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363 Greenwich St (btw Harrison & Franklin), New York, NY
Steakhouse · Tribeca · 97 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: In-House Burger, $14 There’s dry-aged rib-eye in the blend, onions caramelized in bourbon, and beer cheese made from Fontina, Cheddar, and Brooklyn Lager.
2 Lexington Ave (at Gramercy Park N), New York, NY
Italian Restaurant · Gramercy Park · 460 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Late-Night Burger, $15 Nick Anderer’s Italian take (Gorgonzola, house-cured pancetta, escarole on rosemary brioche) is available only between 10:30 p.m. and midnight and only in the front barroom.
180 Prince St (btwn Thompson & Sullivan St), New York, NY
French Restaurant · SoHo · 166 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Burger au Poivre, $19 Competition is fierce for the dozen daily orders.The patty’s pepper-crusted, the cheese is triple-crème Saint-Andre, and the sidecar of au poivre sauce puts it over the top.
Claire J Song: Char-Grilled Burger, $21 Some say this dish earned the Pig its Michelin star. The short-rib-heavy half-pound patty stands up to its mantle of salty-creamy Roquefort.
Claire J Song: Uncle Dude, $21 Like the owner’s Hudson Valley farm, whence comes the meat, this restaurant is Animal Welfare Approved and might possibly serve the most guilt-free burgers on the planet.
53 Little West 12th St (Washington Street and 10th Avenue), New York, NY
Tapas Restaurant · Meatpacking District · 14 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Hamburguesa with Bacon and Cheese, $16 Seamus Mullen’s “butcher’s burger” hits all the obligatory locavore notes and all the hoped-for organoleptic ones.
New American Restaurant · Lincoln Square · 86 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Bacon Cheeseburger, $28 prix-fixe lunch or $32 prix-fixe brunch only The Cheddar is Cabot, the bacon is Nueske’s, the brioche bun is housemade, and the beef comes from a family-run Missouri farm.
Claire J Song: Emmy Burger, $19 Juxtapose it with equally bold, bordering on baroque accoutrements like Grafton Cheddar, cornichons, charred onions, and the Korean-inspired “Emmy” sauce.
313 Church St (btw Lispenard St and Walker St), New York, NY
Bar · Tribeca · 12 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Tavern Burger, $19 The wild-card addition of beef heart makes this house-ground dry-aged blend, Minetta included. Plus good Cheddar, bacon-onion relish, and a brioche bun.
New American Restaurant · Flatiron District · 62 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Cheeseburger, $16 Jesse Schenker’s lunchtime burger is a beautiful thing: a thick puck of dry-aged beef, loosely packed to allow all those succulent fat molecules enough space to do their job.
American Restaurant · Greenwich Village · 621 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Black Label Burger, $28 The Black Label is still remarkably rich and costs only two bucks more than the day it debuted in 2009. Get it with cheese despite scoldy purist dictates.
Claire J Song: Prime Rib Burger, $24 The dry-aged prime-rib patty is cut with chuck and short rib, smothered with melted Gruyère, dressed up with roasted mushrooms, and finished off with a swab of bacon marmalade.
277 E 10th St (btwn 1st Ave & Avenue A), New York, NY
American Restaurant · East Village · 192 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Sebastian’s Steakhouse Burger, $15 The key is not the dry-aged beef. It’s chef Jeremy Spector’s much-imitated decision to treat this primo protein as a Greek-diner fry cook might.
Claire J Song: Cheeseburger, $22 this might be the only 30-day dry-aged seven-ounce LaFrieda patty that gets swiped with mustard, In-N-Out-style, before it’s seared on the plancha.
New American Restaurant · East Village · 155 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Cheeseburger, $13 The man grinds his own beef, mixes it with shio kombu (salted kelp) to boost the umami factor, brushes his buns with dry-aged beef fat, and makes his own American-style cheese.
248 Mulberry St (btwn Prince & Spring St), New York, NY
Italian Restaurant · NoLita · 493 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Patty Melt, $25 The beef they use for this patty melt goes where no patty-melt beef has gone before: into a LaFrieda meat locker, where it’s aged for 60 days. Plus great smashed potatoes on the side.
American Restaurant · West Village · 153 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Cheeseburger, $17 Every detail is spot on, housemade sesame-seed bun, and house-brined bread-and-butter pickles. Weekend brunch and lunch Fridays and Saturdays only.
Claire J Song: NoMad Burger, $18 An elegant bar burger: with the acquiescent bite of a fast-food burger and extra fat in the stealthy form of bone marrow and beef suet ground into the dry-aged blend.
Claire J Song: Fedora Burger, $13 In a nod, perhaps, to the Cuban-style burger variant called the frita, a cache of extra-crispy potato sticks adds textural complexity and audible crunch.
Claire J Song: El Doble, $12 If gussied-up, ethnicized burgers are rarely good, this is the Basque-inspired exception. It comes with Idiazábal cheese, pickled onions, cornichons, and “salsa especial.”
Claire J Song: El Doble, $12 If gussied-up, ethnicized burgers are rarely good, this is the Basque-inspired exception. It comes with Idiazábal cheese, pickled onions, cornichons, and “salsa especial.” Monday nights
New American Restaurant · SoHo · 458 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Double Cheddar Burger, $21 What’s most exciting about this burger, though, is that it’s a dry-aged double — a unicorn of the stacked-burger world.
Claire J Song: Double Cheeseburger, $12 The house style is a relentlessly drippy double fashioned from two well-browned three-ounce patties fully accessorized with lettuce, tomato, American cheese, pickle, onion.
French Restaurant · Hell's Kitchen · 46 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: French Onion Soup Burger, Prix-Fixe $25 lunch, $29 dinner, and $39 pre-theater only A canny impersonation of the bistro warhorse in burger form, with béchamel, stock-braised onions, and Emmenthaler.
French Restaurant · Midtown East · 93 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: The Original DB burger, $35 When Daniel Boulud stuffed braised short ribs, foie gras, and preserved black truffles into a ground sirloin shell, he forever changed the face of upscale burgerdom.
600 11th Ave (btwn W 44th & W 45th St), New York, NY
American Restaurant · Hell's Kitchen · 50 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: the Classic Burger, $8 As evocative of California as Meyer lemons and fish tacos, this Gotham West beaut is loose and juicy and well seasoned, not to mention properly dressed.
35 E 18th St (btwn Broadway & Park Ave S), New York, NY
New American Restaurant · Flatiron District · 721 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Akaushi Cheeseburger, $24 Though the wagyu-breed beef is ranched in Texas and the Bloomsday cheese comes from Connecticut, Champagne-vinegar-pickled jalapenos, fresh arugula, and herby mayo.
Mexican Restaurant · Lower East Side · 198 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Hamburguesa, $16 Danny Bowien’s lavish new double combines the produce-forward appeal of a West Coast burger and the too-much-is-never-enough spirit of a Mexican torta.
New American Restaurant · East Village · 163 tips and reviews
Claire J Song: Skillet Burger, $18 Odd that you can find one of the city’s best burgers in a restaurant known for its rotisserie beets and carrots Wellington. Lunch and brunch only.