrow storefront with a jewelry store up front on Mott St., it was easy to pass the place by. Which I apparently did – a lot. But walking in and seeing the long line during lunch or the sad expressions of people’s faces near the end of the day when they announced they’d run out of baguettes was a clear sign this place knew what it was doing.

Pork Bánh Mì, cross-section.

Clearly, from looking at the above photo, you can see that Bánh Mì Saigon clearly knows what they’re doing. Exquisitely roasted pork, the requisite cold cuts, pickled daikon and carrots, and cilantro – they’re all there. More importantly, though, they’re all there in abundance. This is not the dainty bánh mì of Paris Sandwich. This here is a beast of a sandwich. And it’s only $3.75, a bargain if I ever saw one. Best of all, it’s a very delicious sandwich and, with it being filled to the brim, a very satisfying lunch.

By the way, they’ve since moved from that narrow Mott St. storefront to a larger one on Grand St. that proudly displays in large letters at the entrance that it is Bánh Mì Saigon. The jewelry store, though, still exists at the front. Hey, maybe it’s their good luck charm. After all, why change a good thing when you don’t have to?

M. Wells.

Note: This visit took place back in August.

One of my first assignments at Eater was to sift through and compile the reviews of M. Wells, a Quebecois diner in Long Island City, for their Good News/Bad News column. It was a place I’d head of when it was first announced it was opening but had done a poor job of checking up on it afterwards. All I knew was that the guy running it used to be a chef at Montreal’s infamous Au Pied de Cochon. Really, just knowing that alone was enough for me to put it on my radar. After spending a day reading review upon review of the diner, I knew that I’d have to make my trip there sooner rather than later.

As it’s currently open only on weekdays from 7 am to 3 pm, it took some time before Won and Cindy, my designated LIC dining companions, could find the time to join me for lunch at M. Wells. Finally, on a warm Friday afternoon, we were able to meet up and have a nice leisurely lunch at a place the three of us had been looking forward to trying for quite some time (okay, barely two months). It wasn’t too busy when we got there so we were able to snag some seats in the rather tiny, retro-looking diner. After cursing the crossing-out of the chicken fried chicken skins on the menu (so sad), we went on with ordering our meal, sans glorious chicken skins.

Blood Sausage Hash.

I had the blood sausage hash, a heavenly (in my mind, anyway) combination of chunks of blood sausage, potatoes, apple mustard, crispy shallots, and herbs. The blood sausage here is truly wonderful with a slight snap from the casing when you bite into it but then the soft filling rushes out with all its iron-y goodness. Potatoes were browned to a nice crustiness and those crispy shallots added a really nice bite. The apple mustard, though, is a bit mislabeled as it’s rather more like an applesauce and mustard, each a separate component of the dish – wonderful components, but still separate.

Bacon, Egg & Potato Hash.

Egg Soufflé.

Strawberry Pie à la Mode.

I did mention it was hot outside, right? What better way to cool off than with some vanilla frozen custard on top of a beautiful slice of strawberry pie? That’s exactly what I was thinking when I ordered their strawberry pie à la mode. The strawberry filling was a beautiful, ripe red and had that juiciness you only get with perfect seasonal selection. The custard here is good and plays really nicely with the pie filling to create a lovely strawberries and cream sensation.

M. Wells. 21-17 49th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101. [Show/Hide Map] (718) 425-6917.

The Counter.

Only two weeks into the new year and already a second burger joint post? Yup, this burger craze ain’t dying anytime soon. I’d actually visited The Counter before when they threw a pre-opening party a few weeks ago. It wasn’t a really good representation of what they would be like when they actually did open to the public – they only had sliders so the burger customization they pride themselves on wouldn’t be on display at the time. Still, I left the party thinking the sliders had a nice beefy flavor and the fries were fried perfectly crisp. I looked forward to returning for a meal here.

I tackled this place with my buddy Won, who works nearby and has eaten through his fair share of burgers in the Times Square area. We arrived here at 11:45 am on a midweek work day. A good thing because it wouldn’t take long before the place was filled up – by 12:05, it had gone from maybe 15% full when we walked in to just about every seat being filled. It’s practically a testament to the continued endurance of the burger’s popularity that with all these burger options nearby, they all manage to be busy just about every weekday lunch rush.

Fries & Sweet Potato Fries.

We put our order in for a burger each and a plate of fries at the same time but the fries would come out eight minutes before the burgers. I thought that was a bit weird since I’m more accustomed to them coming out with a burger, not well before it. Hungry people can’t complain so we certainly didn’t, happily nibbling on our plate of fries, half of which were regular fries and the other sweet potato fries. The regular potato fries were nice and crispy, just as I remembered them being during the pre-opening party but, sadly, these weren’t seasoned (okay, salted) as well. The sweet potato fries weren’t as crispy but that’s in line with what I expected from this sort of fries.

Burger.

Then came the burgers – I had the ⅓-pound burger with lettuce blend, tomato, pickles, and grilled onions, with a roasted garlic aioli on the side. The burger comes as pictured above, with the top bun on the side so you can see the well-defined grill marks, and nicely caramelized grilled onions. After spreading the aioli onto the top bun, I placed it back atop the burger and cut it in half…

Burger.

… which revealed an interior that was cooked closer to medium than the medium-rare I had requested. That, in turn, kept the burger from being as juicy as I would prefer. Actually, outside of the roasted garlic aioli, I was hard pressed to really find any flavor to the burger that stood out. As I closed in on finishing the burger, I ended up using a fork to eat the remaining meat which led to my discovering a resilient elasticity to the beef as it didn’t break apart when I inserted the fork and applied a little force. I don’t like a burger that’s a crumbly mess but I’m not so sure I should be able to hold my burger up with a fork like it were a lollipop.

The Counter. 1451 Broadway, New York NY 10036. [Show/Hide Map] (212) 997-6801.

Can I just say it’s about damned time we finally got an Asian-influenced Mexican food truck? Los Angeles has a kajillion Kogi trucks and we’re just now getting our own version in the form of Korilla? (By the way, if there’s another one out there that’s been around longer than these guys, I apologize!) The first time I tried their tacos, it was when they showed up at the Eater Awards, after I’d gobbled down plenty of food, not to mention putting away a few drinks – not the best way to really get a sense of what their food was like. Since then, I’ve been here twice, once for the bulgogi tacos and the other for the pulled pork burrito. Both times have been excellent. In the end, it comes down to the flavor combinations here – whether it be the bacon and kimchi fried rice, the meats themselves, or, more importantly, the sauces, they’re all done really well.

Click on the left and right arrows to see more photos from this set; click on Photos to see thumbnails for all the photos in this set.

Bouchon Bakery.

Back in November 2009, JP and I did an afternoon-long eating tour that started in Chinatown for lunch and ended at Bouchon Bakery for dessert. Since that visit, my first, I’d been back several times, every since one of them for one of their delicious cookies. On and on, this would go, for about a year before I finally actually came here with the intention of sitting down in their dining area and having a meal here.

The impetus for a proper meal here would come from – who else – JP. In town for the long Thanksgiving weekend, we thought it’d be a great place to have lunch with the wife and newborn son in tow. At least we thought it would be but, as it turns out, the layout isn’t really all that accommodating when it comes to a stroller. That, or maybe the hostess just didn’t know what to do with it. Whatever the reason, having to be seated in a particular section to fit the stroller, coupled with the usual busy weekend business equaled us waiting well over an hour before we were seated. Once seated though, it was all good from there on out.

Watercress Endive Salad.

Lunch began with their excellent bread, the same as that of big sibling Bouchon, which I may or may not have spent some time praising during my visit there (okay, I did). Knowing that dinner later that night would likely be very filling, I decided to go light here, opting for the Watercress Endive Salad. It’s got watercress leaves, Belgian endive, candied walnuts, roasted beets, goat cheese, and Fuji apples, then dressed with a walnut vinaigrette. I’m a sucker for a well-dressed salad and this most certainly fits the bill. From the photo above, you can barely tell that there’s even any dressing but, trust me, it’s there and the minimal dressing keeps the watercress and, more importantly, the endive from becoming soggy. Goat cheese and roasted beets, I’ve found, always go great together. The little dressing remaining on the plate at the end? Well, that’s what the bread is for!

Bouchon Bakery. 10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019. [Show/Hide Map] (212) 823-9364.