DIANA'S NYC BURGER TOUR '05 This entry serves to chronicle my quest for the perfect hamburger. As a guide I am using the December 9th issue of Time Out NY, cover story NYC's 100 Best Burgers. My ratings are on a scale of * to *****. ***** being exceptional. I will seperately rate service, burger, bun, and fries if they were also ordered. I will attempt to take pictures if possible. I'M BACK 7/29/06

The triumphant return of the burger tour!!!!! Thank you Jay for motivating me to start this back up....Okay, Cozy SOup and Burger steams their burgers. That's not my most favorite way of cooking burgers. Steaming is for immigrant sweatshops and rich white dude health clubs. The meat was grey and soggy and it was sitting on a plain commercial bakery seeded bun ala Burger King. Yuk. However, the meat was good qulaity and the bacon and cheddar were ample and the fries were the big steak plank-y kind and cooked perfectly. Sitting with Mike in the booth I originally gave the burger a rating of a 7, probably only becuase I hadn't eaten any red meat for several months but in retrospect, it was more like a 5. Sorry Cozy Soup and Burger, you guys are lame.

January 15th 2005 10:00PM
RARE
303 Lexington Ave 37th/38th
Dining Companion, Markie
Bacon Cheddar Burger MR, let, tom, pickle with cottage fries, Iced tea, Onion Rings, Fried Pickles
Bill $39.00
Service ****
Burger ****
Fries ***
Bun****

The plate came out I thought I found a winner. The bun looked chewy with lots and lots of texture. The burger was cooked perfectly. Thick pieces of bacon nice lettuce and tomato. The meat was ground perfectly and it was the JUICIEST burger ever. Here's the problem with this burger. The bun fell apart after the second bite and the meat was really bland and unflavorful. I'm going to make a return trip to RARE. I'm hoping it was just a fluke. Great cottage fries and SUPERB onion rings.

January 12th 2005 5:00PM
Blue Ribbon
97 Sullivan Street
Dining Companion, None
Bacon Gruyere Burger MR, let, tom, pickle with fries, Whitte beer
Bill $21.05
Service ****
Burger ****
Fries ***
Bun***

First let me say, this was one of the burgers I was really looking forward to. Blue Ribbon has a reputation for being a place that caters to true foodies, especially chefs. And yes, albeit for a short time, I indeed wore checks and whites in my younger days.

Okay, so I show up around 5 before the dinner crowd and deceide to sit at the bar. The bartender William gets me a Belgian Whitte beer, and I order the burger. After I'm finished we start talking and it starts to unfold that I'm on a burger tasting tour. William then introduces me to the raw chef, Johnny and eventually Eric, the manager. All are strangely fascinated by my quest. Here's the problem, I have to answer Eric's question, "So where do we rank?" Well, not very far up the list. The burger looked great. I really was hopeful. However, the grind of the meat was way too fine, leaving my medium rare burger cold and purplish inside, not very juicy and a little bland in the flavor department. The bun, awful! Cold, plain and boring. This burger was just average. I was kinder to Eric when I told him what I liked and disliked and he listened intently. I had already told raw chef Johhny that the best was Fanelli's. WHen Eric heard this from Johhny, he said, "Yeah, there's only one Fanelli's." and just kinda walked away with an intense look on his face.

January 9th 2005 2:00PM
Fanelli's Cafe
Corner of Prince and Mercer St.
Dining Companion, Markie
Bacon Cheddar Burger MR, let, tom, pickle with fries, diet coke
Bill $26.05
Service ***
Burger *****
Fries ***
Bun*****
This was, BY FAR, the best burger on the tour so far. The bun is an onion roll toasted and the meat had a slight sweet but peppery taste to it. Juicy, juicy, juicy. Fanelli's also gets props for the condiment dispensers, the old fashioned plastic red and yellow squeezey kind for M and K. I was extremely satisfied with this burger. May possibly be the best burger I've ever eaten in my entire life. I liked Fanelli's so much because it wasn't fancy schmancy inside, although it's in fantastically pretentious Soho.

December 21st, 2004 6:30PM
Pastis 9 Ninth Ave at Little West 12th St.
Dining Companion, none
Cheddar Burger Med Rare with fries and Wiess Beer.
In addition to the best burger so far, I had the pleasure of sitting next to Barry Levinson.
Bill $20.65
Service ****
Burger ****
Fries ***
Bun*****

The burger was cooked to perfection. Perfectly pink throughout. The meat was faintly sweet, and had a larger grind. It was served with a lettuce, tomato and the bun was truly exceptional. Dark and baked with a high sheen. The underside grilled with a small amount of butter to brown the bread. There was not as much juice from the burger as I had hoped. This was not to say the burger was not moist. It was, but the beef was probably aged to reduce juice. The fries were okay, shoestring type, but served a little overcooked and tad bit cold. The atmosphere was very trendy and west village snooty.

December 23rd 2004 9:00PM
P.J. Clarke's 55th St. and 3rd Ave
Dining Companion, Markie
Bacon Cheddar Burger Med Rare with fries and Coke.

The burger was fantastic. The bacon was crisp and ample. It was served with lettuce, tomato, pickle and raw white onion. The burger was really, really juicy. The burger was cooked medium rare but the meat was not hot pink. More of a blueish red. I prefer the hot pink rare. The bun was really not great. Plain, cold bun. No seeds, no toasting of the bun, no real texture. But all in all, it was a very good burger. The fries were decent. Shoestring, crisp on the outside, nice and tender inside. Nicely seasoned. The atmosphere was crowded, noisy and distracting.
Service ***
Burger ****
Fries ****
Bun**

January 4th 2005 5:00PM
The Viceroy 160 8th Ave
Dining Companion, none
Cheddar Burger Med Rare, let, tom, onion, pickle with fries and Diet Coke
Bill $13.58
Service ****
Burger ****
Fries ****
Bun*****

This was a very good burger in presentation and attitude and the fries were definitely above average. However, the meat was a little, hmm, lackluster, just kind of bland. But all in all, a very good burger. My super hot gay dude waiter was very friendly.

January 4th 2005 6:30PM (Yup, two in one day!)
Pop Burger
58-60 9th Ave
Dining Companion, none
2 Mini Burgers with American Cheese
Bill $5.43
Service Counter
Burger **1/2
Fries N/A
Bun***
These were little gourmet versions of White Castles. The buns were a sweet brioche type with a high baked gloss. The burgers were okay, one had a little funkiness to the meat. Kinda undercooked. Shredded lettuce, thousand island dressing. They were okay. I would go back when I needed a quick and teeny burger fix, but I'd get them well done. The place was annoying because of the loud techno music they play inside and the snotty attitude of the counter dude.

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