City Burger
After reading about City Burger a few weeks ago, I got kind of excited at the prospect of a new potential lunch spot. This past weekend, I found myself around midtown and just wanted something quick and tasty for dinner. The review from A Hamburger Today made it seem like it would be good once they work out some kinks associated with being a new restaurant. And everyone who skims through the entries here at Food in Mouth know that I like just about everything. Well, apparently not everything because the hamburger at City Burger was beyond disappointing.
I was disappointed because there was a lot of talk about how City Burger sourced their beef from Pat LaFrieda. And unlike Shake Shake, they ask you how you want your burger cooked. Good meat. Made to order. What could go wrong? Guess what? When you overcook the meat, it does not matter where you source your meat, because it just becomes dry and lifeless.
At 7pm on a Saturday night, as the ONLY customer in City Burger, I figured it would not be tough to cook a burger to order, if you know how to cook it to order. Right before I placed my order a phone order went through. So all of a sudden on the grill there were three burgers patties that looked like they were pre-cooked and just needed to be heated up, and one patty that was pink and raw, just put on the grill. This was kind of strange because why would you need pre-cooked patties if your main business was for the weekday lunch crowd?
Apparently they gave me one of the pre-cooked burgers that was just heated up because it was nothing close to medium rare. They gave you options for toppings and I went for the works and no real complaints about the lettuce, tomato, or pickles. They were fine. The burger REQUIRED ketchup. Two things City Burger needs to work on: salt and cooking time.
Perhaps the dry and overcooked burger ruined my perception and taste but too bad. Seriously, how hard is it to cook ONE burger? Or, why do you give the one person in the restaurant a pre-cooked burger? Argh!
The fries were ok. Freshly fried, crispy on the outside, but not salted when taken out of the fryer. I feel like that is required. If you do not want salt on your fies, do not eat fries. Do not assume the customer will not want salt because you do not need customers who prefer tasteless food.
I will go back if good word comes from other people but otherwise I will wait a few more months to see if they can get their act straight. As for the price. Sheesh. One regular (no cheese) hamburger and fries and tax was just under $10. If you are eating this for lunch, then it counts as one of the priciest burger + fries combo out there.
Posted by Danny on April 21, 2008 at 5:09 pm
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more updates.)
