Byron Burgers, Covent Garden, doesn't understand what a burger is.

I'd heard a few rumours of decent burger joints in London. Byron consistently was highly rated so after getting some good news the other day I decided to treat myself to a mid afternoon burger and beer.

Byron is one of those places that both makes you both happy and angry all within 30 minutes.
First things first, they had Brooklyn Lager, a lager I love since I've been to the brewery many times in Williamsburg and used to live a quick L train ride from it in New York. Served in an chilled glass it was perfectly brilliant as I waited for the burger I had ordered.

Fun fact. This logo was designed by the same guy who did I <3 NY.

The burger I had ordered was a straight up cheeseburger with American cheese. I'm a purist when it comes to burgers, components should be tomato, lettuce, cheese, pickle and beef.
One of the things I HATE is when a burger is served in a generic bap which is like eating through leather, so when the burger arrived I took one look at the anemic looking bread and sighed, disheartened.

Flour Power:(

Everyone knows you eat with your eyes first, and that bread is over floured, too white and simply too big. Luckily it squished down enough and tasted ok, but unfortunately I was already on my way to being pissed off with this Britburger.

The beef in the burger itself is a credit to the line chefs slaving away serving up these things to a busy Thursday lunch crowd. A perfect medium, juicy burger although the meat has no real texture of it's own, but that's not the chef's fault, it's whoever is sourcing and directing this shitshow. It may benefit from the smashing technique.

Perfect Medium, note too much bun on top.

I didn't bother with fries, but they looked like standard mcdonalds clone shoestrings.
I was impressed with them having Cholula, an amazing mexican hot sauce I used to smear all over tacos in the US.

Love this stuff, have some in my home at all times for emergency unblanding of food.

The staff were nice, but here's where I'm going to focus a little more on what really pissed me off. In short, a burger is a simple beast, I've made dozens, I know what the raw materials required are and I know a bloody great burger can be made very cost effectively. So when this came I was a little aghast.

Are you taking the piss?

On what planet is a cheeseburger £7.50 !? At time of writing that's $12.10 - for a FUCKING CHEESEBURGER. Even Manhattan's best and most popular burger place, Shakeshack a cheeseburger is $4.25. I'm not a cheapskate, I've paid hundreds of dollars/euros/pounds/whatever for meals in the past, and I understand labour and rent costs, but this is just shameless. The service is pretty non existent anyway because it's so busy at lunch, they're literally throwing the food at you, and they have TWO hosts at the door, so I guess what you're paying for really here is all the staff, I'd rather walk to the counter to get my burger myself, and I'm more than capable of finding an empty table myself too.

Here's a tip they could learn from Shakeshack. You don't need those 20 'cool' hipster waiters running around, get a ticketing system, cut your costs, then cut your god damn prices. Until then I won't be back here.

Shake Shack's cheap waiters.

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Great Mexican in NYC

You often hear that there's no good Mexican food to be had in NYC. Usually based off the fact that the person spouting this is from California, so only they know what good Mexican food is.
I am writing this to debunk that myth. It's bullshit, there are plenty of good Mexican places in NYC, you just have to know where to go.

As an Irish person growing up everything outside my Mother's kitchen seemed bland to me. My favorite food was Chicken Fajitas for a long time until they too became bland and I wanted something new to amaze and delight my taste buds, that's when I started exploring other Mexican options.

Mexican food is awesome, the freshness of the coriander and the zing of lime, the versatility of the tortilla and the bite of the chilli pepper. The people of Arizona don't seem to want it there and I for one don't think they deserve it. Which is fine, it means more Mexicans will avoid that desert shithole and they can keep their Burger Kings that litter I-40.

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo when the Mexicans celebrate their Victory over the French, and I'm dedicating this post to Mexico and to fighter Saul Alvarez, the most Irish looking Mexican I have ever seen.



From Limerick via Mexico.

Tacos

Definitely my favorite mexican dish they're basically everything you could ask for in a street food, cheap, easy to stuff in your gob and taste great.

Patty's Taco Truck.

I came across this truck when I was up watching Ireland playing Rugby on the upper East side, it's always parked outside the Subway on 86th and Lex during the day. Stumbling into the van after too much Guinness I was feeling brave and went for Tacos de Lengua (Beef Tongue Tacos). They were amazing. spicy, with moist meat and perfect toppings of lettuce and pico de gallo.



I tongued this Taco, it was romantic.

Dos Tacos Taquiera
This place is just off union square, on 4th Ave a small hole in the wall place, a little pricy but everything is organic and the packaging is all biodegradable and sustainable so I'm willing to pay a little extra. I got the tacos carnitas (pork tacos) and when asked if I would like super spicy I naturally said YES! They weren't joking, this thing nearly blew my head off, but It's now a go-to place for a taco any time I'm in that neck of the woods. They pack it with meat and the tortillas are tiny but taste great, I believe they ship em directly in from a supplier in Queens. These things are amazing.


Meatsplosion!

Sopes

I'm not sure when I first heard of Sopes but I liked the idea, they're like a cross between a burrito and a taco, with a hard shell with the refried beans but without the rice.

I heard about a little hole in the wall place called...

La Rosita Grocery & Taquiera.

Now this place is cool, it's a tiny Mexican shop in Hell's Kitchen with a window in the back and a few tiny seats. When I went the seats were all full of Latino guys on their lunch break getting stuck into some great looking Mexican food. They serve all the usual fare along with their Sopes.

I took my order to go and went down to the Hudson to eat it in the Sunshine. Sitting in the shadow of The Intrepid Aircraft Carrier I pondered America's love hate relationship with Mexico and immigration in general while I ate my Sope.


Fold it and stuff in face.

NBC's Rachel Maddow had this to say about the Sopes from this small Family run place:
“I not only ‘like’ those chicken sopes, if those chicken sopes ran for Congress, I would quit my job on TV to go door-to-door campaigning for them.” - I have to agree with her, they're bloody great.


Taco Muncher.

One thing is certain, racist lawmakers or not, with food this good, the Mexican people will be always be welcome in my house for lunch.

Felices fiestas Amigos!

Bill's Bar and Burger, Best Burger in NYC?

I have seen so many places labelled as the best burger in New York City I was understandably trepidatious when Citysearch's resident Burgerholic Josh Ozersky named Bill's Bar and Burger as the best burger in NYC. I'd read a lot about the different methods used in making burgers in the US. Bill's was using Pat LaFrieda beef mix, the same stuff my previous favourite NYC burger place uses, Shake Shack:

Shack Burger, picture by A Hamburger Today.

In addition to that, they were using the smash technique for cooking the burgers that Smashburger and In-n-Out burger. Smash technique basically means you slap the fresh mince/ground beef down with a spatula, making as much surface area hit the pan creating a thin burger with a nice charred crust but it also means you have to be very careful not to overcook the mince.

So on to the review, Bill's took us a while to find as it had only opened the night before and I don't think they had a sign up. Once inside we were greeted by very friendly staff who informed us there would be a thirty minute wait. No problem we said and and so we hit the bar.

After about 5 minutes the host said that someone had not turned up for their table and it was the best table in the house, at the corner, by the big windows, great for people watching.

On to the menu, it's VERY simple, and as was explained later, they were going for that approach deliberately. I had no problem with this, so for the review I figured I'd need a control, and since In-n-Out and shake shack both use lettuce and tomato with a special sauce I figured it made sense to try the Sunset and Vine which is a clear reference to the West Coast chain In-n-Out (which I always make a trip to when on the west coast).

Sunset and Vine.

After tasting the burger I felt that something was missing and half way through I realized what it was, pickles! So after adding the pickles I tried to be blown away and I simply wasn't, I'm not saying that this is a bad burger, but best in New York? No. Better than shake shack? No. Better than In-n-Out? definately not. The patty was too thin, not juicy enough, and I got a chunk of gristle in mine.
The burger also looks like grey brain matter as you can see in the autopsy shot below, I like my burgers to show a little pink:

Where's the beef?

I know it's a thin burger but to me it felt overcooked with not enough flavour. It was also quite messy and had me wondering since both The Feedbag and AHT had raved about it, maybe those advance tastings meant the chefs were under less pressure and could season and cook the meat better, also, there is no way the burger was 1/3lb of beef.

My friends ordered the Bill's classic with cheese and The Bill's classic with Cheese and Bacon. They said it was one of the best burgers they had eaten but they havn't had shake shack or smashburger.

Bill's Classic with cheese.

Bill's Classic with bacon and cheese.

The sides were the real star for me, I ordered the deep fried vegetables which we all said were delicious, and the french fries were skin on thin cut which were also delicious. Both well seasoned and the former a great way to get some greens into your diet, albeit battered and deep fried!




Overall it's a fine attempt at a burger, the atmosphere is great and the waiting staff are very friendly and put you at ease instantly, but it's going to need a bit more refinement before they can produce well cooked and seasoned burger and deliver it consistantly. Until then, I'll be queuing at the Shake Shack when I want New York's finest.

22 9 Ave, New York, NY 10014
(212) 604-0092


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Fatty likes his Burgers.

New York City has it's perks. One of which is instant gratification. You can get everything from a 3 course meal to fast food delivered to your door pretty much 24 hours a day.

The happy medium between the two are diners. They're everywhere, they're affordable, and If you find the right one you can get a nice meal at a reasonable price. I'm not saying these diners ever use the best ingredients, what I'm saying is that when you're hungover, and couldn't bear to feel even more disgusting by eating fast food... They're an option which can hit, or miss.

About a week ago I ordered eggs benedict for delivery from a local diner, and it was FANTASTIC, eggs poached to perfection, hashbrowns nicely browned, suffice to say I really enjoyed it. So much so I didn't even think to blog about it. Maybe next time:)

So I decided a few days later while nursing a rotten hangover to order a cheeseburger and chips with a drink from the same place to see if maybe they could hit the bulls eye twice and make my hangover go away in the process.

My order arrived as usual, some poor immigrant guy biked a few blocks to my place, I gave him the obligatory decent tip and a smile since these guys usually wash dishes AND do deliveries and get paid jack shit.

I opened up the wrapping and I was faced with this.



Now before I even tasted a chip (french fry whatever). You can actually see in the picture what the problem is, and one of the main reasons I decided to write this. The chips were soggy. In the history of man necessity has always driven innovation, and I think it's about time someone did something about the necessity to have decent chips delivered. I mean they're basically impinging my human rights giving me these chips. I almost rang the Samaritans. I was not only hungover, I was now depressed.

These chips truely were minging, and reminded my of the chips you get delivered from Chinese places in Dublin. They made me pine for Leo Burdocks and Beshoffs, for drizzles of salt and fountains of vinegar... ok maybe not, but you get the idea.

So... I'm calling on all you great minds out there on the internet to devise a method of transporting chips from one location to another, without the steam ruining them.
I've had this problem with other foods too, like wings, spring rolls, pretty much anything that should be crispy, but the one I think we can all identify with is the chips issue. Mizzoni garlic bread I'm staring right at you.

There are people claiming to have solved this issue, but until I get proof and not waffle like this load of old bollocks, I'm going to consider it very high on the list of problems man has yet to conquer. Man on moon, check, chip problem......... unsolved:(

However the burger was very tasty, cooked medium rare as requested, juicy and grilled so it had a nice char. Bun was soft, tomatoes and lettuce and onion all were in the right quantities so nothing slipped or fell out. It was a little greasy but I can't really can't fault it for that considering it's a CHEESEBURGER.

The only issue I had to apply the ketchup myself and I don't like pulling apart a burger after the cheese has melted but that's a minor quibble. I like the word quibble. Quibble.

Burger porn below.



Autopsy shot:



Highline Cafe, 360 9th Ave, New York, NY, 10001.

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