Posts Tagged ‘Dinner’

The Little Joys at Joy Burger

Sunday, December 1st, 2013

As a vegetarian, finding a good burger in New York City poses a few problems. While I live in a rather accepting city, not all restaurants accommodate. When my friends stop at a late night burger joint, I wind up getting fries and trying to remember why I became a vegetarian in the first place. When I do come across a place with a veggie burger on the menu, it’s usually pretty hit or miss. Sometimes falling apart and occasionally tasteless, most times I may as well stick with my usual order of fries.  I basically gave up on finding a great veggie burger, until I found Joy Burger.

Diner decor with a contemporary vibe!

 

Old fashioned looks with a fresh atmosphere!

Just a five minute walk from my college, Joy Burger is the perfect place for any burger lover, whether they eat meat or they don’t. It mixes a contemporary feel with a diner décor that doesn’t break the budget. With a discount to students and quality food that tastes a lot better than a meal at the dining hall, you really can’t lose. Plus there are options, unlike most burger places. You construct the burger you want, it’s not chosen for you. Now instead of getting a plain veggie patty while everyone else is getting every burger special available, I can have something special too!

Not only can you choose your own patty, toppings, and legendary sauces (pro tip: their garlic mayo is incredible) but you can grab a great side to go with your burger. At other diner-like restaurants, sides usually stop at fries or onion rings, if you’re lucky. At Joy Burger, you can fulfill all of your comfort food needs with homemade french fries,  sweet potato fries, mozzarella sticks, zucchini sticks, chicken fingers, salad, soup, chicken wings, and the fan-favorite giant onion rings—crispy rings of golden brown goodness!

Not a burger person? Just because “burger” is in the name doesn’t mean Joy Burger doesn’t have more to offer. They offer an assortment of salads, like the avocado salad with fresh avocado and roasted red peppers, and other sandwiches like the steak sandwich with sautéed onions. Or, for my fellow veg-heads, try the grilled Portobello sandwich!

A diverse menu and cute playing cards when you order your meal!

Plus, Joy Burger is always trying to improve, coming up with new specials, discounts, and events to help out their loyal customers. Bringing homemade chili to the menu, offering their special Day Break burger (a burger with a fried egg and bacon on top of your choice of patty), and, overall, meeting the needs of their customers. In other words: you ask for it, and they come through for you. For example, customers wanted chili cheese fries, and now a free side order of chili cheese fries is being offered as a way to introduce the new side. They don’t mess around with customer service. And for those 21+, they have a happy hour daily from 4 PM- 7 PM, with a buy one get one free deal. They even offer hard cider, with a gluten free cider option!

While I held off on the seasonal beer, I did get a refreshing glass of mint lemonade that went perfectly with my meal. I ordered a veggie burger with lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, sautéed onions, and pickles, topped with some delicious garlic mayo. Onion rings came on the side! I was given a playing card, which they call when your food is ready. The use of playing cards only adds to the cute, quirky, uniqueness of Joy Burger. Within minutes my food was done and I was ready to chow down after an exhausting day at The New School.

A tasty cup of lemonade with mint!

Now, I am not exaggerating when I say this was the best veggie burger I’ve ever had. I know that sounds dramatic, but I am not kidding. The patty was thick and so tasty. All the ingredients were fresh and delicious, and for once I didn’t have crumbling bits of burger falling all over my plate. As for the onion rings, they really lived up to their reputation. Crunchy and gigantic, they were absolutely addicting. Try dipping them in one of their nine signature sauces and you’ll be all set for a perfect meal! With Joni Mitchell playing in the background, I never wanted to leave.

A veggie burger, onion rings, and a pickle!

 

A thick, tasty veggie burger!

Being a bit of a Brooklyn hermit, the second school gets out I tend to run to the train back to my borough, but now I have reason to stay a little longer in Manhattan. Not only is this place affordable, especially for a student, but the food is actually good. Plus Joy Burger has an app where you can earn points and rewards which basically equals free food. And who doesn’t want free comfort food? With finals right around the corner, taking a break for onion rings and a burger is the perfect getaway from staring at a computer screen for seven hours. Joy Burger really stays true to their name; it’s a happy, contemporary, burger joint that really provides for their customers. You know what they say, a burger a day keeps the doctor away…or something like that…well, they definitely should say it.

A lot of joy at Joy Burger!

 

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Daniela Bizzell, Eugene Lang College, The New School University.

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Reserve: Unforgettable Thai Experience

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

Walking into Reserve, on 3rd Ave between 28th and 29th, I felt all the chaos and exhaustion of my day melt into the warm, red walls. A low light hovered over each table, with wine bottles stacked in every which direction. Even the bottoms of bottles protruded from the walls around the bar in the back, somehow without cluttering the small restaurant, but tinting the ambiance with the theme: a Thai inspired wine bar. While Thai restaurants are known for spicy foods in cozy nooks, Reserve adds an unexpected twist to the Thai experience: wine. I’m sure you’ve been to a number of Thai restaurants and been remiss about the quality of beverages, well, partner Luck Watanasuparp felt the same way. Luck’s family owns a number of Thai restaurants throughout New York, including All Luck and Thai Select, but this is her own venture in the restaurant business, at which she is doing amazingly well and loving it. Luck wanted to pair the four flavors of Thai food: Spicy, sweet, sour and salty with fine wines that would enhance each other when combined. The restaurant serves over fifty different wines, all within affordable ranges with a few higher priced bottles tossed in.

Reserve has been open for less than a year now in the Gramercy neck of the proverbial woods. Tucked among hot clubs and loud joints with drunks bouncing and stumbling out the doors or shouting from in between the cracks in the walls, Reserve is an oasis. It’s small, quiet, and personal. This is the perfect place to bring a date, or close friends when you want to sit down with a little background music and a lot of great food.

If you’re looking for something exciting and loud, why not head to Reserve for dinner as a calm before the storm?

The service is four star, with the shock of street cart prices. Before glancing at the menu, I assumed that it would be a stressor on my limited funds, but was pleasantly delighted to find that it’s cheap. I don’t mean New York City cheap, which is irrelevant to the rest of the world, but Kansas cheap, Mississippi cheap. I once ate a large, amazing meal at the Ajax Diner in Oxford, Mississippi for eight dollars, and this brought me back to the economy of the south, inducing a school girl giggle at the prices. I’ve spent more money on dirt, have I made my point?        

I brought two close friends of mine with me for dinner, and we lived like kings. We started with a Losen Bockstanz Resiling, a sweet wine, and paired it with spicy beef, duck wraps, and crab cake tapas. Everything was tender and cooked to perfection. The duck wraps, rich, fatty duck wrapped with fresh veggies in a flour tortilla roll, sushi style, was paired with a thick, sweet sauce. The large crab cake, enough for the three of us, was surrounded by three elegant sauces. The spicy beef was mixed with equally spicy and salty sautéed veggies. We indulged in a mango salad, larb pizza (with chicken and melted Mozzarella) and a curry green pizza. We ate slowly, discussing the flavor combinations and our awe at the portions. For very little money, the three of us left full, but not overstuffed, and feeling like we ate a healthy meal that tickled our tastes. Our cheeks blushed from the sweet wine as we walked out in a euphoric daze.

If you’re feeling bogged down by the sometimes treacherous city, tired of the rain and cold, and never having enough money to go out, Reserve is the place to go. It will pick up your spirits without draining your bank account. Long Island or Jersey commuters can even walk from Penn Station on their way home from work or class. Keep Reserve on your list, because you simply can’t miss out on all it has to offer for the economically challenged taste buds that require more refinement.

Written by Ashley Teal, Campus Clipper Blogger

See my Blog, Still Life With Teal

Or follow me on Twitter @amteal

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