Hon Cafe looks like a cleaner-than-average Chinese bakery in the front, but in the back there's a dining room serving inexpensive Hong Kong-style diner food—that is, somewhat Western, somewhat Chinese. On the menu you'll find potentially unfamiliar dishes made with familiar ingredients such as minced beef with egg over spaghetti, baked ketchup pork chop, and corned beef with egg sandwich. When I saw a garlic burger I thought two things: "This can't be good," and, "I have to get it." Perhaps it was due to my lack of expectations that burger was surprisingly delicious. Innards shot, after the jump.
Far from your typical semi-coarsely ground, all-beef patty, this version is made with beef, pork, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and onions. It was one of the juiciest meat patties I had ever eaten, oozing with porky and beefy goodness. The patty was topped with sautéed chopped onion and garlic to add the the already onion and garlic-filled patty. If the patty weren't tasty enough, the griddled bun blew me away. This is the bun I'd want all burgers to come on: soft, squishy, a bit chewy, and impervious to the effects of dripping meat juices. I should have known the bun would be good considering the restaurant is in a bakery, but I had never though how good a burger would be if it used a Chinese-style baked bun. Dear restaurants serving burgers: source your buns from a Chinese bakery.
For $4.50, the fairly small garlic burger isn't particularly cheap in the world of burgers, but it's not a bad deal. I'll have to get a side of fries next time to see how the burger-and-fries pairing goes. They don't serve milkshakes, but you're in Chinatown—get bubble tea.
Hon Cafe
70 Mott Street, New York NY 10013 (b/n Canal and Bayard Streets; map)
212-219-1431
Wow- I lived right across the street at 69 Mott for a year and never knew about this... is this place new?
@NotAmerican: An Indian-themed burger would no doubt be intriguing, however, based on my experience, burgers IN India are awful. I was recently there for 2 months and made numerous attempts to track down a decent burger but to no avail. The main issue there being the difficulty in finding fresh beef, as slaughtering of cows is illegal. The best you can hope to get is a buffalo burger. Even the restaurants serving "steaks" had to have beef shipped in from slaughterhouses outside the country and the result was always mediocre at best.
This looks cool. Someone I know has recently introduced me to these Hong Kong-style diners with food that is "somewhat Western, somewhat Chinese." Now we'll have to try this place!
@NYminknit, boba is a pretty common name for bubble tea, and I don't believe it's vulgar. I understand it's derived from the English word bubble, and that the Chinese characters mean froth.
I wonder how common burgers like this would be elsewhere? I assume that I would have to go to a big city to find such a unique and yummy looking burger:) I have definitely never seen this around where I live...
Can't wait to try that.
When i lived in China, McDonald's had a promo for the Summer '08 Olympics with hamburgers from different countries. The most interesting one I had was the kimchi hamburger (Korea).
@milkyway4679: Boba IS a vulgar word that is slang for nipples. So if you go into a Chinese tea house and order a "boba cha", it'd be like saying "nipple tea".
Also, the Chinese characters for bubble tea mean "pearl milk tea" not "frothy tea".
@Gastro888: Thank you for correcting me. I was not correctly informed on the matter. I will have to speak with the person who told me that boba meant bubble.
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18 Comments:
Definitely the happiest burger I've tasted in a while! :)
Kathy YL Chan at 2:34PM on 12/09/08
Interesting. The bottom soaked bun looks nice too!
jkdrummer at 3:01PM on 12/09/08
Anyone tried their baked ox tongue rice? I would love to know how it tastes!
kobetobiko at 4:14PM on 12/09/08
the impervious bun BLEW us all away.
Erin Zimmer at 4:54PM on 12/09/08
@jkdrummer: It was!
@kobetobiko: Haven't had it, but now I'm curious..maybe next time. :)
roboppy at 5:39PM on 12/09/08
Bubble tea? Do you mean Boba Tea?
smhess at 6:35PM on 12/09/08
@smhess: Yup!
roboppy at 6:41PM on 12/09/08
I highly encourage more foreign lands to create their version of a burger. Imagine what a Thai burger would be... Indian burger, not so much..
jeffsayyes at 7:23PM on 12/09/08
@jeff: Plenty of Muslims and Christians in India...I imagine a curry burger could be delicious, topped with yoghurt and mint sauce.
NotAmerican at 1:28AM on 12/10/08
Wow- I lived right across the street at 69 Mott for a year and never knew about this... is this place new?
@NotAmerican: An Indian-themed burger would no doubt be intriguing, however, based on my experience, burgers IN India are awful. I was recently there for 2 months and made numerous attempts to track down a decent burger but to no avail. The main issue there being the difficulty in finding fresh beef, as slaughtering of cows is illegal. The best you can hope to get is a buffalo burger. Even the restaurants serving "steaks" had to have beef shipped in from slaughterhouses outside the country and the result was always mediocre at best.
steelecity at 3:19PM on 12/10/08
@steelecity: It's not very old, but I'm not sure when it opened. The first time I went was in September.
roboppy at 3:24PM on 12/10/08
Boba tea is the vulgar name for bubble tea. Boba=boobs.
NYminknit at 5:24PM on 12/10/08
This looks cool. Someone I know has recently introduced me to these Hong Kong-style diners with food that is "somewhat Western, somewhat Chinese." Now we'll have to try this place!
Adam Kuban at 2:53AM on 12/11/08
@NYminknit, boba is a pretty common name for bubble tea, and I don't believe it's vulgar. I understand it's derived from the English word bubble, and that the Chinese characters mean froth.
I wonder how common burgers like this would be elsewhere? I assume that I would have to go to a big city to find such a unique and yummy looking burger:) I have definitely never seen this around where I live...
milkyway4679 at 10:35AM on 12/12/08
Can't wait to try that.
When i lived in China, McDonald's had a promo for the Summer '08 Olympics with hamburgers from different countries. The most interesting one I had was the kimchi hamburger (Korea).
And to help clear up the meaning of boba:
http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Boba/
Star313 at 2:14PM on 12/12/08
Mmm, I used to go to a place that made "Indian style" burgers. Lamb patties, with yogurt, chutney, etc etc. Suuuuper yummy!
natty at 12:47AM on 12/13/08
@milkyway4679: Boba IS a vulgar word that is slang for nipples. So if you go into a Chinese tea house and order a "boba cha", it'd be like saying "nipple tea".
Also, the Chinese characters for bubble tea mean "pearl milk tea" not "frothy tea".
(Yes, I am Chinese...)
Gastro888 at 5:48PM on 12/15/08
@Gastro888: Thank you for correcting me. I was not correctly informed on the matter. I will have to speak with the person who told me that boba meant bubble.
milkyway4679 at 12:30AM on 01/07/09