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(Photo: Courtesy of BLT Burger) |
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(Photo: Illustrations by Jason Lee.) |
ADAM PLATT
High
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- The Waverly Inn
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16 Bank St.; 212-243-7900
The $13 Waverly Burger is surprisingly good and further enlivened by the view, at the next table, of the back of Gwyneth Paltrow’s head.
Medium
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- BLT Burger
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470 Sixth Ave.; 212-243-8226
A tasty if unorthodox burger, BLT’s $10 merguez-lamb patty (above) is juicy and spicy, and served with a cooling layer of cucumber.
Low
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- Shake Shack
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Madison Square Park; 212-889-6600
The $4.38 Shack Burger is still hard to beat, even if you have to stand in line for sixteen hours to get a bite.
ROB PATRONITE
High
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- Blue Smoke
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116 E. 27th St.; 212-447-7733
A borderline bourgeois burger with bar-burger soul, Blue Smoke’s $11.50 patty is served on a brioche bun, but you can get it with American cheese and house-made bacon.
Medium
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- The Stoned Crow
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85 Washington Pl.; 212-677-4022
A spartan thing of beauty, nicely charred under the broiler and delivered to your table on a paper plate for $6. Eat it in the back by the pool table, and watch out for errant backswings lest you get bopped in the nose.
Low
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- Shake Shack
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Among its many praiseworthy attributes is its perfect proportions: The Gisele Bündchen of hamburgers, it has the ideal ratio of beef to bun.
ROBIN RAISFELD
High
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- Nicole’s
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10 E. 60th St.; 212-223-2288
Nicole’s lamb burger is a loosely knit, just-lamby-enough $19 patty slathered with fresh goat cheese on a toasted brioche bun, served with cumin-seeded tomato-raisin relish and fat, fabulous chickpea fries.
Medium
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- Prune
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54 E. 1st St.; 212-677-6221
Eighty percent beef, 20 percent lamb, the Prune burger (lunch only; $12) is ridiculously drippy and perfectly scaled to its toasted Thomas’ English muffin.
Low
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- P.J. Clarke’s
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915 Third Ave.; 212-317-1616
Some things never change. Luckily, P. J. Clarke’s bacon cheeseburger ($9.70) is one of them.
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GAEL GREENE
High
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- Brooklyn Diner
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212 W. 57th St.; 212-581-8900
Forget foie gras. Brooklyn Diner’s $14.95 plump napkin ripper with melted Cheddar, crisp bacon, fries and fried onion rings and a Gus’s pickle? That’s about as haute as I want my burger to go.
Medium
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- Fairway Café
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2127 Broadway; 212-595-1888
Fairway goes white tablecloth at dinnertime, pricing its juicy and gently molded burger, with a choice of two add-ons, at $12. But that’s with remarkable fries, a ruffle of mesclun, and a bit of slaw.
Low
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- White Castle
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351 E. 103rd St.; 212-876-6737
One bite of White Castle’s 53-cent slider—a two-by-two square of proletarian meat with a pickle round in a square bun—brings back childhood memories of buying them by the greasy brown bagful.