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
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