Salvation Burger - Midtown East, NY

Salvation Burger just opened recently, February 10th. Luckily, a good coworker of mine somehow stumble upon it and basically persuaded me to go. Good bye to my smoothie and salad for lunch.

Opened by the same chef as Spotted Pig, it was just a place to check out and say - "hey I've had that burger before!" Also, my coworker really really wanted to go.

They opened at 12pm for lunch, we made sure to go early. Even then we were beaten by a good 5 parties...and did I mention this place just opened like 9 days ago?!

Salvation Burger has a good amount of space, with walls lined with wine bottles, pretty neat decor. They also have a full size cocktail bar, along with communal tables, just because. My coworker and I were seated by the window, being distracted by construction workers blinging up the restaurant's exterior.

Menu was pretty basic. You got your snacks like fries or jalapeno fritters, then there's burgers and hotdogs, and last but not least, the milkshakes.

Service was a bit slow. Waited a bit over 10 minutes for the burgers, which felt like forever. When the burgers came, my eyes couldn't stop staring and literally how beautiful and simple the burger looks. It was served on a plate, nothing else around it, just the burger in its entirety. It was time.

The Salvation Burger was pretty good, patty was huge, thick I mean (that's what she said), nicely cooked to a medium rare and extremely juicy. It was simple but yet complex in its own way. I just couldn't figure out where the salt came from because they definitely didn't season the burger, maybe it was hidden in the crispy onions or maybe it was the buns or was it the taleggio cheese? Anyways, it was good and honestly worth the $25. On the other hand, the Classic Burger was your average any day burger. But, this one had two patties, house special sauce, cheese, and pickles. It was good if they were easy on the seasoning for this. I only had half the burger and even then the saltiness gradually picked up. For $17, I'd rather get the Salvation Burger. The fries started out great, but same thing with the burger, it got salty as we worked our way through it.

Nonetheless, it was a decent experience. I'd come back for the Salvation Burger, which I can count on to give me food coma.

Verdict:
Food ~ 3.5 out of 5
Price ~ 3 out of 5
Service ~ 3 out of 5 

Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

Salvation Burger

Classic Burger

Salvation Burger
230 E 51st Street
New York, NY 10022

Whitman's - A suprise that will leave me speechless

I know J has been wanting a Juicy Lucy for the longest time. The idea of having melted cheese in a burger is just something we can't pass up on. Plus, I was totally in the mood for a burger and something fried...

J ordered a Negra Modelo ($7) beer. I'm not a big fan of beer so I just stuck with my water.

The Fried Pickles ($4) were alright. I didn't like them as much just because I thought they were too thin and weren't crunchy enough. The dipping sauce was delicious though, I'm sure it's not cheese but J keeps telling me otherwise. I prefer a thick and crunchier crust, but I still can down endless bowls of this.

I was the normal one that ordered the regular Juicy Lucy ($10). The patty might look small but it was a delicious ball of goodness. I was trying to flatten the burger but forgot about the cheese in the middle until J was like "omg it's squirting from the other side."

The cheese were actually all situated in the center, I wished it was more all over the patty. You can actually have your choice of cheese but I just went with the pimento cheese since that was the regular one on the menu. The pickle was ginormous though and spicy. So good and fulfilling.

J's crazy Juicy Lucy ($10) with bacon ($1) and fried egg ($2). I know he just had to do it. I have to say that it looks absolutely beautiful when it came out. The egg was so perfect and I wanted his greens! Anywho, his was less messy than mine. Odd, cause my plate was filled with meat juices...hahaha

Whitman's
406 E 9th St
New York, NY 10009
(212) 228-8011

Xi'an Famous Foods - East Village

To my knowledge, this is the third time J and I revisited Xi'an. We finally ordered the spicy dishes which they are known for this time around, the first 2 times we didn't because we knew we weren't able to handle the spiciness. Finally, the hard training days of eating spicy food paid off and we can enjoy it! Love spicy food now!

We were lucky to find seats inside this small and cramp spot. Xi'an has other branches but this is the original and we always see ourselves coming back to this same spot. I love how each dish has a letter and number that corresponds to it. You don't have to read the longass name, just say A1 or N1 or whatever it is, makes the ordering process a lot easier and faster.

Feels like cafeteria Asian style kind of eating. If you order dry noodles they give you a plate and if you order noodle soup, they give you a bowl. The day was too hot for soup noodles so we stuck to non-soupie dishes, didn't help much since it was spicy.

I wanted something cold for before thinking I told J to get me a Stir Fried Cold Skin Noodle. It soon hit me that stir fried means it's going to be hot and not cold...dammit! Nonetheless, it was delicious and addicting. Stir fried rice noodles with bean sprouts and gluten which is amazing, got a little tang to it but certainly yummy!

J had the Spicy Cumin Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles. The noodles were swimming in a pool of hot sauce, a lot less spicier than mine. I really like the texture of the noodles in the hot sauce and the pieces just add enough meaty-ness to it all. I want to slurp his entire plate!

To end it all, we had the Spicy Cumin Lamb Burger. Very similar to J's noodles but a bit more on the dry side. Eating the burger this time was a lot messier than the first couple of times  because the juices were oozing everywhere. I think I still like the pork burger better.

There's very limited seats at this Xi'an location but the cool thing we found out is that if you order food from Xi'an, there are a couple of places near the area that let you sit in their restaurant/shop if you buy a drink from them. How awesome is that?!

Xi'an Famous Food
81 St Marks Pl
New York, NY 10003
(212) 786-2068

Stand4

This past weekend, J and I decided to get some burgers. It was about time we use our voucher before it expires in October. Pretty funny how you don't notice something but it was always there and when you go there for something you think back of how you missed it. Yea, weird but it's true.

When we step foot into the restaurant, we got seated right away. The place was quite empty for lunch on a Saturday. J and I already know what we wanted so it was a quick boom bam kinda thang.

Mint Cookies and Cream Shake

Personally, I'm not a big fan of milkshakes but since I'm at a restaurant that sells burgers and shakes, why not? I opted for the Mint Cookies and Cream because they no longer have the Honey and Lavender. I actually really enjoyed this shake, tasted just like cookies and cream but with a hint of mint. So refreshing and good.

Absolut Marshmallow Shake

I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised when J chose an alcoholic shake, so predictable sometimes. I didn't like it much because the Absolut cancels out the sweetness of the milkshake and made it taste a bit bitter.

B&B Pickles

I am in love with this dish. Fried pickles are just so awesome. I mean, anything fried is amazing (how many times have I said that?). The honey dijon mustard complimented the pickles so insanely well. Sweet and light.

American Kobe with added bacon, egg, cheddar cheese, and onions

Classic burger with Mozzarella cheese

J had the American Kobe, he's always the greedier one of us two - hence the extra add-ons he puts on his Kobe. I tried to play it safe and went with the Classic since no other burgers on the menu seemed to be calling me. I really like how big and massive the burger is, I'm also really happy how satisfying the burger can be.

When in need of a good satisfying big burger, Stand4.

Stand4
24 E 12th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 488-5900 

Weekday Lunch: Goodburger

This is my second visit to Goodburger and it doesn't disappoint. I know I can go to a fast food chain and get a burger but it's definitely not as satisfying as Goodburger's burger. Plus, my company is just two blocks away from Goodburger which gives easy access. A burger from here starts around $5-ish but with all the knick-knacks you add in the burger, it'll most likely hit around $6-7. Add a complete meal, with fries and a drink (I replaced mine with a milkshake) and that would be $10-ish. But it's great to indulge in some greasy burgers once in a while.

Fries, Burger, Milkshake

They give quite an amount of fries but it lacks texture. I mean, it's really crispy, really really crispy, maybe even hard and it lacks salt. I love salt with my fries and if it's seasoned well, then there's no need for ketchup but that's not the case with their fries. But, I do like how it was packaged - every french fry stayed inside the bag.

The vanilla milkshake was alright. Nothing too surprising. A small is definitely enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Medium-cooked, cheese, onions, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and ketchup

Call me weird but I like my mayo with ketchup, it taste almost like the Thousand Island salad dressing. I guess the one thing I really like about Goodburger would be the way they cook their burger. I asked for medium and they cooked it quite well, you can still see the pink in the center which was such a beautiful thing. A little crust on the outside and the middle of the patty was so tender. Though, I do wish they added just a tad bit more sauce and a bigger slice of cheese.

Overall, a great lunch. This is a burger, which won't ever compare to a fast food chain burger. And one more photo for good time sakes.

You can totally see the beautiful layers of the burger.

goodburger
101 Maiden Ln
Manhattan, NY 10039
(212) 797-1700