Brindle Room — Restaurant in New York

Steak Tartare Unfortunately for Brindle Room, we still have the insanely delicious tartare from Post Office fresh on our minds. This tartare wasn’t terrible, but it’s nowhere near amazing.

Baked Oysters Uy. We love us some baked oysters, but these were a mess. A soupy mixture of creamy leeks impossibly drowned one of the biggest oysters I’ve ever seen. We couldn’t even finish.

Moules Frites If mussels are going to be one of the main attractions on your menu, which they are here at Brindle Room, there are a couple of logical things that should also come with them. One being bread, obviously. If you’re serving a big pot of mussels in a spicy broth without bread, that’s just poor attention to detail. Would you serve a burger without fries? Negative. Also, shellfish forks. The only forks they had were giant ones, which made in next to impossible to free the little mussels with a utensil. We were forced to use our hands, or another empty mussel shell.

Fried Chicken If you’re putting fried chicken on a menu in NYC, you best not just be tossing a couple pieces of bird in the fryer and serving it on a plate with mash. Don’t be fooled by the huge portion, there’s nothing to see here.

Crispy Seared Salmon Apparently the chef was concentrating way too hard on making sure the skin on the salmon was perfectly crispy, because he forgot to cook the rest of the fish through. Rare is not how salmon should be served in a restaurant unless otherwise noted. While the fish was awful, the red quinoa and Israeli couscous it was served over was excellent. More of that please.

Seared Duck Breast Rare, excessively thick slices of duck breast a top of cumin flavored kale and carrots. Vomit. We left this entire dish on the table. It was comically terrible.

Steakhouse Burger & Fries Ending on a high note. The burger is damn good, as are the thick cut fries. It’s a slightly greasy griddle burger the size of a hockey puck, cooked perfectly medium rare with a soft toasted potato bun, cheese and sautéed onions. If I didn’t feel so bad about how this review went, I’d order it for delivery on...

I never realized that Brindle Room existed until I read the Daily Meal's top burgers list awhile back. I was kind of shocked that I'd never heard about, seeing as I used to live nearby. Probably the reason why is that the place is pretty small with a handful of tables; this is sort of a positive if you have a reservation, as the atmosphere is very intimate. It's worth noting that although the place is very small, we weren't bumped into once. Beer list was a little on the small side but decent. The burger patty is made from aged steaks and deckle from a steakhouse in NJ that the owners here are good friends with, and it is superb. Cooked to a perfect medium rare (not sure why they recommend medium), with a well charred outside and juiciness to spare, I could definitely see why this is in contention for one of the best burgers in the city. The toppings--blue cheese and caramelized onions--were both great and added in moderation so that they didn't imbalance the meat. The fries were freshly made and delicious, the pickles were good, and the homemade habanero hot sauce they had on the side mixed well with ketchup as a dipping sauce for the fries. So why only 3 stars then? The bun here is...ordinary. It was like a roll you'd get in an 8-pack at a supermarket. I don't know how you can grind up steaks for your burger patty, use high quality cheese, caramelize your onions perfectly, and then put all of that on this. Great sandwiches are made by great bread (including burgers) and this didn't measure up. Brindle Room is very much my kind of place but I'm reserving the extra stars for now. I will definitely be back to try the other food as the menu looks great and I go out in the East...

Do yourself a favor and read the 1 star reviews. Maybe this was a once great institution but it has fallen to a lowly state. Hear me now as I explain what lead me to this conclusion:

We went on the first day after reopening i believe. My partner was dismayed that the menu was limited to just the burger but we know life has its little ups and downs. We ordered a couple drinks which were actually well done. This place could probably cut it as a bar.

But as a restuarant? Come on now. I got a Veg burger and my partner got the beef number. My Veg was very salty. Maybe they thought throwing seasoning salt all over it would get it closer to the animal flesh?

My partner enjoyed the buger potion more tha I. But both of our burgers came on what I suspect was the store brand buns from the deli down the street. The cheese? Kraft singles I suspect. And then they insult us by throwing a 1/2 teaspoon of caramelized onions on top like that's going to elevate this sub-family reunion backyard barbecue level grub.

No lettuce and tomato either. I don't necessarily need them but I love to have them. Now the fries were serviceable, some good crispy bits on there.

I enjoyed the atmosphere. Pretty good decor. Kind of a bohemian style where disparate elements are thrown together. I enjoyed the lighting. Very warm but not underlit. Could've used a better mix of music (Lotta Pixies at Strokes, like every other song)

Service was good but I'm pretty easy in that arena.

I hate to be a hater but this experience was not at all worth the $$ we paid and it's honestly put us off from trying new places for the...