4,  burgers,  cheap eats,  midtown east,  restaurant reviews

goodburger – Burgers – Midtown East

The only time I’d tried goodburger, my boyfriend and I had ordered it for delivery, and while we didn’t exactly have any complaints other than a half-melted shake, it wasn’t the sort of burger we’d seek out repeatedly.

So I was admittedly pleased when I received an e-mail from goodburger’s PR firm asking me to try out their revamped menu and offering up a list of reasons why the new goodburger is a better goodburger: a tastier bun, the freshest toppings, and a burger made with Pat LaFreida beef and cooked on a open flame in a green-certified restaurant.

One of their six locations is just down the street from my boyfriend’s apartment, so we piled on our winter wear last weekend and went out for what turned out to be a pretty darn good burger experience.

goodburger burger and fries

Despite the restaurant’s novelty name, this is a serious burger. The fact that the patty is grilled instead of griddled hits you immediately, both in the lightly charred taste and in the way the outside is slightly crunchy to contrast the extremely juicy pink center. The restaurant doesn’t offer American cheese, to my horror, but the mix of white and yellow cheddar was clearly superior. All of the toppings–I got “the works”–couldn’t have been more fresh, and both my boyfriend and I absolutely loved the grilled bun.

The shoestring fries were your typical fast food type. I’m more of a steak fry girl, but I know some people like ’em small and crunchy. Next time, I’m absolutely getting the cheese fries or chili cheese fries.

goodburger shakes

After tasting this, I made a mental note to never order a shake for delivery again. My Black Cow was real vanilla ice cream with nice big squirts of chocolate syrup down the sides, and my boyfriend’s Cookies & Cream was chock full of chocolate bits. They were both so thick it was hard to drink them through their straws, which is just what I like in a shake.

Rating One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarZero Stars

goodburger logo

The big picture is that this is a really, really good burger. This is the kind of burger that satisfies that specific better-than-fast-food burger craving that all New Yorkers seem to have and try to fight. And the great thing about goodburger is that, at least in my experience, it’s never too crowded. It’s not a big to-do to go there. It’s the kind of neighborhood joint you can pop into

Here’s the fine print: goodburger isn’t Shake Shack. The goodburger is a couple dollars more expensive than the ShackBurger, the fries are a few cents cheaper, and the shakes are about the same price. But a lot of the reason Shake Shack is NYC’s most talked-about burger has nothing to do with the food itself. The goodburger is as good as the ShackBurger, and it’s probably better for people who like grill marks and something other than super-processed American cheese on their patty. But Shake Shack has the power of marketing on their side. If I’m going out for burgers with my friends, it’s more likely that I’d choose to sit outdoors at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park or to enjoy the sights outside the Times Square Shake Shack while I munch. The goodburger in my neighborhood looks more like a generic diner than some interior designer’s modern magnus opus.

The thing goodburger has on Shake Shack, though, is that you’re never going to have to stand in line in the sun or the rain for an hour for goodburger. There aren’t throngs of tourists taking up the sidewalk outside the door of goodburger, and no one’s making websites with a dedicated webcam showing how long the line is. I’m sure that’s not goodburger’s favourite thing about itself, but none of its customers are complaining.

Goodburger
800 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10017 (map)

13 Comments

  • Heesa Phadie

    “Welcome to Good Burger, home of the “Good Burger”, can I take your order?”

    I kid you not I wanted that movie last night. SO good. Anyways…this place looks pretty darned awesome. Needs more bacon though :P

    • plumpdumpling

      I’ve never seen the movie, but I remember when it came out and thought the restaurant pretty hilarious the first time I spotted it in NYC. I didn’t even notice the lack of bacon while I was eating the burger, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I feel like I made a huge mistake. That’s it–I guess I have to have another one tonight to make up for it.

    • plumpdumpling

      Yeah, just keep making that list of yours. By the time you actually get here, we’ll have to eat 15 meals a day to accomplish it all.

      And I am perfectly okay with that.

  • Dishy

    Yay! 4 bagels – I mean brown donuts! LOL

    That burger looks amazing. There’s no goodburger here, but if there were one, I would eat there. Fries, no salt please.

    PS: I am the type of person who seeks out restaurants specifically b/c I DON’T have to wait. Must have something to do w/ the 2 fighting kids in tow, but seriously something to be said for a place that has reliable, good food and no line.

    • plumpdumpling

      After he read this comment, Kamran asked me about you! Apparently he thinks all of your jerkery and tomfoolery is pretty funny.

      I think I used to be more patient with lines, but now I look at places that don’t take reservations like, “Seriously? You think you’re that important?” I guess it’s a little different with fast food, though. But really, I pictured your girls as well-behaved young ladies! I can’t believe this “fighting” you speak of.

      • Dishy

        They are sweet angels of course! not. Hahahah

        No, really the ladies are good, mostly, but they have their moments. Like last weekend, when all 3 of us were jammed into the tiniest dressing room ever at Hanna Andersson – and they started in w/ the comments — “She looks like a clown!” etc. (I must be honest though – when you get enough striped/polka dotted material and a certain “breezy” cut — it’s hard not to look like a circus tent. that dress did NOT come home.)

        Tell Kamran I said Hi! Love seeing the pics of you two together. It’s a match made in heaven, i tells ya.