Best Burger in NYC Search: Peter Luger Steakhouse

 

 Peter Luger Steakhouse

178 Broadway - Brooklyn (Williamsburg), NY

(718) 387-7400
Burger: The Luger Burger ($8.95) 

In a city that endears itself to over-the-top cuisine, trendy ambiance and wildly popular man-about-town chefs, we as self-proclaimed foodies can always embrace a classic. Often, a divergence from the norm and a reversion to that classic American restaurant experience and fare is just what the doctor ordered. Enter Peter Luger Steakhouse – a Michelin Star winning, 24 years and running best steakhouse winner from Zagat, which not only offers a great porterhouse but an incredibly insane value of a burger. Given that most reviews we’ve written in order find the best burger in NYC have lead us to Manhattan vaunts, we relished the opportunity to venture across the East River to Williamsburg, Brooklyn in an effort to devour a burger that almost always makes its way onto the “best of” lists of esteemed food critiques around the country. From Frank Bruni of the New York Times to GQ’s Alan Richman, burger enthusiasts have showered Luger with praise and we were eager to test the ranks and hopped the L train to Brooklyn on a sweltering summer Saturday.
 

Our Expectations: The Luger Burger. Over ½ a pound of freshly ground prime beef on a brioche bun – all for $8.95. Add cheese (which we did, American) for $1.50, and you’ve easily got one of the best values on the Luger menu. Notably, you have to head to Luger during lunch hours (until 3pm) to take a bite of their dish, so it’s easy to miss. Regardless, with a burger cooked in the same famous broilers as their steaks, a lunch-time trip to the steakhouse is an easy sell.

The Burger

 Meat: Much like the undeniable taste and flavor of their steaks, Luger hit the bulls-eye with their patty’s meat. Setting the standard for what is sure to be a hard to beat ranking for burgers, the glorious flavors immediately engulf your taste buds to the point of a taste utopia. With a perfect combination of tender juiciness and seasoning, the meat is without a doubt the stand out of the burger composition. Attentiveness in the kitchen is apparent as well, as the three burgers ordered (all medium rare) came out with a pleasant result of pinkish red in the center and lightly charred and glazed on the outside.

Toppings: Clearly, you don’t venture to Peter Luger to eat a burger and expect copious amounts of inventive toppings or fancy accoutrements. You go for the meat, period. Though the bacon is renowned (thick-cut and a must have, we ordered it on the side), in our opinion it doesn’t belong on the burger…it’s a meal in itself. Still, we ordered American cheese, which was thoroughly draped over the patty, and topped our burger with the raw onions that came on the side. Each topping was enjoyable but not entirely necessary, so we did remove each halfway through eating, just to get the true Luger burger dining experience and enjoy the meat's flavor.

Bun: With a sizable patty comes a sizable bun. Given 8 to 10 ounces of beef is provided, Luger does an admirable job of evenly slicing a nicely toasted brioche bun that comfortably holds the patty without a superfluous portion. Nutty and light, but still a bit standard and average, the bun fares well through every bite while encasing the burger juice to a T.

Bedlam's Peter Luger Steakhouse Judgment

Meat (50): Superb, magnificent, brilliant…choose your adjective and insert here. Such sumptuous beef in the best burger in NYC search deserves a perfect ranking, and we obliged.

Toppings (21): To be fair, we’ve noted that the meat is so striking, these aren’t necessary. That said, we enjoyed the American cheese and onions, but might skip them altogether on our next tasting since our bites without the toppings were remarkable.

Bun (22): Impeccably sized and cut, a well received bun that stands its ground to a formidable patty.

Ranking: 93 out of 100

Best Burger in NYC Search: Blue Smoke

 
Blue Smoke

116 E. 27th St. (between Park and Lexington)

(212) 447-7733
Burger: The Blue Smoke Burger ($11.95) 

Dipping back into the Danny Meyer restaurant “well,” our latest burger tasting in the search for the best burger in NYC comes from his barbeque staple on 27th Street, Blue Smoke. Offering “regional barbeque styles from across the country” the dining spot caters to every type of carnivore out there. While Executive Chef Kenny Callaghan serves up delicious ribs, pulled pig and brisket along with a cornucopia of savory sides, we heard quite a bit of buzz about the burger. In addition to the tasty reviews we’d encountered, an almost-too-predictable influence to the allure of the burger was it's meat blend coming from who else but Pat LaFrieda. While we could easily wax poetic for days about our burger devouring history with LaFrieda's blends, we hoped to get past any positive biased opinions we may have formed and took on the Blue Smoke Burger with an open mind and empty stomach.


Our Expectations: The Blue Smoke Burger. A nine-ounce patty of Pat LaFrieda beef from Creekstone Farms. Served with your choice of cheese (American for us) and house-cured bacon, which we gladly added. Any and every review we read had incorporated the two toppings in their eating adventures, so we always follow suit. Still, our readers should note, we always break down the meat on its own by taking a few bites with purely patty alone in order to assess the taste, with the Blue Smoke Burger no exception to the rule.

The Burger

Meat: Making a bold impression from the get go, the initial bite into the burger attacks your palate with a sweet saltiness. Yet, although the meat is plenty juicy, it lacks the fresh and tender composure of many other best burger in NYC contenders. The seasoning is comparable to some of the stronger candidates on our list, but as you navigate your way through each bite and into the middle of the patty, the seasoning falls off considerably. We like a thorough mixture of seasoning in the patty blend, so points were taken from the meat in that regard.

Toppings: We expected a favorable outcome from the toppings and Blue Smoke delivered. The house cured bacon was quite tasty, providing a smoky goodness to each bite. Blending effortlessly with the simple saltiness of the patty, the bacon is a must try and adds a crispy texture. American cheese blanketed the burger with ease and was melted fully, a nice showing there.

Bun: A conventional brioche bun, it served its purpose adequately and was toasted well. Brioche always contributes a slight nuttiness to every bite, while it continues to be a popular choice amongst chefs serving a larger sized patty. Yet, in our eyes, such a bun requirement is indicative that the patty doesn’t always need such magnitude. Additionally, as we ate, the bun fell apart somewhat. We can’t help but think that a more evenly distributed slice of the bun would lend a better hand in staying together throughout the meal. The bottom half was clearly too thin.

Bedlam's Blue Smoke Judgment

Meat (44): Great taste, blended with a nice saltiness that isn’t too in your face, The juiciness is there but the tenderness is lacking. Seasoning drops off as you get through the patty and the vast size might be the contributing factor in that area.

Toppings (22): Bacon that can hold its own to any of our burger reviews, the smokiness and crisp texture won us over. The cheese is always a plus and was presented adequately, but is not necessarily needed with this burger.

Bun (20): Decent taste and toasted to our liking but sliced unevenly which caused for some messy eating. Not our favorite choice of bun, but necessary for the size of the patty.

Ranking: 86 out of 100