Better Burger

Better Burger promises to make exactly that. Air baked french fries, organic meat, wholewheat buns, fresh pesticide free lettuce. All, of course, for a healthy premium over McDonald's and its ilk. For example, the dinner of a sandwich, fries, and a drink I had last night as I sat around in my office cost $8.45 - but some of the more involved burgers, such as the tuna, go over $10 - rather too much for fast food, if you ask me.

In any case, the burger was perfectly adequate. It was juicy, well grilled, and obviously fresh. The bun hadn't gone stale, the various sauces available (no mayonnaise, unsurprisingly) were tasty, and there was enough of the 1/4 pound burger to satisfy. Of course, that isn't a surprise - their burgers are only "better" in the sense that they're made of organic meat. There's no claim of necessarily lower fat, and indeed at 17 grams bun inclusive, it's not the lowest fat meal available in New York. Additionally, if you want a top quality burger, this isn't the place - Better Burger isn't, say, a Bartley's Burger's Cottage in Cambridge - but it is decent enough.

The fries, however, do claim to be low fat, baked in what I understand to be high heat convection ovens (that is, fired by whirling hot air). A carton of them costs you just seven grams of fat, and as readers of this blog might know, I'm very interested in low fat french fries. That's for several reasons - first, I have a terrible weakness for fries slathered in mayo and ketchup, which means that I can't maintain the low quantity strategy that keeps me moderately healthy in their face. Second, making crispy potatoes without much oil is a fascinating challenge - the closest I've come is a recipe for baking potatoes cut into thirds that I wrote about a while ago. In any case, Better Burgers fails miserably on this score. Though the fries do taste like potato, which is a mark in their favor, they also have all the earmarks of baked fries -most distressingly, they're chewy rather then crispy - like mashed potato wrapped in edible leather. Back to the drawing board for Better Burgers, I'm afraid.

Ultimately, the dichotomy between the fries and the burger make me wonder exactly what Better Burger is after. If they want the high end gourmet crowd, as evidenced by the burger, they should change their fries. I'd add some organic potatoes double fried in high quality olive oil to the menu. If they're looking for the health nuts, the burger is far too fatty - and it's no good to say that lower fat burgers, such as the ostrich, are available. The beef burger has to be particularly healthy as well. I'd change the menu to include a burger made of, say, 96% fat free beef enlivened by generous helpings of mustard and other flavorings. At the moment, though, Better Burger just seems confused to me, and it's just too bad. The idea is sound.