www.5napkinburger.com
Photo courtesy of the web, originally from 5 Napkin Burger.
The Order: Original 5 Napkin Burger, medium rare. 10oz custom ground beef, caramelized onions, gruyere, rosemary aioli, on a soft white roll.
Side Order: Comes with fries.
$14.95
Drink Order: 5 Napkin Nut Brown Lager
Burger Menu Rating: 11/15
This is a hip little place. Old Edison lamps hang from meat hooks all over this dimly lit bar/restaurant (too dim, in fact, to get a decent pixture w/ my crap phone), while a wide range of music plays, though not so loud you can't talk to your servers or friends. The atmosphere is relaxed, and there's a constant buzz of conversation. And this place gets busy, so I'd definitely make a reservation if you can. I walked in and was able to snag a seat at the bar. The bartender was knowledgeable about the menu, and decisive with her advice, which amounted to 'go for the original.'
This burger is about toppings, taste and mouthfeel. Everything on this burger comes together in a sot and creamy mess that is a delight to bite into. It's all soft around the meat, making he meat stand out and exist as an altogether different texture that is satisfying to sink your teeth into. And the taste of the sauce packs a big punch. In fact, it's almost too much. The rosemary aioli is so strong that you barely get any of the other flavors in the burger, and the meat flavor itself struggles to make its presence known to your mouth. The gruyere and the caramelized onions are likewise thrust aside in the aioli's quest to dominate your taste buds. Still, the burger is cooked perfectly, and the texture of the burger is perfect. Eating a bite of the meat separately from the rest of the burger reveals it to be slightly smoky, and completely delicious, so it's not as if the ingredients aren't all there and holding up their end of the bargain. This also isn't to say that the aioli isn't delicious! It is! Entirely! It's superb! But there was way too much of it on this burger.
The fries are dull and uninteresting unless smothered in ketchup; their taste not only completely lost compared to the aioli, but somehow lacking from the beginning. Perhaps a lack of seasoning, or crunch. It seems like everything about the fries, besides their presentation, is disappointing.
Still, I find myself scarfing down the burger, and fries, in my usual manner, which tells me the burger is, in fact, delicious. It's just a balance in flavor that this meal is lacking.
Cooked Correctly = 5pts
Presentation/Plating = 2pts
Design/Ingredients = 2pts
Value = 2
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