BurgerClub

Is seeing believing?

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lets eat!

This is going to be hard, but I must confess that this is no top 10 burger.

I'd like to start off as always, with the +. It's a damn good looking burger, and the name of the place makes you think this bad boy is going to difine what a properly cooked burger should be. The establishment it self has a nice quality to it, the clientele seem to be regulars, staff seemingly knowledgeable, and for new york not to expensive (unless you ask for the truffle butter topping). When looking over the description of the meat here, you are told they grind the beef every hour... impressive, fresh meat must=good meat, right?

Well, now onto the real deal. After our table of 6 all placed orders for the "Rare Classic", we were asked if we wanted to start off with anything since the burgers will take 20 to 25 minutes to come out... 25 minutes! wow, they must be grinding the meat or something... just don't over cook it please with all that time. So we decided to place an order of "Frickles" for the table... deep fried pickles that is. An interesting item, can't say that I would want a whole plate for myself, they have great pickles, but if you're an average pickle eater like my self it might be a bit much. If you like pickles, then I recomend sharing an order.

The sides... the burgers here do not come with any side items, not too much of a problem since they have a wide variety of potato things to choose from. Our table ordered one French Fry Tasting Basket (listed as a starter) and an order of Beer Battered Onion Rings. The basket is plenty (huge) for a group of 6, but I wasn't too impressed with it's shoestring or sweet potato fries... the "cottage" (waffle) fries and the onion rings are the way to go. They also give you three dippings, a mexican catsup, tangy mustard and a creamy something I forget.

After our wait, the burgers arrived. WOW! look at that sexy mama! We were all impressed with our plates. My eyes and mouth began to tear... this is going to be good. As members began their rituals of assembling their baby's, I looked for one to sample... photographically. Fauc-Burger had an impressive stack (pictured above). All the others looked just as good. I my-self had a medium rare calssic with smoked cheddar. Cutting this guy in half was serious business, it yielded a thick patty with impressive color... now time to bite into it with my snake-like expaning jaw.

OK, not the best first bite, but I just started. Things were being held together nicely, and I was enjoying the thought of having one of the city's #6 burgers (according to TONY). But damn it, what happened to the taste? I kept at it, working my way through half before stoping and asking what the others thought. (they can tell you in their own words). My impression was that this burger has a dry flavorless quality. No, like that of Lucky Strike, this had nothing to do with the over-doneness. The patty was nice and pink inside, but it tasted like an over cooked burger. What's that all about? Is the meat so good and lean that it can't have flavor? After seeing "Hamburger America" the night before, I craved a Butter Burger... anything to take me away from this. Maybe that's Rare's shtick, to get you to order the $5 butter topping.

Full (almost didn't make way through the whole thing) and unimpressed, I wondered what these ratings NY mags give are realy based on.

What a disappointement BurgerSicko, the visual of those burgers looked so incredible we were thinking of re-running the BC event for all of us who missed it. That might not be worth it.

I agree with the butter burger, i've been mouth-watering when thinking about it for the last 2 days. I'm calling for a butter fix ASAP. Those 'classic' burgers keep disappointing us...

dam-mit!
After a rather long wait (and some rather amusing banter with the staff) we finally got down to it. The place was pretty cool, cozy, little branding irons for door-pulls and stuff. cozy.
As this was my first official BurgerClub visit, I really was expecting it to be an awesome burger. I had high hopes. When they were brought out, they looked so perfect. So perfect! so pink and delicious!
After the first bite I was lamenting my choice of bleu cheese and bacon toppings. This is how I've been eating all my burgers recently though, and I've had some really good ones. I thought that I really wanted the pure taste experience of 'burger'. After the next couple of bites though, I realize that my mistake was actually a blessing in disguise. Where was the flavor? Where was the juice? I like-ah de juice! And I had to tear the bacon with my teef. I much prefer the crispy stuff that falls apart when you bite into it. The strong flavors of the bleu-cheese and bacon actually lent this tasteless morsel a bit of hand.
When I inquired as to which cut of meat was used, I think the waiter thought I was implying it tasted like it wasn't fresh. He was quick to point out that they grind their beef HOURLY. Then he told us that they used shoulder, VERY LEAN!
AH HA!!! Don't you Rare people know that FAT is what makes a juicy burger?! FAT is what gives it it's flavor? Fat is what makes little slutty-pants like me tremble with delight at the mere thought of 'burger'?!!!
At least the cottage fries and onion rings were the shizzle.
I would probably not return to Rare to eat a burger, unless someone was treating me to the Kobe burger with truffle butter. Then I would be probably be doing the 'truffle shuffle'.

The indiscrete sign outside of the restaurant and the sultry atmosphere won we over within the first 5 minutes of my arrival. I had a good feeling about this place and intuition rarely fails me with the exception of the time I thought my fiance said "no" to young boys.

The tasting began with the salted nut mixture at the bar - which, I might add were the best nuts I have ever had. I would go back for those nuts with out a moments notice.

On to the frickle - interesting concept....deep fried batter and a sour pickle. Neh - they didn't deliver - infact, we sent back our second order. I'll stick with fried zuch's anyday. I think my fiance likes them too because they remind him of young boys.

The burger: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW..........oh miiiiiii....what can I say.......it stunk. It was beaming red, the composition was beautiful, the presentation flawless, but the bite felt like someone reached down your throat and tour out your taste buds. It brought me back to the George Forman college days where I would cook up a lean dinner and then satiate myself shortly after with a slice of my roommate's doughy, oily slice of pizza. How dissapointing - where's the flavor folks? Have you ever heard of seasoning?

I ended up filling myself up with french fries and onion rings to compensate for the "flavorless" patty. My recommendation: Visit Rare when you want to an after work drink and noteworthy nuts (minus the young boys).

The pros: Fun afterwork atmosphere, free nuts at the bar, tasty pickles.

The cons: Despite the daily meat delivery, the hourly grinding of the meat, and the pristine appearance of the burger (especially in cross section; see photos), the burger lacks flavor. Like the service, the burger was bland and disappointing.

Bottom line: this is a good burger, but not a great burger. With some tasty condiments, a ravenous appetite for pickles, and the right mix of friends, one can have great experience. But burger afficianados shouldn't expect to find one of NYC's finest burgers at this joint.

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Let's eat!

There has been enough said about the novelty items (i.e. frickles)...and yes, the beernuts were good...but isn't this about the burger? I can sum it up with telling you one thing. I only ate half.

Good music, good ambience, and good company (as usual).

I had been dying to go to Rare for a long time before I finally made the pilgramage over to the new location on Bleeker St at 6th Ave. Dissapointment generally sums my experience at this establishment. Rare claims to specialize in burgers but man do they miss the mark. The menu is plentiful with many specialty additions: choose between regular or organic beef (they also have a turkey and fish option), an extensive cheese list including specialty cheeses from Murray's Cheese shop, the pickles are from Gus's pickle shop on Orchard St, and the buns are baked "in house". It sure looked as if these guy's had done some good work here bringing the burgerfan some of new yorks finest accoutrements. None of this seemed to help.

Ill start with the bun since it was probably the biggest problem. Rare serves a light seedless brioch style bun, but why waste your time baking the br'ead if its going to come out this way. The flavourless brerad caused serious problems due to its lack of stability. By the end of my burger there was nothing left on the bottom half except a soggy bit of dough stuck to the wounded patty. Not my idea of a quality burger experience.

The Patty was a half pound of quality fresh meat cooked with a nice bit of char I opted for the organic beef which was cooked medium rare but suffered from a chewy texture and over seasoning. Not bad but certaintly nothing special. The rest of the sandwich contained green lettuce, white onion, and a juicy red tomato. Gus's dill pickle comes on the side, quartered. The fixings were all cut a little too thick which threw off the balance of this burger and forget about putting the pickle inside the burger. Poor concieved in its assembly structure.

The cottage fries a fresh cut waffle fry that had great texture but were way over seasoned. The Onion rings were big with a cornmeal crust throwing off the texture slightly. The 4 dipping sauces: Chipotle Mayo, BBQ, Honey Mustard and a spicy ketchup were all either too sweet or salty or just plain boring. The Chipotle was hands down my favorite. The service was fine but a little in your face. The location in the wast village was great and the open front excellent for an indoor outdoor experince, but the interior decor was clean, but lacked character. Like I said before: Disapointing.

I normally wait for a moment of clarity and inspiration to write my reviews but I felt no need to do that with this place. Dr. Sannwich and I had been eagerly awaiting going here for a while, and it was a total buzzkill. There was quite a few choices on the menu as far as type of cheese, type of meat and blah blah blah but all that means nothing when you are all talk no walk. If the very essence of the burger is boring then no need for multiple variations please. The attempts by this establishment to cover up this boring burger with fancy sides and special cheeses is futile. While in theory this burger may look good, that means diddly if it doesn't taste good. Besides the chewiness of the meat, the bun was some serious draw back points, like the fact it is so huge it's close to obnoxious, all it does is sit soaking up juice on the bottom so it becomes like a wet sponge. I mean, crappy little Arnold potato buns hold up better than this nonsense. Plus, they have a pretty thick, badly sized patty with thick accompaniments like a big ass tomato and onion, then the whole point of the bun should be to hold all this together which was just not happening. I was hoping the sides would at least make the cut at this place, but they came up short too. Over seasoned, over salted, too much breading, bad sizing, just lots of little mistakes that kept compounding themselves. While the space itself is fine, it too is uninspiring. It has no character. All in all, people who don't know much about burgers will probably like this place, but for me it continuously came up short, and there will not be a repeat performance anytime soon.