Burgers are a big deal in the US and there are more and more burger joints opening with tasty burgers that have nothing to do with Mc Donald's or Burger King! Even famous chefs like Bobby Flay or Laurent Tourondelle launched their own burger restaurants.
The Counter proposes to build your own burger from A to Z. It is a chain with many locations across the country. When you biuld your burger, you choose:
- The meat: beef, turkey or veggie. They also propose the market selection. Today was lamb: I decided to go for it. Then you pick how much meat you want: 1,2 or 3 patties.
- You can either eat your burger on a bun or in a bowl (with lettuce and tomatoes).
- A cheese: swiss, cheddar, brie, american...There is a pretty nice selection. I picked Tillamook cheddar.
- Up to 4 toppings: a selection of 21 toppings. I picked grilled onions and jalapenos. You can also pick a premium topping like sauteed mushrooms. None for me!
- A sauce besides ketchup. I have to say that they have a nice selection of non standard sauces: chipotle aioli, roasted garlic aioli, hot wing sauce...I picked russian dressing.
- The last part is the bun. Strangely, they did not have any burger bun! We were early for lunch! So I went for the pretzel bun. They also propose English muffin or onion buns. The pretzel bun was perfect because it did not have any salt (that could have been disastrous!).
For sides, we got the 50/50: fries and onion rings. This was very good. I like the fact that they serve them with sauces: ranch dressing and bbq sauce. The onions were awesome and very tasty.
The lamb burger was good but I probably should have gone for a one patty as it was very juicy and it quickly became a big mess to eat. The pretzel bun started to fall apart and I ended up eating with my fork. There was a lot of cheese (2 slices) and a lot of delicious grilled onions. The russian dressing was perfect with it and the jalapenos gave a subtle kick that I love! I think that, after I went to Sobelman's in Milwaukee and tried it, I became a fan of jalapenos in burgers!
To help the burger come down my stomach, I had a vanilla milk shake: thick but not too much, but could have had a little bit more vanilla syrup in it.
The restaurant was nice, bright and modern looking and the service was good. I would just have preferred that they brought the sides with the burgers and not way before! Otherwise, I found it pricey compared to higher quality burger joints like BLT burger.
A good spot though if you are in Time Square and want a burger!
Enjoy (I did)!
