www.bobbysburgerpalace.com
The Order: Napa Valley Burger, medium rare. With goat cheese, watercress, and Meyer Lemon Honey Mustard, crunchified.
Side Order: Onion rings ($3)
$7.75 + $3 = $10.75
Drink Order: Coke
Burger Menu Rating: 11/15
Now I'm not particularly a fan of Bobby Flay. I'm not against him by any means, but I haven't watched hours upon hours of any cooking show to know exactly what his, or any other cook's, for that matter, style is. He is a name; that is to be respected, and that is all. But when I heard that he had his own Burger Palace, I was downright excited, not because it was Bobby Flay, but because a popular celebrity chef had devised a chain establishment dedicated to Burgers! And I'm also excited to discover that another one of these establishments is located on Long Island, not to far away from where I live! Excitement abounds.
Upon seeing the menu, I quickly decided upon the Napa Valley Burger. I had recently had a string of burgers with either blue cheese or avocado, so I was doing my best to avoid falling into a pattern and the goat cheese and watercress both really stood out. But wait! What is this "Crunchified" business they speak of? For no additional cost, they'll toss a whole bunch of plain potato chips onto your burger. Yes, please! I received my number and glass and found a seat.
When you sit down at your table, you're sitting on benches with everyone else in the establishment, and you'll immediately see an array of sauces for your fries, rings or burger. Ignoring the regular ketchup and mustard, they also offer Jalapeno Hot Sauce, BBP Fry Sauce, Honey Mustard Horseradish, Burger Sauce, and Chipotle Ketchup. I tried every one, and they were all delicious. I recommend mixing and matching between the fries, rings, and various sauces as well as combining sauces (how daring). You'll be in for a treat.
The onion rings here are great. They're tasty, crunchy, seasoned just enough to add a counterpoint to the sweetness of the onion and batter, but they're definitely not worth it. $3 for 3 or 4 rings?! You've got to be kidding me. Yes, they were giant thick rings, but come on! I want some bang for my buck! The fries or sweet potato fries are a better choice for your money, and go as well with the sauces, if not better.
The burger, when it arrived, was a tower of a spectacle that just made my mouth water. And the chips! There were a TON of them on the burger, much more than I'd expected, though its not as if adding potato chips to the burger really costs them all that much. Pressing down the top bun and crunching all the chips was entirely satisfying, and made the top bun hold in nearly all the chips. They give the burger a fantastic crunch, texture and add a bit of salty flavor which is excellent. Granted, I may have had a few beers by this point in the night, but everything on this burger came together to be something fantastic. It was juicy, tasty, and though it wasn't cooked perfectly (it was closer to medium), it was still delicious. The goat cheese was melty and the flavor wasn't overpoweringly strong, but bursts of flavor came through to remind my mouth that it was still a major contender in this burger, and was definitely complimented by the meat and chips.
Overall, I'm excited to go to one of the two Long Island establishments and see if the burgers are as good there as well. Nick Solares, of A Hamburger Today mentions having a similar problem with his burger being overcooked, but whereas Nick's burger was dry, mine was still juicy and delicious. Nick's review is from 2008, so it make sense that BBP would have been able to iron out some of their wrinkles, if not all of them, in two years, though I'd hope that they'd be able to cook their burgers correctly when ordered at a specific temperature. We'll see how it goes a second time around.
Cooked Correctly = 3pts
Presentation/Plating = 3pts
Design/Ingredients = 3pts
Value = 2 pts
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