By Bilal Mohammad

For years, I’ve been on the search for a quality, veggie burger. The city has quite a few burger joints to choose from and even more have been popping up recently. I’ve ventured out to them to try their offerings for those of us that observe certain dietary restrictions, or just want to give our palates some veggie-lovin’.

No matter how much I’ve appreciated the restaurants’ retro themed décor, I’ve found that veggie burgers at many of these places don’t quite match up to the savory goodness of the other items on the menu. More often than not, I resort to drowning my pre-made patty in ketchup, as to disguise its rubbery and at times, tasteless, quality.

I’ve explored my local supermarket’s stock of frozen veggie burgers also, but even those Boca Burgers weren’t hitting the spot for me. And so, it was with somewhat low expectations that I wandered into Joy Burger, near the NYU area.

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By Bilal Mohammad

I love New York City mornings because of the special energy that is in the air as people are rushing to work, class, and wherever else they are going. What I don’t love is when you’re running late and you don’t have time to get a coffee on your way. This morning I was walking through Washington Square Park with only five minutes until class so I decided to defer getting my morning caffeine fix until after class. To make up for the self-inflicted delayed gratification, I decided to go to The Grey Dog, a quaint coffeehouse situated on University Place that I’d been meaning to try for a few weeks now.

Grey Dog more closely resembles a quirky Austin, TX coffee haunt than it does the other chichi coffee shops that densely populate downtown Manhattan. The distressed, wooden, sea foam blue furniture and the lowered vintage ceiling fans add a special charm to the place.

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The first time I’ve ever heard of Moustache, a Middle Eastern restaurant with three locations dispersed in the city, was when I was sleuthing around for a dinner spot and came across my friend, Archana’s post about it on her food blog. I feel like I’m never disappointed when I follow her good taste(buds).

I went there the same night with a friend to the West Village location. It was small and buzzy and the aroma coming out of the kitchen (which is barely separated from the dining area, and in fact, overlooks it), was intoxicating. We promptly ordered a Moustache pitza (their Middle Eastern version of pizza!), and the Merguez sandwich, made of spicy lamb sausage, and two big glasses of mint tea.

The pitza is unlike traditional pizza with tomato sauce. Instead, the mozzarella cheese is topped over a mix of roasted red bell pepper, tomato, onion, parsley, and chili. It’s unlike any pizza I’ve ever had, and soo good. The Merguez sandwich is cooked to perfection and topped with onion and tomato but the tahini sauce really brings it together.

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Sorry for the MIA’ness everyone. The thingggg is, the cutest little guy came to visit me in NYC (also known as my nephew) and it was just a tad distracting. He LOVED the city. Well, he can’t talk yet but I’m pretty sure that’s what he would say. I’m also pretty sure if he could talk, he would say the food at Yerba Buena, a lively Latin American restaurant that he visited with his younger cousin was phenom.

OK, he really didn’t eat the food and he may or may not have slept throughout brunch but he did get a lot of attention from the ladies while we started with the Croquetes de Queijo, these little croquettes filled with manchego cheese that comes with pickled jalapeño salsa verde.

The real superstar is the Pan Dulce french toast. O Em Gee. My brother’s in-laws who took us here, were not kidding when they told us how delicious this dish was. It was the best french toast I’ve ever had, made with brioche toast and also stuffed with manchego cheese, dulce de leche and bananas.

We also tried the Green Chile burger (piedmontese grass fed beef, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, green chile sofrito), done medium. I prefer medium well but it was really tasty and came with a side of crispy shoestring fries (tasted more like potato chips). Also, you guys would be really proud of me — I actually ordered a seafood dish too. The Chupe de Mariscos — a spicy soup with shrimp, calamari, black cod, aji amarillo broth, rice queso fresco, choclo, and a poached egg.

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By Burger Guy

I haven’t been in NY long enough to visit my favorite food places since July. Yesterday, I was really craving some Joe’s Pizza, so I went downtown and had a burger at Corner Bistro instead [Editor's Note: If he read Shy's review, he would have known this already].

This place is well hyped among burger afficionados. Hype being the key word there. For six bucks and change you get a nice plump patty on a soft bun. The meat’s cooked pretty much perfectly and its really tasty. This is a decent burger. I don’t get the hype though…people wait outside for hours to get into this place. It makes no sense. Save yourself the trouble, it’s not all that. Not saying it’s bad, but I wouldn’t travel far to get it. Calm down guys.

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No, it’s not just you. It just occurred to me too that I’ve been spending a lot of time in the West Village lately! I’m making no excuses for it though — it really has some of the cutest restaurants.

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