Viewing NYC Articles Categorized Under Food Crawls

Join the 1st Annual New York City Cookie Crawl This Saturday

2019-02-26T15:30:00-05:00

Redditor LadyFixIt has a passion for cookies and has organized what she is calling the 1st Annual NYC Cookie Crawl this Saturday, March 2nd. The crawl includes 22 stops on the Upper West Side and a dozen neighborhoods in Manhattan south of 59th Street. Here are the details:

Why? I like cookies. An obscene amount. They're my kryptonite. I do happen to know that there are other red-blooded denizens of NYC for whom cookies is also a love language. Thus.... the Cookie Crawl!

What? Well, it's, me, you, all of our friends-- and Manhattan's best cookie spots (as sourced by me). Some I've been to personally, some were suggested by friends who've been, and some were just passed by on my travels with one vow: to one day visit and consume their cookies!
Caveat -- You don't HAVE to buy or eat cookies everywhere we go. Please, be as selective as you'd like! At some point, we will probably stop for dinner and drinks too. So save room!

Where? We're gonna start the crawl uptown at Mille-feuille Bakery, next to the 79th Street Station.

When? March 2nd at 2pm! Please be as prompt as possible so we can all head out together!

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[BOOKS] New York City Food Crawls: Touring the Neighborhoods One Bite & Libation at a Time

2018-12-20T12:30:00-05:00

New York City Food Crawls: Touring the Neighborhoods One Bite & Libation at a Time is a new digital and paperback book from foodie blogger sisters Ali Zweben Imber and Daryl Zweben Hom. Using their experience of local restaurant reviews from The Sisterhood of the Unbuttoning Pants, the duo put together a book highlighting their top picks in New York City neighborhoods. Inside, you will find mostly Manhattan coverage, but a few Brooklyn neighborhoods are there, as well as a little bit of coverage in Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island.

New York City Food Crawls is an exciting culinary tour through this historic yet modern city. Discover the hidden gems and long-standing institutions of New York City neighborhoods. Each crawl is the complete recipe for a great night out, the perfect tourist day, a new way to experience your own city, or simply food porn and great stories to enjoy from home. Hit the Theater District for dinner and a show. Find the hottest spots to hit mid-shopping spree, and take brunch to a whole new level any day of the week. Put on your walking shoes and your stretchy pants, and dig into the Big Apple one dish at a time.

While the words "food crawl" are indeed in the title, the book is more of a neighborhood guide as it would be impossible to hit all of these spots on one outing. We know, because we have tried.

New York City Food Crawls: Touring the Neighborhoods One Bite & Libation at a Time is available on Amazon for $9.99.

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We Crawled Through All of the Best Pork Buns in the East Village and the Winner is…

2016-05-25T09:00:00-04:00

Pork Bun noun: a Chinese snack consisting of steamed or baked bread dough filled with barbecued pork.

While walking through the East Village, one can find a slew of restaurants of different varieties and styles. Once taking a closer look (or going on a food crawl,) one may notice there are a number of Chinese, Japanese and Korean restaurants lining 1st through 5th Avenue, Houston to 14th Street. The team at Viewing NYC took to the daunting task of locating the best Pork Bun among these restaurants. Through the East Village streets 20 brave souls crawled on, persistent, and hungry, seeking out the best bao of all in the first ever Viewing NYC East Village Pork Bun Crawl.

We did some research and chose the 12 spots to visit, all within the borders of the East Village. Most of the pork buns spots have appeared on various top-ten lists around the web, others have amazing reviews on places like Eater, Zagat, and Yelp, some were passed to us by word of mouth.

The Methodology

When I think of a pork bun, I don’t think that it is a lot of food to handle, and thus I could take on a few of these. But we were tackling twelve different stops over a course of four hours, so we cut each bun in half eating a total of six buns through our journey. We ordered the standard pork bun (though we had one non-pork eating crawler, who ate otherwise) and we could not rate the bun based off of any additional sauces other than the one that came on it by default. Bare buns all the way!

Immediately upon devouring delicious juicy pork bun goodness, each crawler rated the bun on the crawler website, rating it from 1—5, and uploading their comments and pictures. Crawlers were given a chance to revise ratings as we progressed through the crawl and could compare and contrast with other buns.

The Pork Buns

Ichiba Ramen: Pork Bun
Gyu-Kaku: Gyu-Pork Belly Bun
Ramen Setagaya: Hiroshi Bun
Han Dynasty: Taiwan Pork Belly Bun
Bauhaus: Chairman Bao
Momofuku Ssäm Bar: Steamed Bun
Love Mamak: BBQ Char Siu Bun
Rai Rai Ken: Pork Bun
Momofuku Noodle Bar: Al Pastor Bun
Ugly Kitchen: Spicy Pork Bun
Zen 6: Steamed Chinese Style Bun, Pork
Cho-Ko: Pork Bun

More on how each of these ranked just ahead… or TL;DR

The Route

We covered 2.2 miles of the East Village starting in Union Square. We crawled all 12 spots in just over 5 hours!

Our findings are listed in order of least mouthwatering, to salivating mess.

The Results

Bottom Tier: 12th Place

Ramen Setagaya - 2.500/5

One bun had to come in last place, and thankfully, it was my least favorite. The Hiroshi Bun at Ramen Setagaya was a basic Pork Bun; the bun was soft, the pork was thinner than standard, and it was topped with iceberg lettuce and miso paste.

Meat thin, buns are fluffy! Standard, hits the spot but does not exceed expectations

Nothing memorable about these buns. The thin slice of pork was overcooked and tasted microwaved. Underwhelming toppings too :(.

Fluffy bun, poor ratio of meat to bun. Tastes like cheeseburger.

Overall, this bun was just not living up to the standard of "the best pork buns of the East Village." Next!

Bottom Tier: 11th Place

Gyu-Kaku – 2.684/5

This was our second stop on the crawl, and we were still bright eyed and hopeful of our Pork Bun futures. The Gyu-Pork Belly Bun at Gyu-Kaku featured lettuce that appeared wilted, the bun appeared disheveled and soggy, and the meat was overcooked.

Meat was really fatty. Liked the tenderness and spicyness. Bun was slightly soggy at first touch.

Topping and sauce were disappointing, and the meat was just okay.

Thousand island sauce was tacky, over cooked pork was like thick cut bacon, but in a bad way. Presentation not so good, falling apart

Almost all the crawlers saw right through the basic Thousand Island dressing.

Bottom Tier: 10th Place

Momofuku Noodle Bar – 3.538/5

The Al Pastor bun at the Momofuku Noodle Bar is described on their menu as "pineapple, avocado, cilantro." To me it kind of sounds like a taco, to which many other crawlers agreed.

Unique, but not that good actually. Pineapple was refreshing but bizarre, my bun didn't have much avocado at all. Pork was really good though, albeit ground like spam, but together wasn't as good as some other places

Like a pork bun met a taco and had a baby

Such a different pork bun! The pork was ground and compacted back together but had a great flavor. The pineapple was a neat addition. Over all weird but still pretty tasty.

Points for the avocado and pineapple. But I didn't like that the meat was ground and the pink pickled stuff.

Should be 3.5. Totally unique. Ground pork with guac pineapple and pickled onion. Very good, but non traditional. Would make an excellent soft taco

Sweet and tangy makes it my favorite.

Our porkless crawler tried the brisket bun, and rated it his favorite bun of the day with a 5/5 for a "solid piece of brisket with a nice cucumber crunch."

The Al Pastor bun received mixed reviews, but definitely wins points for creativity. Despite being low on the list overall, the bun is one I would definitely make a trip to try!

Bottom Tier: 9th Place

Cho-Ko – 3.727/5

The Pork Bun at Cho-Ko received pretty solid reviews as the only Korean-styled bun of the day featuring BBQ sauce. With hints of citrus, a nice fat to sauce ratio, and a solid presentation, this bun held its own.

Yummy yummy sauce had a little citrus in it, a bit of Korean flavors in it, presentation nice, good balance of sauce with fatty meats

Unique spicy sauce

A deliciously simple and unassuming bun with some super tasty sauce thrown in. One of the best on the crawl!

Krispy-Kapow! Smoky.

The smoky BBQ sauce definitely saved this bun from a lower ranking.

Middle Tier: 8th Place

Rai Rai Ken – 3.786/5

Boy, the Pork Bun at Rai Rai Ken was pretty tasty! The meat was extremely tender without being overly fatty like some of the others on the crawl. The lettuce added a nice crunch, but some crawlers stressed there was too much bun!

Good but poor pork to bun ration. Too much bun!!

Solid choice. Vegetables offer a nice crunch. Sauce was decently spicy. Meat wasn't anything special.

Imagine Beijing duck in pork form

So tender, hoisin sauce on the bun was amazing, heavy on the bun though. Extra sauce was incredible!

This bun was good, but the extra sauce on the side made it incredible. The sauce wasn’t allowed to count towards our rating, but seriously, ask for extra-extra sauce.

Middle Tier: 7th Place

Bauhaus – 4.063/5

The Chairman Bao at Bauhaus was a solid pork bun, and one we were all looking forward to. It had an extra small bun with a nice thick piece of meat. It almost looked like a rainbow of fatty heavens. Other features included a peanut crunch, cilantro and a spicy hoisin sauce.

Thick thick slab of meet and extremely well marinated! Bun on the smaller side but the taste is huge.

Pork to bun ratio was out of this world! Tiny buns with thick cut pork belly, peanut crunch and shredded cilantro combine with a slightly spicy hoisin balanced wall.

Deliciousness abounds. Not the absolute best of the crawl but pretty darn close. Huge hunk of meat on a slightly smaller-than-average bun. Nice pickled relish and crushed peanuts. Great combo and a super solid bun!

Good slice of meat. It's the pillar of this bun.

Bauhaus proved to our crawlers that it’s the size of the meat that matters most.

Middle Tier: 6th Place

Momofuku Ssäm Bar – 4.125/5

This was the first of the two Momofuku restaurants we stopped at during the crawl. At Momofuku Ssäm Bar we grabbed the Steamed Buns, which featured a double layer of pork, cucumber and a hoisin sauce. The fatty pork left a lasting taste in our mouths which resonated throughout the crawlers reviews.

The best!!! Melt in your mouth-2 thick pork belly pieces-so juicy and delicious!!

Literally.melts.in.your.mouth. The pork is so tender and wonderful, and the red sauce on the side is so tasty. Perhaps the best on the crawl!

Soggy but savory. Double meat was a nice touch. A lasting after taste

Very fatty double layered, good hoisin sauce and extra ssam sauce. Highly anticipated and didn't let down at all. No crunch though, needed a bit more textural contrast. Not perfect, but 4.5 rounds up to 5 for me.

While the bun was a bit soggy from the heavy pork, we could all agree that this one was yummy and #GREASY.

Middle Tier: 5th Place

Ugly Kitchen – 4.182/5

Ugly Kitchen was the only bun on the crawl labeled as a Spicy Pork Bun. Crawlers agreed that the presentation was pretty, funny, considering it’s called Ugly Kitchen. The pork was flavorful and spicy, and they didn’t skimp on how much they packed into each bun. The meat was accompanied by a cucumber crunch and spicy sauce.

So good!! The filling is falling out of the bun! Spicy and refreshing with cucumber and sauce

Beautiful presentation and leanest pork. Feel a little healthier.

Very pretty presentation, spicy ingredients, messy sauce yet tasty, stale bun a little bit but pretty well balanced

Healthy? Near the end of a pork bun crawl? Lean pork meat stuffed this bun, and the hot sauce would rev up our metabolisms through the last chunk of our crawl stops (we can wish!) Definitely another one added to my personal list to try again.

Upper Tier: 4th Place

Zen 6 – 4.273/5

At Zen 6 we tasted the Steamed Chinese Style Bun, Pork (as they also offer shiitake mushroom and shrimp.) The pork bun comes with spicy mayo, iceberg, and scallions. The bun was perfectly prepared and presented, and while seeming simple to the eye, it tantalized our taste buds as it melted in our mouths.

Wow! Surprise best pork bun-best combination of juicy meaty and fatty pork belly with thick mayo sauce-melt in your mouth-amazing!

The meat is deliciously crispy on the outside but still melt-in-your-mouth on the inside. Slight taste of ginger. Perfectly simple mayo. Makes for a great, unassuming bun!

Simple but solid. Meat had just enough fat, generous amount of sauce, crunchy lettuce, perfectly steamed bun.

Outstanding ingredients and preparation here, albeit basic flavored. Simple, classic, came together nicely with the highest quality ingredients we have seen.

While some crawlers argued this bun was boring, majority votes this one was simple, and utterly delicious.

Upper Tier: 3rd Place

Ichiba Ramen – 4.294/5

Ichiba Ramen was our first stop on the Pork Bun Crawl, and I was a little surprised by its proximity to Union Square. Ichiba is modern looking, described by some of our crawlers as "very NYU." We tasted their Pork Bun which was extremely soft with a thick cut of pork belly, sweet sauce, and cucumbers that added a nice refreshing crunch.

Juicy pork and nice buns! Off to a good start!! Nice packaging. Cool location and storefront. Small cucumber for a burst of color. Slab of meat was tender.

Balanced flavors. Pork a bit too inconsistent, some parts were dry some juicy.

Despite the haters (who say that the bites of pork without sauce were dry), these pork buns were DELECTABLE! The sorta-soy sauce was delicious, the buns were soft and flavorful, the pickled cucumber was a perfect touch, and the overall effect made me hungry for more!

Delicious! Meat was juicy and tender, generous amount of sauce.

Flavorful sauce, full cucumbers added a freshness that balanced with the fatty pork. Pork tender and well cooked, good even split of fat and pork.

Overall, the crawlers agreed this was an excellent pork bun to start with. Super soft, sweet, and meaty!

Upper Tier: 2rd Place

Han Dynasty – 4.333/5

Han Dynasty was definitely the gossiped front runner, and they definitely didn’t disappoint! This Taiwan Pork Belly Bun had meat that was out of this world; with a caramelized thick fatty edge. The meat was balanced out with nuts, pickled veggies, cilantro, a five spice rub and a hint of sugar.

Chinese style pork with 5 spice was something different, and amazingly good. Carmelized fatty edge atop rendered fat was blissful. Peanut and cilantro flavoring paired well with the meat. The bun itself was nothing special but held Eveything well.

Crushed peanut and sugar coasted bottom, with pork belly fat and the pickled veggies - oh so good.

Crazy blend of flavors...subtle sweetness of he peanut and marbled fat of the pork, with the slightest kick from the cilantro

Omg. Delicious, tender pork with wonderfully carmalized fat on top, soft and sticky buns, crushed peanut and sugar thrown in there, and some cilantro for good measure. Truly phenom. My favorite so far!

This bun changed the game of our crawl. This Chinese style bun definitely became my high bar for some of the other presumed front runners that would follow.

Upper Tier: 1st Place and WINNER of the 2016 Viewing NYC East Village Pork Bun Crawl

Love Mamak – 4.429/5

Our 2016 East Village Pork Bun Crawl Winner is Love Mamak! I didn’t expect much from this place after tasting Han Dynasty, Bau Haus, and Momofuku, but boy these BBQ Char Siu Buns were the bomb-dot-com. The only Vietnamese-style bun of our crawl, the meat was thinner, beautifully seasoned, and almost had a jerky texture. The sriracha mayo added a nice kick, accompanied by simple lettuce and peanut sauce.

Vietnamese style, fried meat low fat, excellent sauce, sriracha sauce mayo tied in with some spice and some fatty flavor

Lean pork satay style with peanut sauce

The meat had less fat on it which I really liked. The sauce was delicious.

This was probably my favorite bun. But it all fairness, it was Vietnamese style and truly in its own category with its simple and perfect braised pork, lettuce, and ah-mazing sauce. So freaking good.

Simple, flavorful, and well sauced. Sneakily good.

The spiced Vietnamese pork was some of the best I've had. The food was unassuming and delicious!

Loved it! Different than the others with the BBQ texture and loved the nutty sauce

Pure, simple, perfect

Different than the classic pork bun with a Vietnamese twist with peanuty sauce!

Really good complex flavor

Cruuuuuunch! And spice. Crunch and spice! Yes!

Deee-lish!!

This bun was in a category of its own. This was one of the more simple buns of the day in terms of ingredients, but the meat's flavor stood out from the rest, and with a perfect balance of the sauce and all other ingredients, the bun left us begging for more.

Wrap-Up

I had trouble thinking that twelve pork buns could taste that different (you’ve had one pork bun you’ve had them all.) However, it was quite the opposite. Each stop on our crawl had a unique visible presentation. Some pork was too fatty, while others were too dry. Some nailed the accompanying sauce; others seemed to just spread mayo. Overall, it was worthwhile to weed out the simple from the exquisite.

And there you have it. Pork buns in their (open faced) glory.

Results Graph

Editor's Note on the Results

Those of you familiar with the East Village restaurant scene know that Ippudo has one of the best rated pork buns in the City, but we could not include them on this crawl. Ippudo does not do any take-out orders, delivery or doggy bags at all. There is simply no way to get the food out of the restaurant unless it's inside of your belly. Because we had 20 people on the crawl, and Ippudo could not accomodate us, we were forced to skip it.

In this Pork Bun crawl, we had already limited the list down to the best 12 we could find. Thus this list is already the best of the best. Most of the pork buns rate over 4.0 on average, and the lowest 2 may have just had an off day. Even a Momofuku restaurant scored low on this best-of list.

While we stand by our results and our #1 pick of Love Mamak, as chosen by our varied group of crawlers, you should really try a bunch of these places for yourself to see what kind of Pork Bun lover you are, and use our ratings and reviews to help you figure out which spot is your #1.

— Matt Coneybeare, Editor-in-Chief

———

Congrats to our winner Love Mamak and all of the other restaurants on the crawl. And congrats to the crawlers who sacrificed their bellies to successfully devour 6 or more pork buns (many of us had double portions at each place!) on a Saturday afternoon.

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The 7th Annual Cookie Walk is a Must-Attend Event for All New York City Cookie Monsters

2015-12-01T13:48:40-05:00

The East Village's annual Cookie Walk is a unique holiday offering where you purchase a cookie container then fill it as much as you can with delicious cookies from dozens of the best local vendors.

As you enter the Cookie Walk, you will be greeted with the smell of baking cookies made from only the best ingredients. We have been baking non-stop for days so that tens of thousands of fresh baked cookies await you. There is nothing hi-tech here - just holiday goodness and old-fashioned fun.

There are two box sizes offered for $15 or $25, and even have gluten-free options. The 7th Annual Cookie Walk is being held at St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church on 10th and A in Alphabet City on Saturday, December 12th (11am - 5pm) and 13th (Noon - 3pm).

Be sure to get there early for the best selection!

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My Cupcake Addiction Leads a New York City Cake Crawl for 30 Lucky Women

2015-11-25T13:03:42-05:00

My Cupcake Addition is a widely popular YouTube channel with 2.5 million subscribers all interesting in everything cupcake.

In this recent video, channel host Elise took the NYC streets by storm with 30 lucky women for her first New York City Cupcake crawl, hitting all of the City's best cupcake shops in one day.

Thanks to Liz at the Australian Cake Decorating Network for organising and hosting the crawl & Anne for wrangling the stragglers. And thanks to my awesome girls Mel, Kellie & Udarie for stuffing their faces with me every step of the way!

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The Best Dumpling in the 2015 Viewing NYC Chinatown Dumpling Crawl is...

2015-10-06T09:00:00-04:00

With a different amazing dumpling restaurant on just about every street in the neighborhood, Manhattan's Chinatown is a great place to host a culinary expedition, and its high density of top-tier dumpling spots makes it easy to get from one to the next. Hence, the team at Viewing NYC thought it would be a great idea to try 10 of the best.

We did some research and chose the 10 spots to visit, all within the borders of Manhattan's Chinatown. Most of the dumpling joints have appeared on various top-ten lists around the web, others have amazing reviews on places like Eater, Zagat, The Infatuation, and Yelp, some were passed to us from word of mouth.

This past Saturday, October 3rd, 2015, we hosted the inaugural Viewing NYC Chinatown Dumpling Crawl so we could try all 10 dumplings spots, back-to-back-to-back, in one afternoon.

The Methodology

We only ordered the standard pork and chive fried dumplings at each restaurant.

Soup dumplings are amazing, and boiled/steamed dumplings have their place too, but it's unfair to compare them against each other. To make the ratings as accurate as we could, we needed to be very consistent with what we ordered.

We chose establishments which have the typical Chinatown "hole-in-the-wall" feel offering quick food at affordable prices. We wanted places where it was less of a restaurant and more of a grab-and-go joint.

At every restaurant we ordered enough freshly fried dumplings so that each participant got 2 dumplings: one to eat "naked" (i.e. sans sauce), and one to eat with the restaurant's provided dipping sauce, vinegar etc…

We did not call ahead for pickup orders because fried dumplings are so quickly made, and degrade quickly if allowed to sit for even a few minutes. We wanted them as fresh as possible.

After trying each of the dumplings, we rated the "naked" and sauced dumplings separately, and provided an area for tasters to write comments.

The Prosperity Dumpling Controversy

In late August, one of the top seeded restaurants that used to be on this crawl — Prosperity Dumpling — was shuttered by the NYC Department of Health for multiple violations. The restaurant was still closed on the date of the crawl, so they are notably absent from this list, replaced with another dumpling spot.

The Route

The route was a mere 1.5 miles, zig zagging from West Chinatown in a funky U until we hit the south side of the LES/Chinatown border.

The Crawlers

We had a good mix of people in the crawl representing a broad array of culinary interests. We had some Yelp Elites, some who eat only Michelin rated food, some hardcore dumpling fiends, some who couldn't use chopsticks, and people representing multiple countries over multiple continents.

All-in-all a good mix of tastes that led to a varied representation in the averaged ratings. Dumplings were scored and ranked based on a simple average of the 20 crawlers who submitted ratings 1-10.

The Results

Presented in ascending order of average rating.

Bottom Tier: 10th Place

Vanessa's Dumpling House

Naked: 4.81/10
Sauced: 5.25/10
Overall Average: 5.03

Somebody had to come in last place, and with an average score of 5.03/10, it's Vanessa's Dumpling House on Eldridge.

Many crawlers pegged Vanessa's as a frontrunner going into the event, which surprises me. Vanessa's is by far the most corporate of them all, had the longest lines, and had the most non-Asian diners in there picking up 4 dumpling for $1.

Looked very pretty, but not very tasty. Very uniformly shaped, well cooked outside, not very tasty on inside

Nice crisp, and aesthetically pleasing, dumpling. But not very flavorful. Just okay.

Highly commercialized and very bland, wouldn't come back here.

Probably least flavor and most oily. Wasn't my favorite by a long shot.

Actually disappointed, was barely edible compared to some of the other dumpling places. The ingredients didn't seem fresh...

Having this the last stop on the crawl made me realize that I don't need to go here anymore, my eyes were opened to so many more authentic tasting dumplings. And way cheaper!

Each dumpling looked identical in size, shape and cooking that it looked almost mechanic, and tasted as such too. There was no love put into these dumplings and it showed. We heard a stranger describing Vanessa's as dumplings for white people and thought that was a crude way to say it, but somehow spot-on.

Bottom Tier: 9th Place

Fried Dumpling

Naked: 4.85/10
Sauced: 5.35/10
Overall Average: 5.10

Fried Dumpling on Mosco has offered 5 fried dumplings for $1 forever, never raising prices or changing the recipe, making them a Chinatown favorite.

But with an average score that places them second to last, the surprisingly low result from the long-time Chinatown legend disappointed all.

Dumplings seemed smaller in size than the first stop and much more greasy. Sauce was more seasoned though!

Needs more meat. Nice thinner skin though.

More messy, worse presentation, but tasty. Inconsistent with level of fried exterior. Sauce almost 100% vinegar

Northern Style - they do one thing and they do it well!

Less filling, and much less chive and pork taste. Noodle covering too chewy. However very authentic ambience.

Just... No. Tough exterior, skimping out on meat, and dry dry dry. No good

Thinner skin, but quite tough. not juicy, smaller dumpling. flavor is ok. sauce is watery, doesn't enhance much.

Nothing special about these fried dumplings from Fried Dumplings, but that doesn't mean they weren't tasty.

Poor quality casing; chewy. Not fresh, definitely frozen beforehand. Limited flavor with boring sauce.

Love that this place has only one dumpling offered on its menu. Do one thing and do it right.

Despite its lower score, many crawlers liked the simplicity of Fried Dumpling and rated the dumplings high. The inconsistency in our order however pulled enough negative ratings to drop Fried Dumpling in the charts severely.

Bottom Tier: 8th Place

Jin Mei Dumpling House

Naked: 6.25/10
Sauced: 6.45/10
Overall Average: 6.35

Jin Mei Dumpling House has been around for a couple of years now and offers 5 pork and chive dumplings for $1 out of a tiny shop on Henry.

The dumpling house was impressively run by a single woman, the owner who handmade and cooked each dumpling herself, so our order took a bit of time to come out, but they were all fresh and hot.

Excellent dumpling execution

Standard fare for dumplings, not particularly memorable/outstanding but gets the job done

Very gingery, yum!

Flavorful filling, and the casing was moderate at best. The oil was sweet and flavorful. The sauce was too gingery.

Similar to tasty dumpling, but less doughy & smaller. flavor is ok, not juicy. skin is still on doughy side. just ok, sauce is meh.

Nice amount of dough. Kinda mediocre?

Classic style heavy on chives, roughly hand made, heavy ginger, fried ok, sauce nothin special.

Very nice traditional dumpling. Classic

The dumplings were OK, pretty bland but still good.

Most flavorful dumplings. Great ginger and chive tastes in the meat and sauce. Standard and good dumplings but not particularly exceptional.

Tangy realness!

Stuffed the most out of all the places

Many crawlers thought that Jin Mei made the dumplings more like the ones you find in China, more authentic to what a dumpling should be with a higher chive-to-pork ratio and fresh ginger. Many crawlers also thought that Jin Mei made them a bit on the cheaper side, and not as much meat-flavor as there should be. When all was said and done, Jin Mei was third from last in 8th place.

Bottom Tier: 7th Place

China North Dumpling

Naked: 6.22/10
Sauced: 6.61/10
Overall Average: 6.42

China North Dumpling on Essex serves up 12 fried pork and chive dumplings for $3, making it one of the less expensive places to fill your belly on the list.

Not the greatest flavor and a little too greasy.

Meh...noodle dry. Good standard dumplings, can't quite compete with the others

Plain, juicy fatty meat, overly greasy, not he best but not he worst, plain sauces

Fresh-fried and crispy but not as flavorful as others.

Meat already had been marinated and its flavor could hold its own w/o help of sauce. Texture was excellent,. Meat to skin ratio on point

Great value prop and delicious tasting overall.

Limited flavor, with a poor quality casing. Filling was alright, and the dumpling was over-cooked.

Best dump for a buck

Doughy, deep fried, more vegetable in the filling vs others (ie. less meat), overall meh.

Again, inconstancy killed the rating here. We got some that were well cooked, some overcooked, some too greasy, some dried out. China North pulled down some great scores, but unfortunately the good dumpling ratings were not enough to overpower the bad, and China North scored 7th place overall.

Middle Tier: 6th Place

C & L Dumpling House

Naked: 6.37/10
Sauced: 6.95/10
Overall Average: 6.65

C & L Dumpling House offers up 4 pork and chive dumplings for $1.25 placing it in the middle of the pack when it comes to pricing. (Side note: Can you believe $1.25 is the middle of the pack! Gotta love Chinatown!)

The outer shell here was well toasted and the meat was excellent. There was great fat content in the dough, and both sauces were amazing.

The sauce here is amazing!! Dumps are standard fare, but the sweet chili sauce puts it over the top

Doughy, medium thickness skin. filling & flavor ok. best chili sauce.

Tasty crispy dough outing and solid dumpling over all.

Too much breading

Biggest dumplings of crawl, sauce good, long preparation time, average flavor

Decent.

Noodle probably the weakest, but filling with most flavor with strong chive and ginger taste. Sauce did not add much to flavor.

C & L had a thick, well fried casing that most tasters liked. A few crawlers thought it was too much dough, but for the most part, the casing and chili sauce at C & L helped it rise to the middle tier above its competitors.

Middle Tier: 5th Place

Tasty Dumpling

Naked: 6.75/10
Sauced: 7.05/10
Overall Average: 6.90

Tasty Dumpling on Mulberry sits directly across from Columbus Park and was our first spot on the list, serving up 5 dumplings for $1.

Great amount of chive and pork fat with crisp outside. I want more.

The crispness of the dumplings and the dough to meat ratio was spot on. I felt as if the vinegar really added to the flavor of the meat. Great taste overall.

Tasty Dumpling delivers on the taste, but sauce definitely helps complete the tasty factor.

It's the winner. Calling it. I'm also extremely hungry.

The crispy dough outing was perf, but still didn't make these the winning dumplings.

Dumplings have good juice factor, but flavor was lacking. Skin texture was more doughy then desired. When sauced in vinegar dumpling jumps a point. Pretty decent.

Thick skin with great flavor; crispy bottom. Very fresh tasting chives, great flavor in pork, and very flavorful oil. Mediocre sauce, though.

The dumping dough was crispy and chewy in perfect ratio. And the filling was delicious too. Significantly better plain.

Fresh pork, high pork to chive ratio, nice crispy exterior. Sauce too vinegary

Super fresh and delicious! Great balance of pork and chive.

The crispness is nicely balanced by the smooth dough!

Good portion, skin too doughy/thick, juicy (a bit too oily). flavor is good. sauce is too watery, doesn't enhance much.

Because this was the first spot on the list, many reviewers were cognizant of the fact that hunger could affect ratings, so several people went back and changed Tasty Dumpling with a higher rating after visiting a few spots.

Most crawlers thought the ratios of these dumplings (meat to chives, filling to dough, fat to meat) was just right. Nobody mentioned any cooking issues, major breakage or anything else bad, making Tasty Dumpling strong enough to be in the top half of the results.

Middle Tier: 4th Place

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles

Naked: 7.05/10
Sauced: 7.35/10
Overall Average: 7.20

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles on Doyers Street has been around for about 6 years now and serves up one of the more expensive dumplings on the crawl with 10 for $6.25.

It should be noted that this dumpling was slightly different than the rest because their Fried Pork Veg. Dumpling contains boiled cabbage instead of chives, leading to a more juicy interior filling. As a group, we decided the difference was not significant enough to disqualify it from the crawl, so here we are!

The flavor of these dumplings is out of this world. The vinegar sauce was practically perfect and the softness was ideal.

OMG these dumplings, with their ginger spice and extra soupiness, were super delicious and flavorful. Definitely a top choice!

Nice well-rounded flavor

Cabbage and pork dumpling, ginger, sweeter and well cooked, juicy, flavorful bite sized

Well-flavored oil and overall flavor. Nice sauce too!

Great skin that was very thin. Filling was great, and had an excellent sweet sauce.

The ruffles tasted good! Ideal balance of crispness and dough-iness.

Cabbage dumplings were excellent! Gingery, skin was not too doughy, wasn't too greasy.

Very good. best skin so far. flavor is good. juicy, decent size, though smaller than some (could be due to the thinness of the skin). Sauce is very good, sweet & sour taste.

Like the cabbage in this one

Ehhh it was okay. Good pan fried markings

Beautifully crafted dumplings. Lots of pork fat that stays on your lips with excellent noodle. Sauce with vinegars with sweet ginger taste.

The Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles dumpling was loved by most, with a good combination of pork filling, cabbage, ginger and spices, well cooked with a non-greasy exterior and excellent pairing with a crafted vinegar dipping sauce to compliment.

Upper Tier: 3rd Place

Noodle Village

Naked: 7.00/10
Sauced: 7.75/10
Overall Average: 7.38

Noodle Village on Mott was the most expensive dumpling house on the crawl at 6 for $5.75. The settings is more of a restaurant than the other spots, and it was packed with the lunch crowd when we arrived. We had to wait a good bit for the order to come up, and given all of this, we didn't have high hopes for the dumplings going in. So how did they fare?

Excellent sauce, ginger sweet. High chive content, well fried on outside, took longer to prepare, but very tasty and worth it.

Girth, sheer girth. And deliciousness. Huge dumplings and amazing taste. The garlic / vinegar stop was INSANE and easily my favorite so far.

Much larger dumplings...possibly overfilled. Less fat and chive ratio compared to others. Sauce wonderful combination of vinegar, sugar, spice and literally everything nice that could exist in this world.

So much filling! Great ratio of pork/chive to dough.

Large and in charge, these fried dumplings were delicious! And that garlic soy sauce was the bomb.

More filling and lather than the others, delicious. Second best dough

Great filling. Delicious combo of solid filling and thin skin. But at $1 per dumpling I'll have to skip in lieu of cheaper options.

The dumplings were packed, juicy and flavorful. The only reason why it did not get full marks was that it does not fulfill the most important criteria for dumplings. Value. By definition, dumplings have got to be cheap eats. Flavor/texture profiles are on point but disqualified by price.

This was amazing dumpling surprisingly. It's expensive, but huge! Each dumpling larger than a golf ball. The sauce was gingery and amazing. The dumpling was a little sweet which is a little different from the traditional savory dumpling.

Full bodied and robust flavor

My dumplings were a little burnt on the edges which gave them a great crispy quality. The sauce was to die for!

Good skin quality with moderate thickness. flavorful, and solid quality.

Hearty filling & dough (almost like a bun instead of a dumpling). skin is thicker, more doughy. good flavor & juice. sauce is good, sweeter. quite good.

These dumplings were massive in size, like golfballs full of delicious fillings and flavors. They were also about 5 times more expensive than most of the dumplings on this list. While not 5 times better, they were better in flavor than 7 other dumpling spots and nab a well-earned place in the upper tier.

All crawlers loved the sauce here. It had the second highest rating difference between naked and sauced, propelling it to third by a slim margin. The Noodle Village sauce was one of the only ones that had little bits of real garlic and ginger in it, and it was combined well with vinegar, soy sauce and a bit of sugar giving a sweet, savory addition that complimented the dumpling perfectly.

Upper Tier: 2nd Place

Lam Zhou Handmade Noodle

Naked: 7.26/10
Sauced: 8.16/10
Overall Average: 7.71

Lam Zhou Handmade Noodle on East Broadway is one of the more popular dumpling places for people in the know, and it did not disappoint on dumpling crawl day.

Dumplings slightly oily but the sauce is amazing: garlic, ginger and soy sauce compliment the dumplings perfectly.

Super gingery and meaty. Great sauce.

Used to be my favorite, still good but not as good as the rest. Oily. Exterior, not crispy, amazing sauce though. Good meat flavor inside, juicy and salty

A sauce to warm your soul.

Love the flavor of this dumpling, hints of cumin perhaps? Just the right amount of grease to pair with a beer. Also like the skin of the dumpling, right thickness.

Best sauce so far -- it had a ginger tang to it that I liked.

Dumplicious!

Good skin - one of the best in the list. filling is smaller, less chives, a little too salty, juicy.

Liked pre-marinated meat flavor but the dumpling was a bit dry.

Nice flavor and freshly folded in front of you.

Solid but not my favorite of the crawl.

So-so casing. Nothing to write home about, but there was a good, solid filling with good flavor. Oil was okay, but the sauce was excellent.

Very delicious dumplings with a great pork mix. The sauce was absurdly tasty.

I can't do this anymore. I love them all...

Again with the sauce! Most of the crawlers enjoyed the dipping sauce so much that they rated it almost a full point higher with a difference of 0.89 on average, the highest margin of all restaurants.

Overall, crawlers thought Lam Zhou was a solid dumpling, with good pork, fresh ingredients, a good balance of flavor components and nicely cooked. Armed with the lowest standard deviation of all places, Lam Zhou dumplings were solid enough to land them firmly in the #2 spot with an overall rating of 7.71.

Upper Tier: 1st Place and WINNER of the 2015 Viewing NYC Dumpling Crawl

Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei

Naked: 7.77./10
Sauced: 8.22/10
Overall Average: 8.00

Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei is probably the only dumpling house on this list the vast majority of people have never heard of or been to. Even seasoned Chinatown diners such as myself and a few others on the crawl had never heard of Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei. I am so happy we found this hidden gem for this crawl, and that we had some Chinese speaking crawlers with us!

The first thing you need to know is that Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei is tucked away in the basement of a Chinese business mall sitting directly under the Manhattan Bridge. You enter the East Broadway Mall and pass by businesses selling Chinese herbal remedies and cell phone parts, clothing, suitcases and other wares. You travel downstairs into the basement and pass offices for real estate and travel agents, duck around the corner and see a bright red sign with only a handful of words with English characters in them, including the pinyin for it's Chinese name: "Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei."

None of the workers spoke a word of English. All signage around the counter was entirely Chinese. We had a few Chinese-born crawlers with us who assisted in ordering, and once we figured out quantity and pricing, we ended up with 4 orders of 10 dumplings, $3.50 each. Not the cheapest dumplings on the crawl, but not the most expensive either. Still a fantastic deal.

After a little exploration in the basement, there is a menu in English on the side wall of the seating area, but without a way to communicate it easily, I would guess ordering here without somebody who knows Mandarin would involve a lot of pointing and back-and-forth.

Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei was the most chosen preliminary pick, because as soon as word spread that it was hidden away from the general public, and catered mostly to Chinese workers in the East Broadway Mall, we (correctly) assumed it would be amazing.

So what did everybody think of the dumplings?

Delicious taste complemented by a great size and delicious sauce. Texture was great and the meat was tasty.

Best. Dumplings. Ever. Fluffy yet crispy outside, extra chives inside, and the best red chili sauce to top it off!

Perfectly fried all around :) really good balance of flavor between the dumpling and the sauce

Cool hidden setting. Deep crisping was nice but possibly made up for smaller amount of filling and less favor.

Delicious if I could only eat a single dumpling. But if I had my choice to eat a whole plate, it's still not my number one.

Best flavor, very chivy. hearty filling. skin is fully fried & doughy - a little thick. sauce is good. if the skin was thinner, or maybe if the dumpling was pan-fried, it would be better.

Great Fukienese flavor.

Fantastically fried

Amazing poofy fried exterior, moist flavorful interior, pork low, chive high, sauce so flavorful, hidden gem

Crispy with great flavor. Sweet casing, with moderate thickness. Good, meaty filling, with excellent sauce.

Lots of chives, kind of greasy.

Dumpling is completely fried--which is new... but delicious! the ambience of the place takes the cake though. The sauce was also great.

Fully fried dumplings which tasted great, but will not be good to have more than 3-5 in one sitting. Overpowered with greasiness. But the first dumpling you eat is delicious

Wow, so the crawlers were not all convinced! Most thought these were the best dumplings to ever be served, expertly fried with fantastic texture, flavor and ratios. But some thought it was a little greasy, or too heavy, or too chivy. When all the ratings were tallied and the points averaged out, Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei came out on top, edging out Lam Zhou for the number 1 spot by 3 tenths of a point.

Congrats to Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei, and all the places on the crawl. And congrats to the crawlers who sacrificed their bellies to successfully devour 20+ dumplings on a cold Autumn afternoon.

Thanks to Angeline Quintilla, Bessie Chu, Brent Terry, Mary Beth Martinez, and Sophie Chung for snapping additional photos!

A Note on Naked vs. Sauced

When coming up with the methodology, we thought that each restaurant's sauce would contribute greatly to the overall rating, so we wanted to try one with and one without sauces. In the end though, once all the points were tallied, the difference between the naked and sauced dumplings was really negligible, adding less than a point to each dumpling on average.

If you like dumpling sauce, use it, if you don't, skip it. You will most likely have the same relative experience. I say try a few with and a few without, then you will know for sure!

A Note on the Results

When we did our West Village Burger Crawl the results were much more consistent, with the top spot grabbing nearly unanimous votes of perfection. In this dumpling crawl, the results were across the board, even for the winner. When averaged we can get a good picture, but it is worth noting that there seem to be more variables in play here.

In the burger crawl, we only had 4 burgers split into ¼ so it was easier to get just 4 items prepared at a consistent level. On this dumpling crawl we ordered 50 dumplings at each restaurant, so naturally, some were better prepared and better cooked than others, even in the same order. This could explain some of the contradictory reviews at the same locations. The standard deviation on these ratings were 0.958 at lowest, and 2.110 at highest, showing there was a ton af variance in opinion.

In addition, many of our crawlers grew up eating homemade Chinese food and are skewed towards the more chivy, less fried variants, whereas the more popular spots in Chinatown tend to be more heavily fried and pork-heavy, leading to a bit of polarization in the reviews based on background.

While we stand by our results and our #1 pick of Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei, you should really try a bunch for yourself to see what kind of dumpling lover you are, and use our review to help you figure out which spot is your #1.

The post The Best Dumpling in the 2015 Viewing NYC Chinatown Dumpling Crawl is... appeared first on Viewing NYC

The Best Burger in the 2015 Viewing NYC West Village Burger Crawl is...

2015-08-12T12:00:00-04:00

While it's possible to find a good burger on just about every corner in this City, the West Village has such a high density of top-tier burger joints that the team at Viewing NYC thought it would be a great idea to try them all, back-to-back-to-back.

We did some research and chose 10 places to visit, all in the West Village. Most of the burger joints have appeared on various top-ten burger lists around the web, others have amazing reviews on places like Eater, Zagat, The Infatuation, and Yelp.

Thus, on this past Saturday, August 8th, 2015, we hosted the first ever Viewing NYC West Village Burger Crawl so we could try all 10.

The Methodology

Obviously 10 full burgers is too much for anybody, so we couldn't do a full burger at every spot. We had 15 people participate in the crawl so we split 4 burgers into ¼ at each place, which ended up being 2.5 burgers in total, with one lucky crawler getting the extra ¼ at every stop.

After the first spot, we called ahead to the next place on the crawl for a pickup order, then picked them up and munched on the sidewalk. A few places actually had room for 15, so we were able to dine inside, but we mostly pigged out on the concrete.

For the most part, we didn't get fries, sides or any booze during the crawl in order to preserve our sacred stomach space. For fairness in comparison while reviewing, we ordered a medium-rare cook at all spots for consistency.

Immediately after tasting a burger, each participant individually rated it on a scale from 1—10, then wrote some comments explaining why they rated it as they did.

The Burgers

The Bash Style Burger at Burger & Barrel
The Wiki Wiki at Bareburger
The Bacon Cheeseburger at J.G. Melon
The Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern
The Bacon Cheeseburger at Five Guys
The Original Umami Burger at Umami Burger
The Happiest Burger at The Happiest Hour
The Fedora Burger at Bar Sardine
The Bistro Burger at Corner Bistro
The Bone Marrow Brisket Burger at Swine

The Route

The total walking distance was 2 miles, starting from Burger & Barrel on W. Houston and zig-zagging our way Northwest until we hit Swine. We crawled for about 4.5 hours in total.

Yes, the first few spots on this list aren't technically in the West Village, but they are close enough so we counted them in.

The Participants

We had a good mix of people in the crawl representing a broad array of culinary interests. We had some Yelp Elites, some who eat only Michelin rated food, some hardcore carnivores, some who took the top bun off every burger, people representing 4 out of 5 boroughs (sorry S.I.!) and even New Jersey. All-in-all a good mix of tastes that led to a good representation in the averaged ratings. Burgers were scored and ranked based on a simple average of all 15 ratings.

The Results

Presented in order of average rating.

10th Place

The Wiki Wiki at Bareburger (5.42/10)

Somebody had to come in last place, and with an average score of 5.42/10, it's the Wiki Wiki Burger at Bareburger. Perhaps it was our fault for ordering it, or maybe it's just coincidence, but this burger is the only one on the list not made with beef.

The Wiki Wiki Burger at Bareburger is a wild boar burger with thick cut duck bacon, gouda cheese, chickpea onions, and pineapple relish.

While exotic and still tasty, the boar was a little dry, and I'm don't love fruit on hot food because I'm lame like that, so the pineapple wasn't my thing. But that duck bacon was delish!

I felt as if the wild boar and duck bacon conflicted a bit much. The pineapple relish was a nice touch though, as was the brioche bun.

Duck bacon was great. Pineapple relish gave a nice sweet taste. Boar was overcooked unfortunately.

Disappointing. Pineapple did not complement. Duck was good but felt misplaced

A bit drier than I would've liked. The flavor was subtle. The subtle flavor on top of the somewhat dry burger didn't make for a very impressive combination.

The general consensus was that the Wild boar meat was a bit on the dry side due to being overcooked. Naturally a leaner mean, the lower fat content already makes well-cooked boar a bit on the dry side. The duck bacon and pineapple relish were right on for people who enjoyed the combination, but still not enough to salvage its rating.

9th Place

The Bacon Cheeseburger Five Guys (5.73/10)

While I would say the Bacon Cheeseburger at Five Guys is one of the top fast-food level burgers, many people scoffed at it making this list. The greasy burger joint was halfway through the crawl, and because each of us had eaten there before, Five Guys provided us a fantastic way to find our baseline, ensuring that the rest of the ratings were more accurate.

The Bacon Cheeseburger at Five Guys — ordered all-the-way — is a double-patty, double-cheese burger loaded with crispy bacon, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, and mayo.

Me and this burger go way back. In comparison to the others, it's not as sophisticated, but the flavored are consistent and delicious.

Solid burger-everything you need in a burger with no frills and fast service and peanuts

Exactly what you expect from a semi- fast food burger

Meh, standard. Mustard overpowered what burger flavor might've been there.

Five Guys will always hold a special place in my heart. The best drunk food in college, my love for the mini cheeseburger will never wane. Not the most gourmet burger in the world, but it's a solid, coma-inducing, delicious cheeseburger.

Despite its lower, and possibly biased overall score, Five Guys was in the top-tier for at least 3 of our tasters, making the Double Cheese Burger one of the more polarized selections on the crawl. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't show you this Dayum!

8th Place

The Bistro Burger at Corner Bistro (5.80/10)

Corner Bistro has been dishing out greasy burgers and cheap beers since 1961. The cramped kitchen has a very limited menu, but has been producing one of the biggest, juiciest burgers around for over 50 years. Preliminary polling had the classic bar pulling down a few votes as the favorite to take home the trophy, but on game day they unfortunately came up short.

The Bistro Burger at Corner Bistro is an 8oz burger with American cheese and crispy bacon, served with raw white onions, lettuce and tomato.

The guy's guy burger. Simple meat lover burger. No thrills. Back to basics... Massive size handcrafted party.

Like eating a live animal- gamey and gross

Unassuming pub burger, it was the largest burger on the crawl but didn't blow my skirt up :-/.

Blue collar burger. No fuss, giant patty. Everything you expect from a classic NYC establishment.

Great eats at this place with a fun vibe. The patty is a bit big for my liking, but this was still a good burger. Hard to place in lieu of the others.

The patty itself was the thickest we had seen all day, but it lacked a bit in flavor, was sloppy, and overpowered every other flavor component in the burger. I think it was an off-day for Corner Bistro, as burgers I have had there in the past were far superior, but we can only judge on how things were presented to us on Saturday, so here we are.

7th Place

The Bacon Cheeseburger at JG Melon (6.80/10)

JG Melon on the UES constantly hits the top ten of best burger lists in the City. The downtown McDougal St. outpost of classic burger joint only recently opened, but has been generating quite a buzz. Professional carnivore Nick Solares of Eater NY just wrote up an amazing comparison and review of the Downtown location, saying it was better than its predecessor, but how well did they do on our crawl?

The Bacon Cheeseburger at JG Melon is a 7¼ ounce griddle-cooked patty served with American cheese, red onions and pickles on a soft white bun.

Rare. Good quality meat, but also very greasy.

Excellent juicy classic burger. A little on the rare side

Not out to impress with exotic toppings or fancy breading, J.G Melon presents a simple, yet quintessential bar burger.

Juicy and unassuming, this burger is a tender and classic American cheeseburger. I'm definitely a fan and will return!

The simplicity of this burger is what made me love it so much. The fresh vegetables were on point, and the meat was cooked well.

The majority of us loved it! This burger probably would have finished higher on the overall list if it was a little more towards medium rare rather than rare. 5 tasters pointed out that the meat was on the low side of rare rather than medium rare, affecting the rating drastically. Had we been inside we could have sent the burgers back, but the crawl must move on!

It should be noted, however, that a small subsection of the crawl opted to go back here for beers and burgers over dinner a mere 6 hours later. The Bacon Cheeseburger served over dinner was actually cooked medium-rare and was delicious.

6th Place

The Umami Burger at Umami Burger (7.00/10)

When Los Angeles based chain Umami Burger opened on 6th Ave last year, they were overwhelmed with demand, leading to 3-hour wait times and tons of press. They have since died down a little, but are still one of the top burger joints in the City.

The Umami Burger at Umami Burger is a 6oz wagyu beef patty with a parmesan frico crisp, shitake mushrooms, roasted tomato, caramelized onions and their housemade ketchup.

I loved the Umami burger! The combination of the roasted tomatoes and umami ketchup and parmasean made a unique and wonderful flavor for the juicy and tender meat.

If California vibes were somehow cooked in a burger, this is that burger.

Yuck. Soy sauce and Parmesan? No thanks.

The presentation and taste of this burger was quite incredible. It was a great combination of such different flavors, both creative and delicious.

Reminiscent of an English breakfast, the roasted tomato, caramelized onions, and umami ketchup produce a unique and polarizing taste. While good, I probably wouldn't order it again.

Aside from Five Guys, this was the second most polarized burger, with lovers and haters abound. The combinations of flavors was indeed different, and presentation was top-notch. Umami refused to cut the burger for us in order to preserve the presentation and the signature branded U in the bun, and I respect them for it.

4th Place (Tie)

The Happiest Burger at The Happiest Hour (8.06/10)

The Happiest Hour sits tucked away on W. 10th next to Rosemary's, but has as big of a presence as its neighbor. It's a relative new-comer to the West Village burger scene and is making quite a splash with its low key vibes, tiki-cocktail ambiance and, of course, delicious burgers.

The Happiest Burger at the Happiest Hour is two all beef patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, confit onions, and special sauce.

The sauce here along with the freshness of the meat made this quite the treat. Great vibes, great food.

Smokiness to the burger creates a different dynamic that makes the burger stand out from others.

Great smoky flavor that's balanced with creamy cheese and a not-too-greasy burger patty. Only drawback is the bun is a little underwhelming. The meat flavor is subtle but certainly still tasty.

An amazingly refreshing burger. Nice smoky flavor, with an almost tartar taste from the special sauce.

Soft bun. Cheesy and smoky. Goes well with their refreshing cocktails. Not nearly as heavy of a burger as it looks.

You might be wondering where this smoky flavor comes from — we were too — so we asked. Despite not having any smoked meats in the meat itself, the confit onions are fried in bacon grease, giving the burger a subtle, non-overpowering smokiness throughout each bite.

The Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern (8.06/10)

Minetta Tavern was the most upscale burger joint on the list, though calling it a "burger joint" is a bit misleading. Minetta Tavern describes itself as "Parisian steakhouse meets classic New York City tavern." Since 1937, Minetta Tavern has served one of the best burgers in the City, and no West Village burger crawl would be complete without them on the list.

The Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern is a selection of prime dry-aged beef cuts with caramelized onions.

One of the best burgers I've ever tasted.

Mild nutty flavor to the perfectly cooked burger patty. Complemented by the mild French onion soup notes of the grilled onions.

Burger was made by the high quality of meat. No unnecessary toppings from far away lands. Just simple goodness.

For me to give a stellar rating to a burger with no accoutrements is a BIG DEAL! I love toppings, but the black label didn't need any. The meat was so incredibly juicy and flavorful that it could stand on its own.

By far the best base meat, which pairs well with the caramelized onions. Didn't feel as complete a burger as others.

For a burger with 3 ingredients (meat, onions, bread), the Black Label Burger sure impressed the crowd. A few of us thought it was the most divine thing ever placed on our tongues, others thought it was lacking the complete package. Almost everybody agreed that the meat itself is what made this burger, and it was the best quality of all 10 spots on the list.

Of course, you are paying for that meat, and with Minetta Tavern at least two times more expensive than everyone else on this list, many of us agreed that it would take a lot for us to go back, even though the burger was so delicious.

3rd Place

The Bash Style Burger at Burger & Barrel (8.13/10)

Burger & Barrel took home to top-spot in the 2009 New York City Wine & Food Festival Burger Bash with their Bash Style Burger. Though technically not in the West Village, this W. Houston upscale gastropub deserved a spot on this list, and was the first location in the crawl.

The Bash Style Burger at Burger & Barrel is a mixed ground beef patty topped with American cheese, pickles, caramelized onions, special sauce and — wait for it — bacon jam.

Jam and special sauce made the day. Great blend of tastes

Great smoky flavor balanced with slightly sweet jam. Bread took a back seat to the overwhelming flavor of everything else. It was a bit textureless and soggy.

Bacon jam is amazing! Savory with a slight touch of sweet-favorite of the bunch

This burger was OUT OF THIS WORLD. The bacon jelly along with the secret sauce were the perfect combination of flavor.

That onion and bacon jam - omg! Juicy and delicious burger. Such an awesome start to the crawl.

As expected, the bacon jam did not disappoint. The burger was cooked well, flavors combined excellently, presentation was on point and pretty much everyone liked it, making it the first "upper echelon" burger on the list with individual ratings 7 and above across the board.

2nd Place

The Bone Marrow & Brisket Burger at Swine (8.93/10)

Swine was the last burger on our crawl, and we almost didn't stop here. When one of the original burger joints on the list refused to participate in the crawl (think "dotted hog"), we looked around for burger joints we may have missed in our first research pass. We found Swine and were immediately enticed by their only burger offering, and are so incredibly glad we found it.

The Bone Marrow & Brisket Burger at Swine is a beef brisket patty made with bone marrow inside, then topped with Tarentaise cheese and caramelized onions.

Bone marrow a nice touch and added to the texture. Sweet bun with a little salty after taste.

Juicy bone marrow in ground brisket, good, deep flavor in the fried onions

Even on a full belly this was delicious-juicy, great medium rare with, amazing aioli - bun was soft on the inside but had a crunch-so tasty

By far the best burger on this crawl for me. I could taste the bone marrow, and the meat just oozed with flavor. Even after consuming my body weight in food, this was STILL an enjoyable treat.

Brisket and bone marrow?! Yes please! So juicy and melt-in-your-mouth, this burger had an amazing flavor that was augmented by the accompanying cheese and topics. Definitely a top contender of the day!

Damn. Just damn.

YUM!

The bone marrow flavor was not overpowering, but offered a melt-in-your-mouth quality that the other meats did not have. The second the burger hit your tongue, the juices flowed all around, covering your mouth in juicy, fatty, marrowy goodness that did not have an overwhelmingly greasy feel.

1st Place and WINNER of the 2015 Viewing NYC West Village Burger Crawl

The Fedora Burger at Bar Sardine (9.13/10)

Bar Sardine feels like a place that shouldn't exist. The small, airy gastropub lives on the intersection of 2 streets — West 4th Street and West 10th Street — that defy the laws of the "grid" and should never meet. The burger we had was so amazing, it felt like make believe, as if we had wandered off 7th Ave into some dreamland territory filled with imaginary amazing things like unicorn tears, the Second Ave subway and this impossible burger.

The Fedora Burger at Bar Sardine is a chuck/brisket patty with barbecue mayo, thin sliced raw red onions, melted smoked Cheddar, thin pickled cucumbers, and mini shoestring potatoes on a squished potato roll.

Great balance. Smoky burger patty offset by cool cucumber. Soft, toasted brioche with crispy shoestring onions. Great textures all around

Replacement of the pickle with cucumber cools down the burger to a gentle breeze. Texture with onion straws create a nice crisp.

High quality beef. Cooked perfectly. Onion straws and cucumber slices are perfect complement.

Perfect medium rare-cucumber refreshing-smoky juicy, excellent crunch from shoestring fries-2nd favorite

Smoked cheddar, bbq mayor, and shoestring fries to top it off, the Fedora burger might be the best so far.

The combination of the fried onions and house-cured pickles made the Fedora burger incredible! Such a succulent and special burger. That garlic aioli was also the bomb. And the atmosphere was so quaint and cute!

Very good smoky flavors. The cucumber kept it refreshing and the pressed brioche bun added great texture

The Fedora Burger won over our hearts and our taste buds, scoring 9's and 10's across the board. Aesthetically, the Fedora Burger is the prettiest burger we had all day. With its bright colors from the red onion, green cucumber pickle, orange smoked cheddar all combining with the browns and tans of the meat and bun, the color combinations presented would make any artist happy.

The Fedora Burger has the most amazing "mouth feel", with the juicy, perfectly cooked patty and cheese providing soft textures, the shoestring potatoes, onions and cucumbers adding a crispy, cool texture, and the perfectly grilled and squished bun tying the package all together with a delicate balance.

Aside from the amazing taste, the best part about the Fedora Burger is that you get all this deliciousness for just $13, a fraction of what most of the other burger joints on this crawl charge for their burger.

Well done, Bar Sardine, you have rightfully earned 1st place in the 2015 Viewing NYC West Village Burger Crawl with your impossible Fedora Burger.

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