Five Napkin Burger

In response to one of my favorite loyal reader's comments (you know who you are!), I feel I should share my thoughts on this one with everyone. I don't have any pics, unfortunately, but I was there fairly recently (I'd say January or so), and I thought the turkey burger was better than the original burger. So…that's kind of odd, right? Maybe that's just me, but I thought their Original 5 Napkin Burger (fresh ground chuck, gruyere, caramelized onions, rosemary aioli on soft white roll) was a bit greasy (not in the good way) and had wayyyy too much aioli on it. The meat was good, but it tasted slimy, if that makes sense. Thumbs down on that one. However, I really enjoyed the Italian Turkey Burger and the Deep Fried Pickles & Pastrami. I don't know why everyone (literally, everyone) cringes at the idea of deep fried pickles, but they need to get the F over it and just try them. If you like pickles, why wouldn't you like them fried? It's like saying, "oh, I like boiled chicken over fried chicken." No you don't. "I prefer baked potatoes as opposed to french fries." Sure you do. If you've learned anything from this blog (or society), you'd know that everything is better fried. Ok I'm done ranting about that. Onto the burger..

Juicy. Juicy, juicy turkey. How often can you say that about a turkey burger? Or turkey in general? It's probably one of the driest meats out there, but 5 Napkin manages to make this one delectable. The Italian-style burger is probably marinated for optimum-juicyness, then topped with melted mozz, spicy tomato sauce, and vinegar peppers on a sesame seed roll. Like I said, the meat was juicy, but the spicy tomato sauce and the vinegar peppers seep in to the meat, so I'm sure that accounts for 80% of the good taste. Whatever it is, it works. I devoured that burger. One of my friends that was with us ordered the Peanut Chicken Salad (salad? at 5 Napkin BURGER? Why??), and needless to say, she didn't like it. I tried it, and thought it was just ok. The pieces of chicken were huge and kind of dry, but the peanut-ginger dressing was good. Again, it's a salad; and other than the calamari salad at Asia de Cuba, I rarely find myself impressed with a salad anyway. So if I were going back to 5 Napkin Burger anytime soon (which I should), I would probably try one of their other burgers, and get the Italian Turkey Burger anyway just in case…

5 Napkin Burger
630 Ninth Ave (corner of 45th st)
212-757-2277

One Comment

  1. I asked for my burger w/ the aioli on the side, b/c I wanted to taste the burger w/o too much fussy sauce and what not- Without it there is a perfect balance of grease and yumness. (Yumness is the word I use in reference to the je ne sais quoi factor of any certain food).
    Next time I go I’ll be trying the turkey burger! Thank you sharing that! 🙂

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