P.S. Burgers

Mineola, NY
www.psburgers.com



The Order: The P.S. Paris, medium rare.  With a fried egg, sauteed spinach, gruyere, smoked bacon, and Dijon honey mustard.
Side Order: Gruyere Fries (+$1.75)
$8.95 + $1.75 = $10.70
Drink Order: Coca-Cola
Burger Menu Rating: 8.5/15




This relatively new and tiny little place in Mineola right by the train station has caught my eye numerous times as I made my way down 2nd St. to the Black Sheep Ale House (hands down the best beer bar in Nassau County).  Brightly lit, and sparsely decorated, P.S. Burgers stands out from the rest of the stores (Wong's Noodle House, St. James, etc.) on the street.  With windows emblazoned with stamps featuring the likeness of burgers, P.S. Burgers promises burgers themed and styled from cuisine around the world.


Brandon and Kana.  Super excited about eating burgers.  Who wouldn't be?

Accompanied by my friends Brandon and Kana, I finally made my way inside P.S. Burgers for a late lunch.  The place was basically deserted, and was spotless.  There was no evidence that prior to our being there, the restaurant was packed, churning out burger after burger.  But luckily for us there was no line, so our wait time was short (I've heard that peak hour wait times here are upwards of 15 minutes - not very fast).  I was surprised, though, when I was able to order my burger cooked medium rare.  A place like this, with what were evidently thin patties, often doesn't allow, or even try, cooking the burgers to temperature.


The yellowing of the picture doesn't do it justice.

Well the burger was overcooked.  I'm sure they tried to make it medium rare, and given such a small patty, I'm surprised they even tried, but it was still overcooked to medium well (-2).  The other disappointing thing about the burger was that the fried egg was cooked over well.  I wasn't given a choice, but with an egg on a burger, I've come to expect it to be at least over medium, if not over easy.  Who doesn't want delicious runny egg yolk all over the burger?!  That being said, those were the only two disappointing things about the burger.  There was so much flavor involved in this burger that it was hard to stop and think about what I was eating!  The cooked spinach with the egg and bacon worked really well.  It was like eating breakfast on top of my burger.  The bun - I went with the brioche - was slightly charred, but not too much.  It was fantastic for sopping up the juices and holding the entire burger together while not overwhelming with the additional char flavor.




Gruyere Fries.  Sounds amazing right?  Totally not worth it for the amount of actual cheese on the fries.  But, had there been more, it would have ended up a cold lumpy cheese mess.  I'd skip the Gruyere Fries and go for the regular fries.  The sweet potato fries were also soggy and disappointing.

What's great about the menu here are the options.  Not only is every burger interesting, but you can specify what bread, what meat, what everything.  Not that that's anything new in the burger world, but the ingredients here are really good.  The price point is also a little high, but given the options, it's something I'm willing to look past.  They also just recently opened up a second location in the West Village, and at both locations you can order online for pick up, or delivery.  I'd definitely make another trip back here to try some of their other burgers, but stress that they really shouldn't leave the burger on the grill as long as they think they need to.




Cooked Correctly:  3/5
Design/Ingredients:  2.5/4
Plating:  1.5/3
Value:  1.5/3

Roberta's

Brooklyn, NY
www.robertaspizza.com



The Order:  Cheeseburger, medium rare.  With American cheese, romaine and onion on a Potato bun.
Side Order:  Comes with flash-fried potatoes.
$12
Drink Order:  Mission IPA
Burger Menu Rating:  6/15




When I went to Roberta's in Bushwick, I didn't have very high expectations for a good burger from a decidedly pizza-oriented restaurant.  However, I think I saw somewhere that someone else had given it a positive review, so why not, right?  This burger is only available on their lunch menu, so don't even try to get this one at any other time.



The whirling bustle that is the Roberta's pizza kitchen.

When you walk in, the first thing you see to your left is the kitchen, a bustling whirl of pizza-making activity.  The chefs are all hard at work cranking out pizza after pizza for the myriad customers seated at the benches throughout Roberta's.  The entire place is fairly bright and open, and there's a great community vibe.

First of all, the bun was toasted which is great, but the problem was that it was incredibly greasy.  It's also got a lot of salt content for some reason (maybe heated with a pad of salted butter on it, or spread on it?).   My fingers were greasy and messy, and not from the meat or meat juices, but just from the bun itself.  Otherwise, it was nicely toasted with a decent crunch and a softness to the inside.

The meat was a decent medium coarse grind, but unfortunately that's where the good things I can say about the meat stop.  The meat was worked way too much, to the point that the consistency was almost like pate, and it was so undercooked that some parts were almost raw (-3).  I appreciate a burger that's cooked to a good medium rare, but when parts of the meat are cold, and I can use my knife to spread the meat easily on the plate, there's definitely something wrong.  The patty was extremely greasy as well, soaking the bottom bun.  Disappointing.  Oddly enough, eating a small piece of the meat and then the bun on its own revealed that the bun was the salty culprit and NOT the meat, which was not nearly salted enough!




Undercooked goopy meat!  Definitely not medium rare.

The romaine and onions were crisp and fresh, adding a nice crunch and brightness to the overall burger flavor.  However, the only real other burger flavors here were oil and salt to the flavors of the toppings doesn't really go so far as to make this a good burger.


Another shot of undercooked meat. For good measure.

The trend of the meal being too salty continued with the fries!  Oh joy!  More salt to help balance out the flavors of salt and grease in this meal.  The fries' only real problem was the saltiness.  They were meaty and perfectly cooked, and maybe being over-salted would have been forgiven if not for the burger, but in this meal, they started out playing one man down.

The meal comes with mayo, ketchup and deli mustard on the side for the fries.  I recommend adding some combination of the mayo and the mustard to the burger to make it palatable, and leave the ketchup for the fries, or don't use it at all.  The ketchup adds more salt to the, already, salty meal, but the mayo and mustard round out and add other flavors.  The general consensus at the table was that the overall the meal was just too salty and greasy.  All three of us couldn't finish our burgers or fries.  You can see from the pictures below that this place is pretty cool though.  They throw a block party every year, and recently opened an outdoor area that can also be rented for events.  But the burger is not something you want to order.  Roberta's is a pizza restaurant.  They, and you, should stick to what they do best.




Cooked Correctly:  2/5
Design/Ingredients:  1/4
Plating:  2/3
Value:  1/3