A Hamburger Today
Mac and Cheese Burger from Burger Shoppe
Does the combination of beef, cheese, and macaroni make for a tasty burger? This question would cross few people's minds if not for the Mac and Cheese Burger ($15) at Burger Shoppe. Short story: It's not particularly great or bad. It's just a burger with some macaroni and cheese in it.
As previously mentioned, the eight-ounce burger is made of ground beef mixed with macaroni and cheese (made with cheddar, American, Pecorino and Gruyère) and topped with homemade cheese sauce and Gruyère bread crumbs. Since it comes with a too vinegary arugula salad instead of fries, my friend and I ordered a mix of fries and onion rings on the side. They weren't anything special; feel free to skip them.
And feel free to skip the burger. It wasn't bad, but if it's riding on the novelty of containing macaroni and cheese, it seems like it should contain more macaroni and cheese. The autopsy shot reveals little pockets of cheese here and there in the medium rare (erring on the side of rare) patty, but neither my friend nor I could discern much of the macaroni and cheese flavor. The textures of the meat and pasta melded together, resulting in uniform softness. I'm glad the burger was juicy, but it was otherwise pretty boring and not worth seeking out. (I wonder how it compares to Rachael Ray's version.)
Ah, there's a macaroni bit!
Reviews on Yelp had mixed opinions about the burger. To the people who said, "By far the most expensive burger I've ever had, but totally worth it," and "Although it's very heavy, it's full of flavor and grease and everything nice," I'm going to say, "NOOOO," unless they ended up with totally different burgers from what I got. I agree more with the person who said she was "a little underwhelmed by the touted mac & cheese goodness and kind of had to concentrate to experience the taste."
If you want to try the burger for yourself, it's available upstairs in the bar section after 4 p.m. (thanks for the heads up, feistyfoodie). My dining companion, who's eaten at Burger Shoppe many times for lunch, said the burger was better than their lunch options in the downstairs section.
Burger Shoppe
30 Water Street, New York, NY 10004 (map)
212-425-1000; burgershoppenyc.com
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