For a while, Chris and I were checking out all the major cheeseburger joints in the city. We visited JG Melon and had a mind blowing experience (even with the two hour wait - review coming soon) and wanted to see how the other famous burger joints stacked up. We visited P.J. Clarke’s to sample their cheeseburger and other goodies; the wait wasn’t too long - only about 30 minutes for a table around 3PM on Saturday (which is nothing compared to some of the waits we’ve endured for a burger). We definitely wanted a cheeseburger, but P.J. Clarke’s also has a large menu of seafood items, so we decided to order a cheeseburger and an order of mussels. Our cheeseburger:

It looks like a standard cheeseburger (maybe even a cheeseburger you’d grill at home), but P.J. Clarke’s has a special combination of meat that makes the cheeseburger both juicy and flavorful. The onion sits between the bottom bun and the meat and you have to request other toppings (we asked for a side of tomatoes and lettuce). If I ranked my favorite burger places in the city, P.J. Clarke’s would probably be in my top 10, but nowhere near the top 5; the burger wasn’t juicy enough and it was a bit small for me.

Initially, we ordered mussels with white wine, but later found out that they sold out of mussels for the day (SHUCKS!). Since we were still hungry, we decided to order macaroni and cheese:

P.J. Clarke’s interpretation of macaroni and cheese was more of a Fettuccine Alfredo; they used shells, a cream sauce, bacon, and peas in their recipe and it didn’t resemble your typical mac and cheese. I definitely think it’s mislabeled and wasn’t a fan of the dish; the alfredo was too watery/runny and the shells weren’t cooked properly.

Based on our waitresses recommendation, we ordered hash browns instead of your typical French fries:

The hash browns were good, but didn’t match the rest of the dishes we were eating (it was too much of a breakfast food).

I’m not sure I’d visit P.J. Clarke’s for their burgers again, but I’m interested in trying their seafood offerings since they have mussels with white wine that sound like they’d be pretty good. Hopefully the next time I’m in the area, P.J. Clarke’s will actually have mussels in stock!

How to get to P.J. Clarke’s:

P.J. Clarke’s
915 3rd Avenue between 55th and 56th
New York, NY 10022
212-317-1616

After having a terrible experience at Better Burger, I was hesitant to try New York Burger Company; I didn’t want to be disappointed with another burger place in my neighborhood. On Saturday, after a full day of running around, Chris and I decided to check out New York Burger Co. because we were in the mood for burgers and didn’t feel like schlepping uptown to JG Melon. The windows facing the street have a ton of awards for best cheeseburger, best onion rings, etc., so we figured it couldn’t be that bad (boy were we wrong). I ordered a cheeseburger with cheddar cheese:

First of all, does that even look appetizing? At all? No. Didn’t think so. My burger was slightly ORANGE on the inside AND it was INCREDIBLY dry. The cheese tasted disgusting and greasy (similar to Better Burger’s).

Chris ordered the “Dallas Burger,” which is a burger with Monterey jack cheese, sauteed onions, and barbecue sauce:

Equally disgusting…we couldn’t even FINISH our burgers. There was no juice in the meat and truthfully, it didn’t even TASTE like a burger. We also ordered a chocolate shake and fries:

Let me start with the fries. Truthfully, they weren’t ABSOLUTELY terrible. They were sort of like the fries you buy in amusement parks; greasy and slightly soggy, but not bad (especially compared to the shake and burgers). Not too bad, especially since we had 10 different dipping sauces for them. The chocolate shake, on the other hand, was the grossest chocolate shake I’ve ever tried. It was supposed to be made with ice cream and chocolate sauce - it tasted like it was made with Nesquick powder, milk, and ice cubes.

The best part of the meal was returning the “chocolate shake” - I told the cashier that it was the absolute worst shake I’d EVER tried in my life and that it was pretty terrible that the restaurant was passing it off as a chocolate shake. I will absolutely NEVER go back and I’d probably only recommend the place to my sworn enemies.

After David and I found our new apartment, we were wandering around Chelsea and wanted to get a quick bite to eat. David suggested Qdoba, but I’m not a big fan (I like Chipotle more), so we decided to try Better Burger. I walk by the place a lot, but have never stopped by because Chris said he didn’t like the place. Since Chris wasn’t with us, David and I stopped by and ordered cheeseburgers and fries:

Better Burger has antibiotic, hormone, and nitrate free meat, organic fries, and organic buns. My cheeseburger might have been healthy compared to a McDonald’s burger, but it lacked any taste and was extremely greasy:

A “healthy” burger shouldn’t lack all kinds of taste, SHOULD IT?! Better Burger’s meat was dry and their cheese was greasy; there were more condiments than anything else on the burger. I ordered a value meal that also came with fries:

The fries are supposedly more “airy” than other places, but I found them to be really stale and tasteless.

If you’re in the mood for a burger around the Chelsea area, skip Better Burger and go to Corner Bistro instead.

After a fun-filled Saturday afternoon at the Natural History Museum, Chris, David, and I headed to Artie’s Delicatessen for a quick bite to eat. We initially planned on eating at Cafe Lalo, but when we arrived, construction workers informed us that it had been closed for renovations since October and wouldn’t be opening for another week. Boo! Chris remembered going to Artie’s a while back and we were really hungry, so we decided to step in for a bite.

We were immediately seated and complimentary cole slaw and pickled vegetables were placed on our table so we’d have something to nibble on while deciding what to order:

Cole slaw:

Pickled vegetables:

In general, I’m not a fan of cole slaw (unless it’s on a pulled pork sandwich) and the cole slaw at Artie’s had too much mayonnaise and not enough taste. There were a variety of pickled vegetables, including red peppers, cucumbers (made into half sour pickles), and roma tomatoes. The half sours tasted like they had a lot of celery salt or some other interesting spice in it (I wasn’t a fan) but it was free, so can you really complain?

Chris ordered the cheeseburger (pretty standard for a deli):

Chris and I have had our fair share of burgers in the city (I’ll be posting a review about a new place we love) and I was surprised that the burger from Artie’s is actually cooked semi-decently for a diner. The bun was chewy but not to the point of being overwhelmed with burger grease but the meat tasted like it was a frozen patty. The fries weren’t good (I didn’t even finish them!)

I ordered the Pastrami:

I’m not a big fan of foods that are saturated with salt (seriously, who is) and this pastrami was just too freaking salty. Chris thought it’s better than Carnegie’s or Katz’s, which is saying a lot, right? I didn’t like the pastrami at either place (although I like the matzo ball soup from Carnegie’s).

David ordered the chopped liver sandwich:

It’s my first experience with chopped liver and it was surprisingly sweet with a creamy texture. A little over the top for me, but David liked it.

After we paid for our meal, we walked by the deli counter and bought a Cel-ray soda from Dr. Brown’s. It’s made with celery but extremely sweet and actually has more sugar than two cokes (that’s a LOT of sugar!). Artie’s is a cute deli that caters to a lot of families on the UWS, but there are so many to choose from in the city that I don’t think I’ll be back.

How to get to Artie’s Delicatessen:

Artie’s Delicatessen
2290 Broadway between 82nd and 83rd
New York, NY 10024
212-579-5959

Moda, located in the Flatotel in the theater district, is a restaurant we visited based on a friend’s recommendation. The restaurant feels very lounge-like; dimly lit, large comfortable couches, and a well-stocked bar. The brunch at Moda is very reasonable - every entree is under $15 and everything comes with a free mimosa, bloody mary, or orange juice!

I went with the French toast:

If you’ve been following the site for a while, you know that I’m picky when it comes to French toast; the bread needs to be stale enough to hold the egg/milk combination but has to be moist (and not soggy). I mean, it can’t be that difficult to make good French toast (considering I can do it at home), but I feel like a lot of restaurants just don’t know how to make it. Moda’s French toast was prepared exceptionally well - just enough egg and milk combined with bread dusted with powdered sugar. Yum!

Chris ordered the standard cheeseburger:

Surprisingly, the cheeseburger from Moda was AWESOME! It had a nice grill flavor and there was a huge chunk of cheese melted on the big peace of meat - what else can you ask for? It’s not my favorite burger (that honor belongs to Goodburger), but it was definitely better than a lot of brunch burgers I’ve had.

Our friends both ordered egg white omelettes with hash browns:

They both enjoyed their egg white omelettes and the waiter even threw in an extra side of toast (I think the kitchen accidentally prepared it and didn’t want it to go to waste. Seriously, no one else was in the restaurant). I can’t see myself going back to Moda (it’s in a weird location for me), but I think their brunch is pretty decent (and you can make reservations on opentable!)

How to get to Moda:

Moda Restaurant and Lounge
135 W 52nd St
New York, NY, 10019
212-887-9880