Midtown Lunch

A couple of weeks ago a friend who also works in the Financial District told me they had eaten at Burger Burger on Pearl (at Stone) and had an extremely disappointing experience involving a way overdone patty and fries that were nearly cold when they got them. I’ve never eaten there and Daniel reviewed this place way back in January of 2009. He seemed impressed with his Aussie burger (which did look pretty good from the pictures) but a lot of things can go so very wrong in more than two years, so I decided it was time to do the only reasonable thing and go eat some grilled meat and fried potatoes.

It was Wednesday, and the special was a spicy lamb burger with cajun fries and a soda for $11.99. Oh, did I mention it’s basically impossible to get a burger and fries here without going over the $10 mark? Ever since Wall St. Burger Shoppe shuttered a couple of blocks away they’ve had the market cornered on places serving many different kinds of burgers while managing to break the ML price wall. When I got there the small shop was full of people waiting while their burgers were cooked on the grill to order, so obviously a lot of people like this place and don’t mind paying the extra money. Or do people just go here because they’re not willing to walk up to Goodburger or Five Guys?

While I was taking this picture a group of teenagers was for some reasoned gathered in front of Burger Burger and one of them commented that this sandwich was too tall to eat. I was thinking the same thing. My other thoughts were that the lamb patty was slightly smaller than I was expecting (it was smaller than the bun), and that they not only put sauteed red onion, but raw on there as well, along with lettuce, tomato and cucumber dill yogurt sauce. Clearly you should not eat this before a big meeting.

The burger was tasty and luckily the bun smooshed down enough for me to take a bite, but what I noticed immediately was that the patty was cooked all the way through and pretty dry. All of the elements together were tasty, but it kind of left me wishing for the lamb burger from the Bistro Truck. The fries were plentiful and cooked well although some would likely be turned off by the liberal coating of cajun seasoning. You can also get a salad or regular fries if this isn’t your cup of tea.

I can definitely say this was not the best lamb burger I’ve ever had, which was mostly due to overcooking, and the $13 I paid post-tax was a little painful but I can’t really say whether the quality has changed. I’ll leave that to you lunchers to hash out in the comments.

Burger Burger, 77 Pearl St./44 Stone St., (212) 269-9100