Sandrine’s Bistro

February 19th, 2011 by Richard Chudy

What do the French know about burgers anyway? We’re talking about the quintessential American food here, yet the SBK and I are drawn to this charming Bistro on our weekly burger jaunt. It was an up and down experience the entire meal, good but not great burgers, very good but not excellent French Fries, and a more than awkward server than I was expecting. I guess I’m always baffled by up-selling outside of a movie theater, but if I’m in the mood for a Diet Coke with my meal, I will speak up. I was also surprised at how easily said waitress threw the kitchen staff under the bus, insisting that if we wanted to order dessert (this coming just after we ordered our entree’s) we should do it quickly, since “our kitchen is very slow.” There were other mishaps along the way, but whatever, let’s get back to the burgers.

Sampling both the “Grilled French Burger” ($14) and the “Gourmand Sirloin Burger” ($13) yielded similar results. Cooked fairly close to the requested medium-rare, there just wasn’t a ton of flavor from the beef. I suspect the leanness of Sirloin is the culprit here, as the cut of beef is generally a good indicator of the rest of the meal. We know Sirloin is not the best choice, correct? Fat is flavor, and I want my burgers fatty, dammit, is that too much to ask for? Bacon and melted brie do their best to bump up the flavor in the Grilled French Burger, despite the bacon not being completely crispy. (is it that hard to cook bacon?) The melted brie added a wonderful touch, oozing and creamy, with just the right amount of tang needed to offset the unpronounced flavor of the burger itself. The Gourmand Burger was less successful for me, topped with a duck truffle terrine, the flavors just never came through for me. Honestly I’m not a huge terrine fan anyway, and while this was well prepared, it just has no place on a burger in my opinion. Texture is important in a meal (yes, even on a burger) so the idea of a mushy terrine on top of a burger without a crust was a minor misstep, and fancy-pants ingredients such as a duck truffle terrine have no place on my ideal burger, but the attempt and the differentiation is duly noted.

The French Fries (excuse me, “pommes frites”) are golden and crispy, but need just a touch more of salt and are a shade above room temperature. Not bad but not fantastic, kind of like the meal as a whole. I know the French can prepare food properly, and for the most part, they do at Sandrine’s Bistro. The bun, a brioche no less, works well with the burger at hand, even if the burgers seem a little on the small side. The flaws aren’t major, but for an overall experience, something is lacking, which I attribute to passion. Some may say you can’t taste passion on the plate, but I know I can, and while they go through the motions to cook as spot-on as they can, without the love and the dedication behind the food, it will never be all that memorable.

Overall Score: 77 continue reading »

Green Street Grill

December 24th, 2010 by Richard Chudy

At its best, a thin burger patty is greasy, fatty, and utterly juicy and irresistible from start to finish, at its worst, a thin burger patty is dry, rubbery and reminiscent of a Burger King double cheeseburger. Sadly, the Bacon Double Cheeseburger served at Green Street Grill is the latter. And it is sad, every burger deserves to be great and loved, and if you know me, you know I love thin burgers, West Coast style as we say here, but this burger just doesn’t work. The interior and atmosphere are top-notch, but as Nick points out, most of the places we go to have a great atmosphere, and usually the burger isn’t up to our ridiculous standards. It’s lively and open, clean and comfortable, a place I would return to, for drinks anyway, not so much for the food. continue reading »

Atwoods Tavern

November 29th, 2010 by Richard Chudy

I don’t know how to figure the burger at Atwoods Tavern, it’s the ultimate two-face burger, a few good biters here and there, and a few rather offensive bites in between. It bursts with juice immediately, almost violently and slightly painful on my wrist and onto the plate, which is fine for some, but me, I like my juice in the burger and not on the plate. Yes, leave it to me to complain about a juicy burger, but a little resting of the burger before it’s sent out and those juices will naturally redistribute back into the meat and not onto my wrist and plate. But the meat is flavorful, grass-fed and local, it can be sweet and luscious, which it was partly, and then inexplicably tasted of liver, and not the good way liver can taste when medium-rare, but that nasty, chalky taste of over-cooked liver. Is this a grass-fed quality or the cuts of beef used? Either way, it’s incredibly unpleasant and unflattering, all due to inconsistent cooking. The parts that are cooked to a medium-rare are lovely, otherwise it’s a roller-coaster of tastebuds and it’s not a good experience.  continue reading »

Art Bar

November 22nd, 2010 by Richard Chudy

Located at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Art Bar somehow landed on my “master burger list.” I say somehow because I’ve completely lost track of the origins of these suggestions, but one way or another, someone told me to check it out and so I did, with the infamous Mike Isman. It’s a $14 burger and I don’t know why, maybe because there’s Art on the walls? Food I get, but art is a world I know nothing about, combine the two in a restaurant setting and I can’t quite piece it together. It’s snobby, but no less so than The Four Seasons, the type of place that very well could have a good burger, but sadly does not. It’s a $14 burger disguised as a $7 burger, as they use the dreaded combination of ground Sirloin and Brioche, two automatic fails in my mind. continue reading »

Lord Hobo

November 11th, 2010 by Richard Chudy

Despite having one of the worst names for a restaurant I’ve ever heard, Lord Hobo makes a pretty good burger. Dining with my now former Pastry Chef, Jenni, who was enjoying her last American burger before she heads to greater things in Paris, I’m glad it was worthwhile. I must be getting old though, because the noise level in there is just unpleasant, why go out if you can’t even hear what your friends are saying to you? It’s a mildly pretentious atmosphere, with the usual round-up of Cambridge hipsters and too-cool-for-school servers and hostesses. But the menu is pretty solid, if not overly priced in spots, and smaller than deserving portion sizes. The burger, ground from the traditional Chuck, arrives on a soft bun that’s in the neighborhood of brioche, not quite as “bread-y” as a brioche, a little less buttery, but glistening and an overall good fit for the beef despite being a tad too large. It may be dark, but I can tell my burger is over-cooked, not enough pink in this burger, and unevenly cooked. But the flavor is good, if not a little lean, there is some beef flavor present, and seasoned quite nicely. But it’s too dry because it’s more of a medium than a medium-rare, but again, a higher fat content might make the juiciness more forgiving, instead there’s barely a hint of moisture, despite the proper seasonings.

The fries, on the other hand, are a delight, and very memorable. I promise, all it takes is some salt and most fries would rank much higher on my list, these are perfectly fried and seasoned to perfection.They literally only taste of salt and potato, and that’s the way it should be. Look, I realize salt is a personal thing, but fries deserve to be salted liberally, something that must be done as soon as they come out of the fryer, not at the table. The fries at Lord Hobo aren’t ambitious or unique, they’re just good, I just wish there was more of them.

While the burger is good enough, and perhaps on a different day it’s even better when cooked the preferred medium-rare, the noise level is so bothersome to me I feel like a bitter old man even thinking about making that complaint. But to someone who is clearly less of a loser than I am, and someone who enjoys an extensive beer list and water served in a Mason Jar, this might be the place for you.

Overall Score: 83

Oggi Gourmet

October 17th, 2010 by Richard Chudy

I just don’t get Oggi Gourmet, an oddly situated establishment in the Holyoke Center in Harvard Square, which is confusing in every sense of the word. Maybe I’m missing something, but the ordering process is a disaster, it’s just not clear where to order, where to sit, or where to pick up the food, it’s all completely disjointed. I choose to dine in, but still have to order at a counter, wait for my order to be called and brought to me, yet I have to grab my own drink. It’s also slightly odd eating when employees are literally six inches from me making poorly made coffee drinks. It also would have been nice to know that my burger does not come with fries, priced at $8 I kind of assumed, especially after I eat I notice a sign with a special burger of the day that is cheaper and does come with fries. Huh? Why wouldn’t the girl at the counter have said something? Why wouldn’t I want the cheaper burger with fries? The burger, somewhere in the third to half pound range, is char-grilled and pretty standard. Too much smoke yields a bitter aroma and hand-formed is nice and all, but usually it means over-formed and over-compressed, this burger is no exception. And how can you list ketchup as an ingredient on a burger, and then proceed to give me ketchup packets? Anyone? Bueller? The beef, while nicely salty is oddly sour, as if these hand-formed burgers were made a few days ago, not to the point of rotten, bu certainly a little suspect. It’s not dry, which is a good thing, but the choice of Mesclun greens seems poor and unfitting for this burger, especially because they can wilt so easily, and the tomato and lettuce are anything but fresh. I just can’t grasp what the appeal is, people have recommended this place to me, but I suspect it’s an under the radar burger because you wouldn’t expect it to be good, it’s a place known for its pizza, not it’s burgers. So maybe people thought it was hip to like a burger here to claim it as a hidden gem, but it’s a very mediocre burger in a pizza place that may or not have good pizza. Think about ordering a burger the next time you’re at Bertucci’s and get back to me, then you have an idea of what I’m talking about.

Overall Score: 58