A Works Burger to celebrate the end of the year at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel

Clarke's Standard

Having already feasted upon some NYC street food, when we walked past Clarke's we decided that dinner was simply an entry. Now it was time for the main course.

Clarke's Standard, we discovered later, is a burger joint offshoot of PJ Clarke's.  It's the equivalent of Doyles seafood starting their own fish and chip shop.

The restaurant greeted us with its welcoming burger smell.  No burger was over CHECK, and our orders arrived quickly.  

The burger presented well. Placed in an open box with oil paper, we felt as though this burger came with its own love.

What's noticeable about these patties is that they are thick! They are probably the thickest meat patty we have ever seen in a take away food restuarant.  Biting into this patty was a meat treat- the patty was thick and juicy and

However the bun did not live up to its name, and, we would argue, sub-standard.  The bun lacked lustre and warmth.  It arrived feeling cold, whilst the interior of the bun felt warm to the touch.  This initial tactile sensation of touching a cold bun was unexpected, and fairly off putting.  It lacked body, but was solid enough for us to pick up the whole burger.

PJ Clarkes

After 12 hours of sleep we realised that Bigs Nicks steer burgers knocked us out. Thankfully the taste of steer beef had vanished from our mouths and we quickly developed a desire to try another new burger.

We trekked down Broadway and after a few blocks decided that it was time for lunch. Coincidently, we came across PJ Clarkes and knew that we were about to experience burger heaven.

We weren't disappointed. Our burgers were served with a side of pickle and the surprise was that there was raw onion sitting under the bun.  

The real champion of this burger is the beef paddy.  It's all about the beef.  The bun was quite thin, but solid enough for us to pick up our burgers with our hungry little hands  Cheese was melted on top of our paddys and it was quite pleasant to take huge bites from our burgers and complement the taste by grazing upon  pickles and raw onion.  

Table condiment Ketchup options includes Heinz tomato ketchup and also Sir Kensingtons ketchup which boasts  50% less sugar and 33% less salt than other brands. Naturally, we went for the Heinz option to drown our fries.

All this was washed down with a glass of amber and smooth Brooklyn lager. We would highly recommend lunch burgers at PJ Clarke's.

Steer Burgers at Big Nick's

We just got off the plane and we decided we needed a burger.  From past trips, we decided upon Big Nicks.

We were 85% finished our meal when we noticed that the taste of beef was somewhat unusual to our Australian palates. If this taste was an odour, we'd probably be wearing a gas mask.  It seemed as though our hunger had betrayed our sense of taste.

Then we noticed the type of beef in Nicks burgers was steer beef.  We debated about what steer is- was it cattle? was it a kind of moose? Eventually google revealed that what we were eating was this:

Even a glass of pumpkin porter at our favourite New York dive bar wouldn't shift the lingering aftertaste of steer beef from our palates.

If you prefer to have less beef in lingering in your palate, our advice is steer clear of Nicks steer burgers.

Chur Burger