Dinner at Organika

Jon and I walked past Organika about a week ago and were enticed by their promises of local organic Italian food.  So when George, Jon's uncle, offered to take us out for dinner on Tuesday and was looking for something light, I suggested we go there to check it out.  Plus, it couldn't be more convenient to my office!  We had a lovely time sitting outside watching the street scene, ordered a number of things and shared them all, the service couldn't have been more attentive, but the food suffered from a lack of attention to detail.  I hope that with a little more time to work out the kinks it'll become the kind of restaurant I want to hit after work for a quick, reasonably priced dinner.  I like the concept, I like the menu, I like the setting, I only wish I liked the food more.

Also, a word of warning: although the regular menu appetizers are all very competitively priced, they'll gouge you on the specials.  Make sure you ask how much they cost beforehand.

More...

We started with the Selvatico Bruschetta with sautéed mushrooms, artichoke hearts, grana shavings, and truffle.  The truffle was just light enough to bring out the richness in the artichoke hearts and the mushrooms without overpowering them and the light acid salad on the side was the perfect counterpoint.

Next came a Palermitano pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies, capers, and basil.  It was VERY salty and not particularly appetizing to look at but most disappointingly the crust was very soggy and bland.  With Keste just around the corner, Organika's gonna have to step up their game if they want to compete in the pizza department.  I found it to be the most disappointing dish.

Spaghetti Di Farro Alla Carbonara had the requiste chewy texture, I'm always a little trepidacious when it comes to "healthy" pasta and the sauce was creamy, salty, and delicious but it would have benefitted from crispier meat, more onion, and some more parsley for a brighter taste and color.

There's not much to say about the hangersteak special.  It was expertly cooked but it was so salty I could only eat one slice, the guys didn't seem to have that problem, and it came with a pile of salad, all for $22. 

The salmon special, described as salmon caponata with "salmon instead of eggplant" was nothing of the sort.  It was a piece of dry, overcooked fish next to a mound of eggplanty caponata, probably the exact same mix they put on the bruschetta.  Although the caponata was yummy, sweet and slightly sour, it didn't do anything for the salmon, nor vice versa.  The dish seemed like an illconceived copout and another ripoff at $22.

Sweet Corn Custard at Shake Shake

I was very excited to try sweet corn custard at Shake Shack last night, I have to admit in large part because Danny Meyer said it was his favorite flavor - one day I will learn to stop trusting the hype. 'Cause I gotta say, I was duped again. I was a little disappointed. It tasted more like buttered sweet corn than sweet corn. A little too buttery and a little too un-sweet corny. And just like the last time, it wasn't refreshing enough. It's just too sweet.

The real question now is whether I give up on custard once and for all and stick to Shack Stacks or if I soldier on and give coffee and donuts, balsamic fig, saffron pistacio, red velvet, and cinnamon almond horchata a try this month. I think we all know the answer to that one...

Rainy Day Risotto

It rained, or threatened to rain, all day last Saturday. So feeling antsy and trapped indoors, I decided to make risotto. It was one of the few dishes I had all of the ingredients on hand for, it didn't require me to turn on the oven which would have only made the apartment muggier, and I wanted something that called for a little effort to distract me from my stir craziness.

The risotto only ended up fulfilling two out of those three requirements (standing over steaming broth for almost an hour, stirring endlessly will make you very hot and sticky, even if it doesn't heat up the entire apartment) but I'm still very proud of the results and would recommend the project to anyone in a similar circumstance. And since it looks like we're in for a repeat tomorrow, this weekend might be the perfect opportunity.

I used Alice Water's recipe from the Art of Simple Food. It's a weird cookbook and I don't necessarily recommend it, but true to its title, for a simple recipe like risotto, she won't steer you wrong. The original recipe serves four. I adapted it for two.

I served the risotto alongside frozen grilled eggplant and zucchini from Trader Joes that I defrosted in the microwave. It was a great accompaniment but if you plan on doing the same, I recommend patting the veggies with a paper towel before you serve them. They're a little oily.

Grate a little cheese on top for presentation (and because I can never have enough) and it's very impressive.

Recipe after the jump.

Risotto Bianco

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, finely diced - same amount the original recipe called for and it wasn't overly oniony at all
• 3/4 cups risotto rice (Arborio or Carnaroli) - I've only ever used Arborio
• 3 cups chicken broth - I used organic, from Trader Joes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine - which can be substituted with a teaspoon of vinegar or a strong squeeze of lemon juice if you don't have wine on hand, I used both lemon and vinegar when I was wine-less and the risotto needed a little more acid and it was great
• Salt, to taste
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese - same amount the original recipe calls for, I love cheese!

To do:

1. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Make sure it's a pan that has easy stir access. Add the onion, and cook until it's soft and translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Add the rice to the pan, stirring now and then, until translucent, about 4 minutes. Don't let it brown. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, bring the chicken broth to a boil and then turn off the heat and keep it covered so it stays warm.

3. Pour the white wine over the sautéed rice. Cook the rice, stirring often, until all wine is absorbed. If you're not using wine, just skip that step and add the acid to your first addition of broth. Add a cup of the warm broth; cook at a vigorous simmer while stirring occasionally. When the rice starts to thicken, pour in another 1/2 cup of broth while adding some salt. (The amount of salt you add depends on how salty your broth is.) Keep adding broth 1/2 cup at a time every time the rice thickens. Don't let the rice dry out. After 12 minutes, start tasting the rice for doneness and seasoning. Cooking until rice is tender but still has some firmness to it—20 to 30 minutes total. The final 1/2 cup addition of broth is the most important. Add only enough to finish cooking the rice without it becoming soupy. But don't let this stress you out, keep stirring and it will be probably fine.

4. When it's just about done, add the butter and cheese and stir to develop a creamy starch. Let it sit for two minutes to really thicken up. If the rice is too thick, add a splash of broth.

Ippudo

Jon and I went to Ippudo for a late (thanks to the wait) dinner on Friday night and I think I may have found my favorite NYC pork buns. I've tried Momofuku's and I've had Fatty Crab's (twice!) but as far as I'm concerned, they both pale in comparison. The pork on the Hirata buns at Ippudo is much more tender and less fatty than their more famous counterparts. The steamed buns themselves are also softer, less tough, like biting into a delicious, warm pillow. But what really got me was the sauce. I can't put my finger on it but there's something in there that's evocative of a Bic Mac. I think it's the mayonnaise combined with the slice of slightly limp, barely green lettuce. And I gotta say, even having not eaten at McDonald's in years, I found it simultaneously provocative and comforting.

That's not to say that I wouldn't have preferred to swap the lettuce for cucumber but just that all of the elements when combined were so delicious and appealing that Jon and I ended up starting and ending our meal with them. We had a second order for dessert.

Of course, I can't forget to mention that sandwiched in between the two bun orders was an incredible bowl of Akamaru ramen. Rich, porky, umami-y - it just kept getting better as the flavors blended together, each one heightening the taste of the other components, never competing. The one bowl along with the buns was plenty for the two of us.  Unfortunately, we also ordered the black cod which was dried out and unappetizing.  So much so that I didn't finish my half of the dish. 

Nonetheless, if only it weren't so obnoxiously loud there, I could eat at Ippudo weekly.

I made pizza!

I accidentally stumbled on a tiny farmers' market after a meeting in Brooklyn yesterday and found the most beautiful little eggplant - perfectly firm and not a bruise or discoloration in sight - and bought it impulsively. So of course the moment I got back to the office I started searching on Epicurious for quick and easy summer recipes featuring eggplant. I found this one for Eggplant, Green Olive, and Provolone Pizza and decided to improvise a little.

We don't have a grill so I basically followed the recipe (with delicious and cheap pizza dough from the surprisingly great neighborhood pizza place around the corner from our new place) but used a baking sheet in a hot oven every time the recipe told me to grill. Aside from the fact that it made my already uncomfortably warm kitchen practically unbearable, it turned out even better than I expected.

There's practically no preparation involved. You can leave the eggplants in the oven forever while you do other things (I watched Friends, I'd forgotten how much I like that show) as long as you turn them over halfway through. And the four toppings harmonize beautifully, creating a rich, earthy, salty contrast to the crust. Next time I make it, however, which I will, I think I'll use half provolone and half mozzarella. The slicing provolone I picked up at Murray's was a bit overpowering and salty.

My Banh Mi

Inspired by the late hour, my intense hunger, the lack of food in the house, and Jon's and my banh mi taste test on Monday (Baoguette beat Nicky's thanks to their bigger sandwiches, crustier bread, and better veggies) I improvised my own Vietnamese sandwich last night and it was DELICIOUS! And so easy!

First, I fried two eggs and a large, crushed clove of garlic in a little olive oil, over easy style. In the meantime, I toasted (uncut so that it would be crusty on the outside and soft on the inside) a hunk of baguette I had left over from a few days ago, then split it open, spread on a little salted butter, added a handful of flat leaf parsley (I would have preferred cilantro but you make do with what you have), and a drizzle of sriracha. Once the eggs were done I placed them on top and closed the sandwich. It took all of five minutes and was filling, tasty, and a great way to use up food around the house.

Salted Caramel Custard at Shake Shack

A number of elements came together last night to convince me that a stop at the UWS Shake Shack was a necessity:

1) It was over 90 degrees.

2) The A train just wasn't coming and the C offered a welcome respite from the sweltering platform.

3) Jon's in Florida and I was in no hurry to return to my empty apartment.

4) SALTED CARAMEL CUSTARD is Shake Shack's Monday flavor-of-the-day throughout August.

5) I still hadn't been to the UWS Shake Shack outpost. A visit was long overdue.

Inside, I hopped on the "C" line for cold food and ordered a single dip of salted caramel custard in a cup with their seasonal fruit, blueberries, on top. I waited less than a minute in line and less than a minute for my treat, a welcome change from my experience at the downtown Shake Shack, admittedly usually earlier in the day.

The custard was in some ways just what I was looking for. It tasted almost exactly like the inside of a Fran's salted caramel but with a cold, creamy texture that went down like silk. Unfortunately, it wasn't as refreshing as I'd hoped. In the hot weather, it was both a little too sweet and a little too salty to satisfy my thirst for cool. The blueberries helped cut the sweetness, but at $1.25 for approximately 15 berries, they certainly weren't a bargain.

Overall, I'm glad I tried it but if anything, it only makes me more eager to return on Thursday for Sweet Corn.

Mexican Hot Fudge

To go along with last night's Mexican themed dinner, I doctored a recipe I found in David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris (the book for those of you who haven't read it, is a fun, if sometimes silly, read, that will make you wish you'd started saving for your trip to Paris yesterday) for hot fudge and made it Mexican. I thankfully disregarded his caution that a little goes a long way and doubled the recipe then added 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and one teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

All I can say is that once we'd gone through all of the vanilla ice cream and the raspberries - I highly suggest the combination- we made quick work of any left over fudge by the spoonful, right out of the bowl. It was so good I even forced myself to lick the pot. It was quick, easy, and the perfect cap to the fish tacos and fresh corn salad we'd had for dinner.

The original recipe is here. Click on the image to make it big enough to use.

A tip.

10 Downing is offering restaurant week dinner menus through August 31. Go now! Request a table inside but near a window so that you get the best of both worlds - the breeze and the street scene plus the cool artwork - and make sure you order the egg raviolo. It's the perfect, light, summery take on pasta carbonara.

The restaurant isn't hooked up with opentable so call them at (212) 255-0300 to make a reservation. It's worth the extra 30 seconds.

Snacks abroad

I love checking out snack foods from other countries. Here is a small selection from the Rhodes airport in Greece during a stop on our return trip from Turkey. Heinz Ketchup! Mushrooms and Sour Cream?

Aamchi Pao

This "ethnic" sandwich craze is really taking off. First Vietnamese, then Cambodian, I hear Mexican will be next. So when an Indian sandwich/street food place opened relatively near my office, Aamchi Pao, I had to try it. Do they have something to contribute or are they just vying for their piece of the excitement?

I think after eating there twice now, the answer is yes. Yes, their food is good. Some of it is even great. Is it particularly different than the kati or roti roll places that have been around for years? No. Especially if you order the more expensive and more filling paratha option.

If you opt for a Pao, expect sliders. Very good sliders on chewy, buttery rolls, but sliders nonetheless. The best filling that I tried by far was the Spinach Lentil Tikki with tomato mustard chutney, ginger, and turmeric pickle. The bhaji (potato) that I'd heard so much about and the lamb fillings were both bland. And rather than order the chicken chapli pao, save your money for the much jucier and tastier version with chickpeas and rice from Sammy's Halal cart at 6th Ave and 4th Street.

As for the rumored Devi desserts, both times I've tried to order them, that's all they were, a rumor. So don't hold your breath.

Abraço lives up to the hype!

I have a real love/hate relationship with food media. On the one hand, I can't get enough of it. On the other hand, I'm always so disappointed when a place that the food establishment loves turns out to be sub par, which happens all too often. Luckily, Abraço lived up to all of my (very high) expectations.

Finding myself with time to kill in the East Village this morning, I walked over to 7th Street and 1st Avenue. Abraço, for those of you who don't know, is more of a storefront than a cafe. There are no seats, just a kitchen, a counter, and a table outside that you can saddle up to. After much deliberation I ordered a cappuccino (no decaf espresso, to my chagrin), an almond rose cookie, and one of their famed brined olive shortbread cookies. All to go.

Sitting on the stoop of a brownstone on East 7th, enjoying my goodies and the street scape made for a wonderful New York morning. The almond rose cookie was just shy of tasting like perfume - a common complaint I have with rose flavored things - and had a wonderful crunchy texture from the almonds. The olive shortbread may have altered my eating habits permanently. I'm usually a forager. I pick out the morsels in a cookie and leave the cookie part. That's a mistake here. The olives alone are too salty. But in combination with the sweet, flaky cookie, it's really something special.

The coffee too was eye-opening. And only because I usually order decaf. It's strong but not bitter or overpowering with perfectly smooth, not airy foamed milk. They're purists. You won't find Splenda or skim, but you won't miss it either.

If only every day could start like this.

Experimentation

Last night, as I sometimes do, I poached a pair of peaches. As usual, this left me with a thin peach-vanilla-sugar syrup. Not as usual, I decided to do something with it.

The result was a very acceptable vanilla-peach toffee. Candymaking is surprisingly simple, as long as you're broadminded about what kind of candy you get.

Sriracha

It gets an article at the NYT today. It's good reading. Here's a list of facts not entirely within the article.

• The sauce operation shares my birth-month.


• I like it on macaroni and cheese.


• Yuka, which I'm surprised I haven't mentioned here yet, uses it extensively: Like many sushi places, their spicy sauce is a blend of sriracha and Japanese (probably Kewpie) mayo, but unlike most their spicy tuna omits the mayo and is just tuna mixed with sriracha, giving a more intense heat and much better texture than the gloppy spicy tuna most places serve.


• Their coarser chili-garlic sauce is also very good, I use it when cooking and the sriracha at the table.

Brunch at Fairway Cafe

I've been looking for an opportunity to check out brunch at Fairway Cafe for a while now because the last time I had dinner there - I must admit, months ago - I was very impressed with their tasty, affordable food and free flowing, delicious focaccia and savory spreads. So when Emily and I met up early at the Whitney on Sunday and then wanted to work our way back to the West Side to do some grocery shopping and grab a bite, I suggested we check out the restaurant on the second floor of the market at 74th and Broadway.

The trip started out well. Although the place was packed, we only waited about three minutes for a table and even snagged one right next to a big, sunny window overlooking the street. There were flowers on all the tables and even though the place is big and crowded (not to mention above a popular grocery store) the background noise didn’t interrupt us much at all.

Our waiter appeared quickly to take our orders and discouraged me from ordering the Corned Beef Hash since it takes 20 minutes. Instead, I ordered scrambled egg whites with chorizo, roasted tomatoes, and chipotle. Emily went for a burger, medium rare, with grilled onions and a side salad. Dreaming of the warm, chewy bread from my last visit, I also asked for bread and we each requested water.

Twenty minutes later there was neither bread nor water, despite the waiter's occasional promises that they were "on the way!" When the bread finally did arrive, it was brioche and seven grain toast, one slice of each. It’s certainly wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the focaccia I’d come looking for. Water came in plastic cups.

Continued...

After another ten minutes our food arrived. Emily had no complaints about her burger, she liked it quite a lot, but my eggs came sitting in a pool of yellowy liquid which seeped into my (second) piece of brioche. The chorizo was abundant and delightfully chewy, the eggs pretty fluffy considering they lacked yokes, and the tomatoes were sweet. You’d think it would have been a successful dish but there was something about the lack of heat from the chipotle (if someone told me they were bell peppers I would have believed them) that left the scramble tasting incomplete. There was no unifying flavor. I wish I'd gone for the corned beef hash. When the waiter said it took twenty minutes, I didn't realize that he meant ONLY twenty minutes.

The one thing to arrive promptly was the check. And imagine my surprise when they charged us $1.50 for the toast and another $1 for the egg whites. I'm used to paying extra for egg whites but they should have at least mentioned it on the menu, not to mention warned me about the bread surcharge! If I'd known what to expect from it, I'd have thought twice.

Rather than waste more time, we paid the bill and left, passing up some yummy looking desserts on our way out because by this point it had already been close to an hour and a half.

Moral of the story, the best ingredients on earth can't compensate for the worst service.

Baoguette

It seems I might be a bit behind, as their website indicates they've already won a couple of awards, but last night I chanced upon (literally, I was hoping to hit Gem Spa for my after-show snack, but see previous post) Baoguette's St. Marks Place (East Village) location. I'm not a banh mi authority, but I've certainly had my share and I'm quite fond of them. I can honestly say that theirs is tops.

While I may try some of the other fillings in the future, last night I had their version of the basic banh mi: pork, pork pate, minced pork, and pickled carrots and cucumbers. It stood above the other banh mi I've had in the city in nearly every way. Hot ingredients were hot, cold ingredients were cold; the baguette was fresh-baked (around 12:30am. I asked, and they bake small batches throughout the day), and one I would have been happy getting had I just gone to a bakery for a baguette; the pork was very good, all three kinds; and they offered a sliding scale of spice, going "none"->"sriracha only"->"sriracha and jalapenos"->"sriracha and thai chiles". Definitely a very good sandwich.

I also tried a small sample of their soft serve ice cream, which comes in interesting flavors. They were out of Durian, so I tried Pandan, which had a very interesting, subtle taste.

Also on the menu is some good-smelling pho, some good looking stewed beef belly, and bun (noodle) dishes endorsed by other patrons.

Gem Spa PSA

Quick bit of info -- Gem Spa is currently without a freezer (they plan to replace it, but no ETA), so currently neither shakes nor ice cream are available, and egg creams are not being made with superchilled milk.

Hopefully, it won't be long.

General Greene Ice Cream

After reading in Grub Street today that, "General Greene is following in the footsteps of Jacques Torres and opening an ice-cream cart… Five flavors will be on offer at any one time, rotating throughout the summer (‘Additional flavors will be added as we come up with them!’). There may be a test run as early as this weekend —look for scoops of burnt-honey vanilla, pistachio mocha chip, pretzel salted caramel and chocolate banana with peanuts," I just so happened to be in the neighborhood and sampled some. $3 bought me two scoops in either a cup or a cone. In an attempt to compare them with two well-loved Haagen Dazs flavors in my house, I went for one scoop of pretzel salted caramel and another of burnt-honey vanilla in a cup.

The pretzel salted caramel was a little too heavy on the salt and a little too light on the caramel and I wish the pretzels had been crunchier. Between it and Fleur de Sel Caramel, Haagaen Daz wins hands down. I mean their version has chocolate! I don't think I'd get this General Greene flavor again.

The burnt-honey vanilla, on the other hand, was a dream! Rich honey flavor, but not too sweet. There was a subtle distinction between the honey bites and the vanilla bites, unlike in Haagen Dazs' Vanilla Honey Bee, which all tastes like honey and vanilla and is a little too sweet for my liking. Aside from the General's lightly powdery texture (Emily liked it, thought it tasted homemade), I call it the winner.

So we're at a draw.

I guess I'll have to go back (if I'm in the neighborhood, not worth going out of my way) to try the other flavors. Matcha pistachio was on the menu tonight and Haagen Dazs makes a mean Pistachio and Green Tea!

Don't Believe the Hype Vol.1

I really don't understand why so many people are all jazzed up about Artichoke. You can barely find a food blog these days without some mention of the place, citing either how delicious and unique it is or, conversely, comparing it to the scores of imitation shops popping up across the city. Well let me be the first to tell you, Artichoke is a huge disappointment. After dragging my friends to wait in line for twenty minutes late on a Saturday night, I was expecting a slice like I'd never tasted. Instead, I was left with a heavy weight in my stomach and the realization that either we'd come on an off-night or that most food writers value kitsch over taste.

For those of you who haven't been, Artichoke is a pizza place on East 14th Street between 1st and 2nd. They serve pizza, stuffed artichokes, and beer. Don't ask for water, they won't give it to you. Don't expect to sit, there are no seats. And don't go expecting fast food. It took us twenty minutes to order and another ten to wait for our food.

After a quick walk to Union Square so that we could sit and eat, the crust on both varieties of pizza (Margarita and artichoke, we passed up crab) were tough and doughy, not to mention tasteless. The toppings, however, were plenty tasty. If you consider salt a taste. Or grease. The slices were both so heavy that none of us could finish them, not a good sign in this crowd.

Next time you're on 14th Street looking for a bite, avoid Artichoke. You'll have better luck at Chickpea - shorter lines and the advantage of not leaving feeling like you've just eaten a six pack of Play-Doh.

Bayan Cafe

I haven't had professional Filipino (Philipino? I'm not sure what the distinction is) in about a decade, and I'm sad I waited so long. Bayan Cafe (212 E45th) is very good. Pork dishes stand out, but the chicken adobo is very good too, and the eggplant omelet is only marred by the inclusion of my personal bete noire, frozen peas and carrot-cubes. Lumpia are almost as good as homemade, if slightly burnt. The only dish I regret is the milkfish.

The restaurant is small, but has a spacious outdoor patio, which meshes incredibly with the food (I've felt Filipino food has a "summery" quality -- the halo halo which just arrived only reinforces that).

I hear it's also good for breakfast.

What's in a name?

A lot, it turns out, or at least that's my opinion of Shake Shack.

Everyone talks about their burgers; they seem to have become the NYC standard for burgers; all season long, Madison Square Park is mobbed with lunchers. Surprisingly, I'd never actually had a Shake Shack burger until yesterday, when I found myself around there on errands. So I had a burger (and fries, and a malt).

It was a very good, perhaps great, burger, but I don't understand the cultlike devotion. Joy is better, Blue9 is better, even some of the remaining outposts of Soup Burg (whatever they call themselves now) have served me better burgers. The meat, I could tell, was definitely something special, and there was good char, but it just didn't come together as a spectacular burger. It was, in an inversion of my comments on Joy, juicy but not moist, the bun was overly dense, and while the lettuce was nice, the tomato was just unappealing.

On the other hand, the fries were quite good, and the shake was phenomenal. I like frozen custard, they actually had malt, they found the proper consistency point between the overly-thinned shakes one often gets and the barely-loosened cups of ice cream one sometimes gets, and it was just a well made shake.

So yes, if that's where you are, I would certainly suggest getting a burger at Shake Shack (if the line isn't currently visible from space), but I wouldn't suggest traveling for their burger.

I might, however, suggest traveling for their shakes.

Joy Burger Bar

It's surprising that Joy Burger Bar hasn't received any formal reviews other than a short, shared blurb in the NYT, and that not recently (some things have objectively changed since that review). On the corner of 100th and Lexington, Joy is in an open, cafelike space, decorated primarily in international and classic Coca-Cola signs (a bit of a theme, as said beverage is available both in plastic and classic glass bottles, and eat-in orders are served in branded metal trays). Nearly all the food operations are in plain view (fryer, grill, and flattop right behind the register, cold prep (salads, shakes and smoothies), visible through an open door), which I always consider a good sign in a small, short-menu eatery. Similarly encouraging is the universal, in my experience, presence of the owner, who I've seen manning the register, assembling sandwiches, and just chatting up the clientele (many of whom he seems familiar with).

I've been five times (being drawn to it like flies every time I've find myself between 96th and 120th at mealtime since discovering it), and in my visits have tried each size of the burger (munch, midi, maxi (think slider, fast food, restaurant)), the veggie burger, the schnitzel sandwich, and nearly all the sides (all three types of fry and the onion rings), and the house-made drinks. Nothing was disappointing, but there's variation within the menu.

The burgers themselves are the best thing on the menu, and the maxi is, in my current estimation, the best burger in the city. Ground by the owner, cooked on grills both flaming and flattopped, the maxi burger is incredibly juicy without being inedibly messy, both beefy and flamey, and perfectly textured. This may sound hyperbolic, but the flavor is so strong that the burger is able to stand up to whatever toppings you may desire, including the housemade sauces, which are themselves strongly flavored, and easily capable of overwhelming a lesser burger (I like the chimichurri). The buns are well chosen and toasted alongside the patties (I suspect they've changed since the buns complained of in the NYT review). Sadly, "lesser burger" covers both the midi and munch burgers, very tasty in their own rights but both losing out on both texture and flavor due to their dimensions. Certainly tasty, but not in the same class as their big brother.

The fries (chip-sliced, standard-sliced, and sweet potato) are all hand-cut, fresh-fried to order, and delicious. The chip-sliced sometimes have texture problems but on the whole are better than the longer fries, and if eating in I would recommend them (they come with eat-in orders by default, but do not stand up to confinement, and the standard-style fries are provided with takeout or delivery), the longer fries are excellent themselves, of course. The sweet potato fries are good examples of the type, but I'm not a fan of the type to begin with. The onion rings were simply incredible, among the best I've ever had.

The burgers are obviously the main draw, but the other sandwiches are very good as well. The philly looked good, the shnitzel was very good, and the veggie burger (mashed-veggie style, a type I don't normally favor) was flavorful, well-textured, and while not actually meatlike at all, something I would order again purely on its own merits. The housemade lemonade and tea are too sweet for my taste, but the shakes are good, and almost undrinkably thick.

I like my food, but I'm not the type to repeat a single restaurant three times in a week, or walk a mile for a burger. I've done both for Joy Burger Bar. If you like burgers, go now. If you like veggie burgers, go now. If anything at all on their menu sounds like something you'd possibly eat, go now -- you'll like what you get.

Grandaisy Bakery

I'm very fond of it. Their sweets are good, their pizza even better. I recommend the cauliflower (to the left, already gnawed on) or potato. 72nd just east of Amsterdam.