Blarney Stone Adds Sliders (And Somehow Manages To Screw Up Best Onion Rings in Midtown)

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Thanks to Lunch’er MikeyMike for passing along this info about the Blarney Stone (on 3rd Ave. btw. 45+46th): “Had a burger there today. Price is now $6 plus $0.75 for cheese. Burger was tasty but I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the onion rings both in quality and quanity. You now have your choice between steak fries or regular fries. New to me is that they now have 3 sliders for $5.”  Sliders?  You don’t say?  Well, I had to stop by and check those out…

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3 for $5 is not bad, and they are pretty much what you’d expect.  Waaaay better than White Castle, but certainly not a better quality meat than what you’d get at some of the better burger places in Midtown.  (What do you expect for $5!)  They were cooked nicely medium rare (a difficult feat for patties so thin) and American cheese, lettuce and tomato is included for your $5 (I went the just cheese route.)  Grilled onions would have been nice though… I’m thinking I should have asked.

Speaking of onions, I like the fact that you can add onion rings (or fries) to your order for $1.50.  For those who have never basked in the glory of the Blarney Stone onion ring, they are the real deal. But I’m sad to report that Mike’s disappointment was not a one time anomaly.  They are still homemade, and the seasonings they use are spot on (you can actually see the flecks of spice on the outside) but the batter is a complete horror-show. It was completely falling off the onions, and kind of soggy.  It’s doubly inexcusable because I waited over 10 minutes for my order (most of that time spent waiting for the onion rings to fry up fresh.)

I don’t know what the problem is, or why this has happened, but something has got to be done about it. I did notice they put the rings direct from fryer to container. Perhaps they need to hang out a bit in the open air before being shoved into a styrofoam fortress to steam away? (Although, I did try one right off the bat before walking out- and they were bad even two mins out of the fryer.) I couldn’t eat more than 2, which should give you an idea of how bad they really were.  A soggy, crust falling off the onion, mess.  Really, really disappointing.  Hopefully they will realize that something is wrong, and fix the problem.  Until then, you may want to stick with the french fries.

Related:
Revisiting My Favorite St. Patty’s Day Lunch (and the best Onion Rings in Midtown)
Blarney Stone Replaces Fries With Giant Potato Wedges
The Blarney Stone Burger

10 Comments

  • Those onion rings look mad disappointing and flimsy. Maybe some BBQ sauce and stuffed inside the sliders would’ve saved them…

  • probably didnt coat them enough before frying… or watered down the batter.

    Bad onion rings is a crime.

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    onions contain too much moisture so this will happen with onions more often than not… but apparently leeks are less likely to sog up… but no one takes advantage of using the onions smaller, less famous cousin

  • better than white castle? blasphemy!

  • i got this today also and i must say your onion rings looked ALOT better then mine…mine were undistinguishable as onion rings…

    they still tastes good but def all broken up.

  • I love a good onion ring and am sad that they used to have good onion rings and now don’t.

  • I feel it’s my duty to further discuss the fries that you now are given the choice.

    If you choose steak fries, they’re those giant wedges, or basically a potato, cut in quarters lengthwise. It’s just too much damn potato.

    The “regular” fries are no longer the fresh cut type, rather diner style frozen ones. Some people dig those I know, but the decision is still a tough one.

  • FYI: Blarney Stone is between 45th and 46th.

  • @taco- sorry for the typo! it’s fixed…

  • Nice size juicy greasy burger and steak fries taste great…can’t beat the price in this area. But fellow patrons…BEWARE! Last time me and coworkers came here for lunch about 2 weeks ago, more than 5 sightings of roaches (sitting on a bench towards the back along the wall). Maybe it was a rare incident.. but still gross while eating lunch. On the flip side, roaches are everywhere in NYC…so I’m still a customer

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