Abitino’s Pizza Enters the Burger Arena Today with the Grand Opening of City Burger
On Friday, I got word from the owners of Abitino’s (a generic take out pizza place with multiple locations in Midtown) that City Burger, their newest venture (on 39th just east of Broadway) will finally open today. As I reported in Feburary, the menu and prices are on par with GoodBurger, with the addition of pizza parlor staples like chicken wings and mozzarella sticks. Their meat will come from Pat LaFrieda, the same place the Shake Shack gets the meat for their burgers- so a comparison may be in order. Best case scenario: we finally get a shake shack burger in Midtown. Worst case scenario: another over-priced burger place crowds the the Midtown market (although they seem to have found a little hole in the Midtown landscape that is not serviced by GoodBurger, Five Guys, or The Burger Joint). Most likely middle ground: Midtown now has a fast food burger place where you can also get chicken wings. Very exciting.
I’m actually in Miami until tomorrow, so I’ll be missing out on the Grand Opening, but if you go tell us what you think in the comments. I’ll probably check it out tomorrow, and decide if the $13.50 Burger, Fries, Soda & 5 Chicken Wings combo will put an end to the $10 Midtown Lunch rule!
Related: New City Burger Will Get Meat From the Same Place As The Shake Shack
**UPDATE** 10:45 am – According to commenter DDR, the new Qdoba on 46th btw. Madison + 5th is opening up today as well.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 8:02 am, March 31st, 2008 under 39th & B'way, Burger, City Burger.
16 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
16 Comments
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mmmm spam….
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Today is also the grand opening of the Qdoba on 46th ‘twixt 5th and Madison. I know…don’t all line up at once!
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Thank goodness, your site works again. I know where to go for lunch now!
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my coworkers and i just had lunch at city burger. the cold pissy weather did not enhance our foodie experience.
today was going to be my eating “bad food” day so we were going to try for the long awaited city burger. we ordered our food and while we were in line we noticed i believe one of the owners with white hair and a trench coat standing around taking everything in. for their grand opening they had a bottle of grand marnier, remy, random bottle of whiskey and a bottle of moet on the counter you could help yourself to with dixie cups. next to that on the shelf was a plate of variety cookies.
we waited in line for about 25mins for our separate orders. i ordered a burger medium with cheddar and side of onion rings for $ 10.95. while we were waiting i could tell i was going to reek of the joint. there were 2 guys before us which were waiting for their food, one of them ate his chicken sandwhich while his friend was still waiting for his. each of us were assigned random ticket numbers to our orders, no rhyme nor reason. as we were leaving with our orders the guy waiting for his chicken sandwhich finally got his order.
my onion rings were sweet and beer battered which i like normally. it was a larger order that i shared with my coworker. they needed to be fried a bit more, they were on the soggy side. my burger was medium as odered sandwhiched between a toasted sesame seed bun, 2 thick cut pickles, white onions, an unripe tomato, green leaf lettuce, slathered with mayo & mustard. the burger was ok, i’d say i like the atrium burger better or pergola compared to city burger. i was anticipating more flavor and also contributing to the fact that the burgers were from the same vendor as to what shake shack uses. they unfortunately forgot to add the bacon on my friend’s bacon cheeseburger, his steak fries were a large helping but soggy and did not look appealing.
my overall experience felt “midtown” lacking in everything. the brand is confused, their is no identity. the venue is bizarre. it looks like it was going to be a pizza joint turned into a diner but got lost on the way. the brand does not conveyed in the venue. their is beige subway tile for the walls, an unused 40″ flat screen tv, their are longhorns hanging on the wall with garlic hanging from it. there are about 6 cameras above the cash register. the tile/floor is a warm tile, bad fake marble counter, random poorly designed high bar chairs against the windows, the menu lacks character. their are green glass light fixtures that are hanging from the line. i don’t it was strange, lackluster and disappointing. the cashiers were friendly and efficient. the food ok but not worth the time, and price walking in the rain. i’d have to say not an exceptional experience. my coworkers would agree.
i heard there is a great deli that has great burgers on 35th & 7th.
so you didn’t miss much today! first days for openings can be a little rough, they have a decent menu selection but not worth the dollars and i can get a better burger elsewhere for less.
sorry to sound like debbie downer but i wanted to tell the owners, what the hell were you thinking in the poor execution!
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Nantini,is your surname Tolstoy?
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I believe that great deli on 35th and 7th with great burgers at a good price you’re referring to is “Al’s Delicatessen.” Really good turkey burgers there too, and just about everything there is good at a reasonable cost.
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nantini gets 3 gold stars, and 2 extra bathroom passes for the semester for that wonderful essay.
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Did anyone try Qdober – any free food?
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Damn, free whiskey? I’d order a large coke and not go back to work.
(I kid, I kid… I’d also try the burger)
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just came back from citybugers with my coworkers i think its awesome the bread is fresh not wonder bread the meats is fresh i just hope that its stays good today was there 1 st day so and itwas busy there and they still put out a good burger.
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Don’t worry about punctuation, salvio. We’ll figure out what you mean.
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Zing!
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tried Qdoba in NJ on Monday…I was curious what the hubub was about….it sucked.
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I tried the newly openend City Burger on 1410 Broadway at 39th street. I ordered a cheesburger with the works – cooked medium and an other of Onion rings. Total cost was $10.95.
Cheeseburger was overcooked and dry. Onion rings were cold and burnt. This place is awful for food. I will never go there again.
Also – the wait for ordering is about 15 -20 minutes for an overcooked, burnt and cold food.
I would not recommend this food establishment to anyone. -
Grabbed a burger here today. Was good, but not great. The meat was good, it wasn’t dry, and it was the perfect lunch size. I thought my patty was cooked a bit unevenly though (part more rare, part more well done). I got mine with cheddar and “the works” and really liked the pickles they used – nice crunchy slices. The fries were big steak fries which were pretty crispy. I ordered a combo and it came to $12.50.
I like that they also offer turkey, salmon and veggie burgers and plan to go back. My receipt said if you order online you get 10% off – that makes it possible to order, pick it up and still make it to the park on a nice day.
Clearly the $10 Midtown lunch rule does not apply when 5 chicken wings are involved.