4food

A few months ago, I was very intrigued by all the speculation I was reading on Midtown Lunch about 4food’s impending opening. With all the new burger joints opening around this city, it takes a lot for one to stand out among the crowd. I wasn’t sure if 4food’s “dejunking fast food” motto or its strange donut-shaped burger patties would make it stand out in a good way or a bad way, but I was curious enough to give them a try – which means they were at least successful in luring one customer in!

Before their opening, I was checking out their website and saw an offer to get $12 free to spend at the restaurant if you signed up for an account on the site. How could I say no to that?

But it wasn’t until just this week that I actually had a chance to go check out their food. Preparing to go into Manhattan to run some errands, I logged into the 4food website to place my order online. The website is pretty cool – you can customize your entire burger, from bun to toppings, and see an illustrated image of what you are ordering:



I chose the multigrain bun with the veggie patty (the patty is vegan, although the only vegan option among the buns is the pressed rice patty – all the bread contains dairy). All 4food burgers are donut-shaped, and then you choose a “scoop” of something to fill the hole in the middle. I selected pickled peppers for mine (other options include dried fruit and nuts, beans, mushrooms, spinach, etc). For the “slice” I picked fresh avocado. Next, I chose guacamole, sweet chili sauce, and hummus for my condiments (might have been overdoing it a bit… but the list, and the option to choose up to three at no extra cost, was too tempting!). The more traditional toppings of lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles are called “addons” in 4food lingo. I said yes to all four.

I finished placing the order online (it even gives you the nutritional information about your order at the end), and specified what time I wanted it to be ready for pickup. Then I put on my coat, left my apartment, and got on the train.



When I arrived at 4food, I was a few minutes early. My order was ready right on time. I have to say, I enjoyed the convenience of the whole ordering online thing, although they have a fleet of iPads in the restaurant for customers to place orders on too. It's perfect for people who like to be picky about what they order, or just don't like dealing with a human when placing that order.



The restaurant has ample seating, with wooden board games set out at some of the tables, in what looks like another attempt to “dejunk fast food” by inviting people to hang out rather than just eat and run. I’m not sure how successful this is, since I was the only person in the restaurant… but that could have been because I was coming at that odd time between lunch and dinner, after or before most people go out to eat.

My burger and fries – sorry, “square roots” as 4food calls them (and yes, they are square-shaped) came in cute little boxes:





Of course, the burger didn’t look quite as perfect as the illustration online – but it did smell delicious!



I opened it up before biting in, curious to see the “scoop” of pickled peppers in the middle of the patty. That “scoop” was a bit smaller than the pictures online had lead me to believe it would be, and my avocado “slices” were a bit overripe and looked more like chunks than slices, but it was still quite a delicious array of toppings. The sweet chili sauce overpowered the flavor of the guacamole and hummus – but it was so good that I didn’t mind. The pickles, lettuce, tomato, and onions were all fresh and tasty. If you like a ton of toppings on your burger, 4food is definitely the place to go.



The multigrain bun was just okay – not exceptional. On the outside it looked good, but inside the bread seemed too white to really uphold the “dejunking fast food” motto.

The burger patty itself was a bit of a letdown. The whole thing was rather mushy, and would have been better with a crispier outside. I tried to identify individual ingredients, but the only ones I could see clearly were walnuts and possibly sunflower seeds. I suppose it worked as a good base for all of those delicious toppings, but when I pulled off a piece of it with my fork to taste it isolated from all the other flavors, it was just rather bland. And the donut shape, while an interesting novelty, is a rather unstable structure for a burger. Once you've broken the circle by biting into one side, it tends to slide out of the bun and break off in pieces. I had never considered how useful the center of a burger is for holding the whole thing together until a piece of my 4food burger fell out of the bun, bounced off my lap, and landed on the floor.

I’ll give them points for novelty. And the “square roots” fries were actually very good (a mix of yams with white and purple potatoes). And I appreciated the fact that my meal cost absolutely nothing thanks to that free $12 I got just for signing up on their website several months ago. But I doubt I will return to eat here again. There are too many burgers I like better in this city.

Cost: $6.50 ($3.50 extra for "square roots")
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3      Bun: 3      Toppings: 5

4food
286 Madison Ave
@ 40th Street
212.254.3663

YumVeggieBurger review #30

DuMont Burger

When I hear a lot of meat-eaters raving about a burger place, I’m always extra curious to try their vegetarian offering(s). And DuMont Burger has quite a reputation for its meat-burgers (the two guys in button-down shirts sitting next to me at the bar couldn’t stop raving about their burgers as they ate them – one declared that he felt “drunk on a burger” when he had finished).

The funny thing is, when you get to this restaurant and look at the menu, the veggie burger is not listed under “Burgers”. My heart skipped a beat at that absence – until I saw “Chickpea Burger” beneath the heading “Everything Else”. Kind of an odd placement, like DuMont is embarrassed to admit that they included a burger for us vegetarians. But I guess we can’t complain too much, right? At least it’s on the menu somewhere.



Here is something I have learned after much eating of veggie burgers in NYC: “Chickpea Burger” is code for “falafel burger”.

Now, I love falafel. And I don’t think falafel burgers are a bad idea… But, as I explained in my review of GO Burger, it’s just not quite the same as a regular veggie burger – and at the end of the day, unless it’s absolutely mind-blowing, I’d rather just get a normal falafel sandwich from a street vendor.

So, I felt a bit disappointed that a place whose meat-burgers get such rave reviews didn’t try harder to offer a more unique veggie burger. Especially when it comes with such a high price tag. Those factors aside though, the burger was good. They certainly perfected the falafel flavoring, although I thought the patty was a bit too thick. Since falafel is often rather dry (although at least this one was nice and crispy on the outside), it would have been easier to eat the burger if the patty was a bit thinner.



The bun was soft and sweet – too sweet, I thought, to be paired with falafel. It was just an odd mix of flavors that did not sit well on my tongue. The toppings were delicious – the tatziki-style garlic-dill sauce was great and helped combat how dry the thick patty was (although to get a vegan burger, you’d have to go without the sauce – and I’m not sure they have a vegan substitute, so you’d be stuck with a very dry burger!). The lettuce, tomato, and cucmumbers were good, but the pickles were scrumptious – although I admit I felt that the burger already had enough different flavors competing, so I just ate the pickles separately.

I will also give DuMont credit for the variety options they offer as sides with the burger (included in the price) – fries, onion rings, or the soup of the day. I had a cup of white gazpacho, which was tasty, but I should have eaten it before the burger as I ended up being too full to finish it... I know, I know, soups are meant to be eaten before main courses – but I get a bit ahead of myself in my excitement to review a new burger!

Cost: $12
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3      Bun: 3      Toppings: 4

DuMont Burger
314 Bedford Ave
between S 2nd Street and S 1st street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718.384.6127

YumVeggieBurger review #29

Westville East

The film shoot I was working on has finally wrapped – so now that I’m not working 20-hour days constantly, I have time to go eat more veggie burgers!

And time to do other things, too… like go on dates. This happens to be the first burger I ate and reviewed while on a date. Don’t worry though, it was a third date – I might talk about Battlestar Galactica on a first date, but I’ll save my dorky photographing of half-eaten veggie burgers for a later time, when the guy in question knows me a little better and won’t be totally weirded out ;)

I’d wanted to try Westville’s burger for some time now, since a friend recommended it to me awhile ago. Having walked by their East Village location many times, and noticed how cozy and fun it looked, I figured it would be a good place for a date as well.

Of course I ordered the veggie burger – which comes “topped with mixed mushrooms & spicy tartar sauce”. Since I’ve often professed my dislike of mushrooms, I asked the waiter if I could order the burger without them. I added avocado ($1.50 extra) to compensate for the missing topping.



Alas, my burger was still served to me with the mushrooms - although they did remember to add the avocado.



But I just shoved the mushrooms off with my fork before eating the burger. My date didn’t seem too turned-off by this.

Avocado was a much better topping, along with the lettuce, red onion, tomato, and pickles. The little tartar sauce left behind after most of it stuck to the mushrooms I removed tasted pretty good as well. I thought the bun was just average – nothing too special.

But the burger patty itself was delicious.

Warm and soft on the inside, with the ideal layer of crispy on the outside. Everything was mashed together so finely inside that I couldn’t quite pick out individual ingredients. It tasted like red peppers might be a main component though, and that would explain the bright orange coloring of the patty as well. I could also see corn, bits of onion, and other vegetables as well. The flavor was wonderful – very rich and savory.



I asked the bartender (we were eating at the bar because they were rather crowded and we didn’t want to wait 20 minutes for a table) if the burger was vegan, and he said he would find out. Another employee came out and told me that the burger was vegan, no dairy or eggs. But after he left, the bartender confided to me that he thought that guy was wrong - and that there were actually eggs in the patty. I was surprised by this contradiction among the staff – it reminded me of a Food Network article which Super Vegan linked to recently, describing how about 15% of chefs said their vegetarian dishes might not be completely vegetarian”. I’m sure the statistics are even higher for vegan dishes… tartar sauce is not normally vegan.

So if you are vegan, I’d hesitate to recommend that you eat Westville’s burger – although the bartender pointed out to me that they do serve an all-vegan hotdog. For vegetarians though, the burger really is worth trying. And the sweet potato fries were amazing! My date had a vegetable platter which he enjoyed very much as well, and says he can't wait to come back to this restaurant again. The menu quite extensive – I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a long list of daily specials before! I definitely want to come back to try more of the dishes here, although I’d be just as happy to come eat the veggie burger again, too.

Cost: $10 + $1.50 for avocado
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 4      Bun: 3      Toppings: 5

Westville East
173 Avenue A
at the corner of 11th Street
New York, NY 10009
212.677.2933
Westville locations in Chelsea and the West Village as well

YumVeggieBurger review #28

Astor Bake Shop

I had eagerly awaited the opening of this bakery, next to one of my favorite local bars - Hell Gate Social. When the bake shop finally opened its doors, the hours were a little funny at first so I kept showing up when they were closing, or at a time when they were not serving the lunch menu, etc. I tasted an insanely rich slice of chocolate cake, a breakfast sandwich, and a chocolate croissant, but I was dying to try the lentil burger…

Finally, I did – and it was completely worth the wait!
I had pretty high expectations for this burger. I was anticipating it being a 4-star one, but it completely defied my expectations and turned out to be a 5-star instead!



The patty was delicious – I have to admit, I am usually a fan of burgers that have more vegetables and grains than beans, but this is the best lentil burger I have ever tasted. The outside of the patty was crispy, the inside was soft, and it fell apart in my mouth but didn’t fall out of the bun in pieces. Perfect.

It comes topped with tomatoes, pickled onions (a first for me – they were great!), and an amazingly tasty horseradish sauce. My plate also contained a side of mixed greens, some of which I added to the burger since I like my burgers with a leafy crunch. And the bun was everything you would expect a bun from a bakery to be: sweet and soft and delicious!



I asked if the burger was vegan, and was told that they currently use egg as a binder for the patty, but are working on finding a replacement to make it vegan (how awesome and thoughtful is that?). The horseradish sauce is dairy-based, but you could definitely order the burger without it (although it was delicious… hopefully they will get a good dairy-free sauce that you could substitute too!)

Finally… the true test of a five-star burger: Was I already fantasizing about going back to eat it again, only one day later? YES!

Cost: $6.95
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Burger patty: 4      Bun: 5      Toppings: 5

Astor Bake Shop
12-23 Astoria Blvd
at the corner of 14th street
Astoria, NY 11102
718.606.8439

YumVeggieBurger review #27

The Belgian Room

I came to the Belgian room for drinks and Belgian Frites after work one evening, but when I found out they had just added a veggie burger to their menu (something I had suggested to them before! Don’t underestimate the power of vegetarians asking for more options on the menu!) I immediately ordered it.

They told me the patty was one they made themselves, with black beans (and eggs – sorry vegans!) so I was quite eager to taste it.



It was served to me with no toppings – although a bottle of ketchup was offered. I tried it first as it was, and I must say it was a pretty tasty burger. Not too spicy, but the beans were pretty flavorful and the texture was soft and rich. I mentioned (constructive feedback!) that they should serve it with at least some lettuce and tomato, which were then brought out for me, and did add a nice crunch and juiciness to the whole thing. The bun was toasted (always a good thing), and pretty good although it was not as memorable as some amazing ones I have tried.



Since they have made a few changes to the menu, including the addition of the veggie burger, it sounds like they are still perfecting things – and might end up coming up with specialized toppings for the burger eventually. Since they have so many tasty dipping sauces for the fries (I am partial to the chipotle mayo, myself) I can imagine those flavors would adapt easily to a veggie burger.

Overall, I am quite thrilled that a bar I have often visited now has an entrée on their menu that I can actually order. First the GO Burger truck adding veggie burgers to their permanent menu, now the Belgian Room… this city is becoming even more vegetarian-friendly by the minute!

Cost: $9.50
Rating: 3 stars
Burger patty: 4      Bun: 3      Toppings: 1

The Belgian Room
125 St Mark’s Place
between 1st Ave and Avenue A
212.533.4467

YumVeggieBurger review #26

Question for other food bloggers

Hypothetically, of course...

Suppose a friend or relative invited you out to a bar or restaurant that happened to be owned by an acquaintance of theirs. Knowing that you write a blog in which you review restaurants or specific food items (such as veggie burgers!), your friend or relative encouraged you to review what you ordered from the menu, saying "don't write anything bad about this place, though!"

If the meal was disappointing, or flat out terrible, would you go ahead and write the review?


I am very much against censorship. And in regards to my blog specifically, I think it would defeat the whole purpose if I left out reviews as a favor to a friend of a friend or whatever, just because they contain criticism. It's not because I fancy myself a journalist with certain ethics of that field to uphold, but it's because I'm so passionate about this project.

My goal for this blog is that eventually it will become a super-useful archive of all the veggie burgers in NYC (and as far outside of the city as I travel!). This will take me several years, of course - not even considering all the new restaurants that will open during that time period, or all the existing ones that might add veggie burgers to their menus in the meantime. But it's a longterm goal. And if I should ever come close to reaching it, I don't want to have any burgers omitted from that archive of information just to protect a restaurant's reputation.

If a restaurant owner ever read a negative review of mine, and was inspired to improve the quality of the veggie burger on his menu, I would more than happily return to give them a second try - and a glowing review, if it was indeed improved.

I'm not out to destroy anyone's reputation with what I write here - I think it would be pretty crazy to think that one little vegetarian blog could do that, anyway. I'm just trying to document information, which was originally only for my own purposes (to help me remember where the best veggie burgers were) but is now something I want to share with others who may find it useful as well. And warnings about bad veggie burgers are a key part of that information.

Hibernia

You know how sometimes you just want to eat a crappy burger with nasty American cheese on top?
That’s called being drunk.

Sometimes I’m so dedicated to this blog that I order a burger which I KNOW will be bad. Because someone has to review it, right? The world needs to know. So I “take one for the team” and eat a burger at a sports-type bar that clearly just added a generic “veggie burger” to its menu as an after-thought to capitalize on the increasing popularity of vegetarianism, without concern for the quality of said menu offering.

This was one such burger.



Generic veggie patty… check! And very dry, at that. I don’t know if it was just that bad to begin with or if they cooked it for too long with no oil, or what… but it was bad. That kind of imitation-meat texture, mixed with peas and carrots (why are the makers of generic veggie patties so uncreative when it comes to choosing what vegetables they include?)



The bun was pretty standard for bar food. The toppings were your basic lettuce, tomato, and onion, with a pickle on the side. The fries were definitely the best part of the meal.

Obviously, no one comes to this bar just to eat the veggie burger. I’d love to do a survey someday to see how many veggie burgers places like this sell per week… I can’t imagine it’s a large number. Guess frozen burgers keep for months, though!

But if you like sports bars filled with tons of people at 2am in Hell’s Kitchen, by all means do not let my review of one menu item deter you from enjoying that scene.

Cost: $9 (add $1 for cheese)
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 1      Bun: 2      Toppings: 2

Hibernia
401 west 50th Street
between 9th and 10th Ave
New York, NY 10019
212.969.9703

YumVeggieBurger review #25

Caravan Of Dreams

Once again, I’m using this website a an excuse to try out restaurants I’ve been dying to dine at for ages… Caravan of Dreams has been on that list for awhile. I can’t even count the number of times I walked past, but I never had a good excuse to go in – until now.

I met my friend John here around 6pm – at that time of day, the lighting was beautiful in the restaurant. I fell in love with the place immediately. Rich, comfy colors, potted plants all around the windowsils… it felt like someone’s bohemian kitchen where I would have been perfectly content to spend hours eating, talking, reading, etc.


unsuspecting diners who I rudely photographed without their knowledge

The veggie burger comes with a side salad (which was pretty tasty) but I also splurged and ordered a chilled avocado coconut soup as an appetizer. FYI, it was delicious.

But I was most excited to taste the burger itself - and it was great. The sprouted-grain bun was positively overloaded with sesame seeds (I’ve never seen that many on one bun before!). As a little kid, I would have probably bee horrified by this sight. But now as an adult, I loved it. The grilled onions and peppers were fantastic, too. Grilled onions are one of the best things you can put on top of a burger, in my humble opinion.



Although the patty tasted wonderful, it did not hold together well at all. I’m all for a burger that falls apart as you eat it. Some of my favorite ones are those which leave a big mess in your hands and on your plate as you eat them. But they have to hold together just enough so that you still get an even ratio of bun, toppings, and patty in each bite. This one had issues with that – the patty squished and oozed out of the bun as I started eating it so that after a few bites I realized I was only eating toppings and bun, and most of the patty had slid out and onto my plate.



That’s what forks are for, though! Because it was delicious: potatoes with other vegetables and grains (it was all mashed together so it was hard to pick out individual ingredients), grilled. And clearly a house-made patty too, nothing pre-packaged or generic about it.

And I’d love to return to Caravan of Dreams to try some of their other dishes another time… even though it wasn't the best veggie burger I've ever had, it was still a good one. And clearly they know how to cook good vegan food - there were a lot of things on their menu that I would have been tempted to order if I hadn't gone straight to the veggie burger. And it’s always great to have another vegan restaurant I can confidently recommend to someone.



Cost: $13
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 4:       Bun: 4:       Toppings:4

Caravan of Dreams
405 east 6th Street
between 1st Ave & Ave A
New York, NY 10009
212.254.1613

YumVeggieBurger review #24

Not entirely burger-related

Remember my review of the terrible burger at Bridgeview Café? The one that I said gave veggie burgers a bad name?

Biking down Vernon Boulevard this morning, I passed this restaurant and noticed that all the signage was gone and the inside looked dark and empty. Their website simply states
THIS ESTABLISHMENT IS NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
-BRIDGE VIEW MANAGEMENT
Goodbye, crappy veggie burger!

also...

Bianca, from the awesome blog Vegan Crunk, was kind enough to give me the Most Versatile Blogger Award yesterday - thanks so much, Bianca!

The rules for this award are that I have to share seven things you "may not know about me", and then pass the award on to five other deserving bloggers.
Whenever people tag me in things like this on facebook, I just ignore them. But I've found the blogging community to be much more fun and friendly and something about it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy. And this award especially does that.

So! Seven things you may not know about me... unless you're one of the people who knew me before I started this blog... but everyone else who reads it probably doesn't know these things:

1. I'm pretty geeky. I quote The Lord of the Rings and wear Battlestar Galactica t-shirts. I want to dress up as River from Firefly for Halloween this year if I have time to make a costume.
2. Dan Savage is my idol.
3. Until about a month ago, I was under the impression that brussels sprouts were gross. I had never actually tasted them. I finally tried them, and realized what I'd stupidly been missing out on for years.
4. I'm either hardcore or annoying about recycling, depending on your perspective (my roommates would probably say annoying)
5. I've been a vegetarian for years, but I just recently (in the past year) started trying to eat as little dairy as possible for health reasons, which has lead to the discovery of some amazing vegan recipes (like my favorite comfort food - macaroni and cheese!)
6. I refuse to drink beer. I love hard cider though.
7. I mentioned in a previous post that I quit my old job, but I didn't say what I am doing now... I worked as an art department assistant on a feature film last month, and I'm working on another film now that's just about to start shooting, so that's why I haven't been online too much lately. I love it so much I can't even begin to describe it, even though I am totally a broke (but not quite starving!) artist now.

And now I will pass this award on, to five other bloggers who I love:

1. Hour of Gold - Carlea writes amazing fiction, posts the coolest/weirdest links, and steadfastidly updates every single day, which I am always rather in awe/jealous of. Also, she's the one who inspired me to start baking my own bread.
2. The Foodista - because she has kept me up-to-date on the newest and best restaurants since well before I started reviewing veggie burgers, and she also lives in Astoria!
3. The Luxury Yacht Review - although it has nothing whatsoever to do with yachts, or reviews of yachts, Derek's blog is a great collection of reviews of film, music, literature, and beer.
4. Singer Eats - although I have been so busy with film shoots that I still have not had time to visit the co-op that Dianne posted such a great description of. On my next day off, I keep saying... whenever that happens! In the meantime, though, I love her reviews of NYC restaurants (many of which I can't wait to go try!)
5. A Soy Bean - Abigail's posts are so detailed and descriptive and always make me hungry.

check them out, they are definitely worth reading!

Bare Burger

I’ve been to Bare Burger a few times since it first opened in my neighborhood. It’s kind of a fun and quirky place that proudly advertises its use of all-organic ingredients in its unique assortment of burgers. While I personally find their menu a bit too pricey on certain items to make it a place I frequent regularly, I have always enjoyed their veggie burgers - so of course I had to treat myself to another dinner here… for the sake of the blog.

The cool thing about Bare Burger’s menu is that once you choose your meat (veggie for me, obviously – but they have some more “exotic” meats that my carnivorous friends quite enjoy, like ostrich and bison) you can then choose from an assortment of topping options, each with a name like “jalapeno express” and a suggestion of which type of burger the toppings go best with. For this review, I stuck with the basic “Original Bareburger” with Monterey Jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, raw red onion, and Bareburger special sauce. The veggie burger and the bun are both vegan, so ordering the burger without the sauce or cheese will make it completely animal-product-free.



A couple warnings about the menu, though – some of the different toppings are not available on all burgers. I tried to order a veggie burger with the carmelized onions and cucumber mint yogurt and was told that this was only available with the lamb. I’m still not sure why they have this policy, as it seems like it would be as easy to put those toppings on any patty, but alas!

Second warning: Unlike most restaurants, fries are not included with the price of your burger here, which is why I consider it a pricier-than-I-normally-prefer place even though at first glance it doesn’t seem to be (add an extra $3 to each price if you want fries with your meal, then you’ll see what I’m talking about). But you should order the fries anyway, because they are really quite good – and they have a great selection of dipping sauces, and I’m a sucker for fries with good chipotle mayo. The milkshakes are also delicious, but definitely not cheap either.



But like I said, I was treating myself to this dinner for the sake of the blog. And it was definitely worth it. My burger was delicious, hearty and healthy – not trying to be mock-meat, but with more substance than vegetables simply mashed together. The Bareburger special sauce is quite tasty too, although I felt like there should have been a bit more of it, or maybe the patty itself could have been a bit juicier. The bun was excellent – I’ve tried Bare Burger’s brioche bun before, but prefer the 7 grain (and recommend it to others).

I chose the “Original Bareburger” toppings for this review, but I would like to come back and do a proper review of some of the other ones I had tasted in the past before I started this blog – I recall the Jalapeno Express and the Avocado California both being excellent, and a little more exciting than the basic “Original”… as is to be expected.

Is it “the best burger in town” as their restaurant claims? Well, not quite… but it’s certainly one of the best in my neighborhood (I hear they are opening a second location in Manhattan soon as well). And it’s refreshing for a place that is famous for its burgers to incorporate veggie options so easily into its menu (yes, options plural - they also offer a portabella mushroom). This is far from a generic frozen veggie patty tacked onto the menu to make a few bucks off of vegetarians who get dragged into the restaurant by their meat-eating friends… this is actually a place I recommend to other vegetarians.

Cost: $8.98 +$3 for fries
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 4    Bun: 5    Toppings: 4

Bare Burger
33-21 31st Ave
Astoria, NY 11106
718.777.7011

YumVeggieBurger review #23

EDIT: multiple locations around NYC, and around the country now!

Organique [delivery]

My friend Becky loves to get delivery from this place. I think nearly every time I’ve come over to her apartment for dinner, this is where we have ordered from. They’re fast, you can order online (great for people like me who hate talking on the phone!) and the food is pretty good as far as delivery food goes.

The veggie burger on the menu is described as a “boca burger made with organic soy with organic blue cheese and organic pickles”. They aren’t just using the name “boca burger” to describe any old veggie patty, either – it is actually a boca burger. Like the kind I have in my freezer. Two of them actually, stacked together with the other toppings between two halves of a bun.



It’s always a bit disappointing when a restaurant uses pre-made patties for its burgers – especially when you can identify them as ones you can buy yourself for a fraction of the cost. But, that would defeat the point of ordering delivery… right?

To their credit though, Organique does a good job of spicing up a familiar frozen burger patty with interesting toppings (not quite as good a job as Foodswings, but...). The pickles, blue cheese (not vegan), and spicy mayo make it quite tasty, and the whole thing is rather satisfying – and filling! Two burger patties is a lot of food!

I realize that I’m biased as a rather frugal girl who thoroughly enjoys cooking anything in her own kitchen… I confess, I hardly ever order delivery when I’m at home by myself. Yet I can imagine how, if I didn’t have a dozen veggie burgers in my freezer at all times (I do… thanks, Costco!) and I was feeling too tired to cook something from scratch, ordering from a place like Organique would be rather appealing. And how many delivery places serve all-organic food, anyway?

Cost: $7.45
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 2       Bun: 2       Toppings: 3

Organique
110 east 23rd street
between Lexington & S Park Ave
New York, NY 10010
212.674.2229

YumVeggieBurger review #22

Whistling Willie's American Grill

My friend Derek and I went hiking up Breakneck Ridge last weekend. I sprained my ankle a bit, but aside from that we had a great time (don’t worry, it's a pretty minor sprain, and I’m elevating and icing it as we speak!).


me at the top of the first overlook





Our favorite route is to get off the train at the Breakneck Ridge hikers-only stop, and then end the day by hiking down into the cute little town of Cold Spring for an ice cream cone before catching the train back to the city.


Cold Spring, NY

This time, I wanted to see if I could find a veggie burger to review while we were there. So after several hours of hiking, we trekked into Whistling Willie’s for some ice water and… their “made in house” veggie burger!



The menu stated that the patty was made from “a variety of fresh vegetables” and the bartender who served us checked with the kitchen and reported back to me that it was vegan.



The toppings that came with said burger were somewhat disappointing – just once slice of tomato, but at least the lettuce wasn’t iceberg. The bun was plain but very soft. It seemed larger than a normal hamburger bun, but it fit the patty (also rather wide) perfectly.



When I bit into it, the first thing I tasted was zucchini… that’s a new one for me, even after all the veggie burgers I have tried! As I took a few more bites, I could also see and taste broccoli, carrots, yellow squash, onions, peppers, and potatos. I think there were some mushrooms too, but luckily they were overshadowed by the other delicious vegetables, which all tasted as if they had been grilled and then mashed together to form the patty.



It was like vegetable stew in burger form. I mean that in a good way – it tasted great! Crispy on the outside from being fried, but soft on the inside (falling apart a bit) and full of flavorful vegetables. A very unique idea for a veggie burger – I had not expected such creativity from this bar/restaurant! The sweet potato fries were delicious as well. The toppings and bun could have been better, but overall it was still a very pleasant surprise – and a great meal for a hungry hiker.

Cost: $10.95
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 4      Bun: 2      Toppings: 1

Whistling Willie’s American Grill
184 Main Street
Cold Spring, NY 10516
845.265.2012

YumVeggieBurger review #21