$25. In the real world that can get you a lot of things. You know, like 25 items from the McDonald’s Dollar Menu or a tank of gas (Prius FTW). But at The Spotted Pig in New York’s West Village it will get you a single burger (with fries though!) And that is the sole reason I set off for The Spotted Pig. As a meat blogger and burger connoisseur, I had been eying the burger for years, waiting for the chance to strike.

I sidled up to the bar and didn’t even need to look at the menu, except to check if any vegetables normally came on the burger. In fact, there were none and the burger was only topped with roquefort cheese. The menu did call out that the burger is chargrilled and comes with shoestring fries, though, so at least there is a bit of explanation. I ordered mine medium-rare and waited.

To say this burger is basic is to underscore the amount of preparation that must have gone into conceiving it. The blend of beef, for example is allegedly some mix of brisket, sirloin and chuck – and it was prepared to perfection with my burger, as there was a visible line of pink around the whole burger, with the innards done just right. The bun had spent some time on the grill as well, giving this burger an odd sensation of backyard barbecues. Apparently the buns are made just for this burger, and do an impressive job of maintaining a whole lot of juiciness without falling apart or distracting from the main event. The roquefort cheese adds some tanginess to pair with the savoriness of the meat. It’s unquestionably a well-crafter burger and worth trying out.

Oh and then there are the shoestring fries, which are prepared with rosemary and delicious little fried slivers of garlic. They are a great companion to the burger, but even though the mountain of them towers over the entire burger (bun and all), they are a distant second fiddle on a plate where the burger reigns supreme.

So is The Spotted Pig’s burger the best in the world? In the category of turning something seemingly simple into a work of art, perhaps. Compared to all other burgers, perhaps not. But I can happily report that it is unquestionably worth every penny of its hefty price tag.

LA’s Koreatown is a place of legend, filled with all-you-can-eat BBQ, karaoke spots, and seedy places you’ll never know about unless you know about them. It also covers the area seemingly as big as Manhattan. New York’s Koreatown, on the other hand, covers just more than a city block and is built vertically like much of the rest of Manhattan. It is there that I went to dinner at Jongro BBQ.

Walking into Jongro is like what I imagine walking into a market in South Korea is like, as the design gives off the impression that you are outside. The surprise for me, however, was the long ventilation tubes hanging from the ceiling over every table. This ensured that the place was well-ventilated and did not have the musk of other Korean BBQ places I have been to. In another strong contrast to LA’s Koreatown, everything seemed shiny and new.

When we were seated, we ordered up some Marinated Kalbi and our waiter set to work. While there was a degree of DIY to this meal, the staff actually took care of almost everything – including retracting the ventilation tube when it was time to eat the meat off of the grate it was cooking on. As for the Kalbi, it was fantastic. Perfectly seasoned, super tender and cooked just right thanks to the waiter.

At the risk of over-comparing, I have to admit that I am spoiled by Korean food in LA. Jongro was great, no doubt, and probably some of the best Korean that New York has to offer. Plus, the meat was on par with some of the better spots I’ve been to. The trouble that it was not all-you-can-eat, which is almost a prerequisite for me and Korean BBQ. And I don’t mean this in terms of gluttony, but just in terms of being able to try more than one or two different things in a meal, because variety is the spice of life (along with gochujang). Regardless, Jongro succeeds in bringing great Korean food to the mean streets of New York, and for that it is to be commended.

When you’re in New York, it’s probably not the best idea to decide where you are eating based on the proximity to your hotel. Yet, when I walked by Black Iron Burger, right around the corner from my hotel in Chelsea I was immediately drawn in. The place claimed to have been voted as one of the best burgers in New York, and I was in no position to disagree.

I sidled up to the bar and began with a beer, but quickly moved on to the Ai-Oli Fries, which were topped with scallions, bacon and a special aioli dressing. They were definitely a tasty way to begin my meal, with a healthy hit of garlic and bacon. Plus, the fries did a good job of staying crispy in the fray of dressing.

As for my burger, I had a tough time making my decision. You see, the Black Iron Burger and the Masterpiece both had my attention, but when I asked the bartender for his recommendation he fairly quickly told me to go with the Black Iron Burger. This burger was prepared with two 4 oz. patties, horseradish cheddar, caramelized onions and horseradish mayo. I got mine without the onions, of course, and ordered it medium-rare.

The result was one melty and messy burger. Black Iron Burger did not go light with the cheese and the burgers were both cooked to a delicious and juicy medium-rare. If you’re not into horseradish, this is obviously not the burger for you, but if you’re on the fence it really wasn’t overkill. If anything, Black Iron Burger managed to find a healthy balance of horseradish and savory.

It was all pretty good, but didn’t live up to my hopes of being one of the best burgers in New York. I can’t speak from a ton of New York burger experience, but I have had at least three better burgers and one worse in the boroughs. Nonetheless, if you are on a burger quest it is worth stopping in, because while it might not be the best burger, it was a far cry from bad.

Sometimes when you’re traveling you just have to eat in. When you do, you should hope you’re staying somewhere like Le Parker Meridien in Midtown New York. Because if you do, you’ll be lucky enough to have Burger Joint downstairs. Burger Joint isn’t just some typical hotel restaurant, it’s a no-frills spot with a small menu consisting of only burgers, fries, and a pickle with prices that are pretty typical for New York.

I ordered up a double cheeseburger with just cheese. It could have come with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mustard, ketchup and mayo, but I assumed if it was cooked to the right medium rare I wouldn’t need any condiments and I don’t need to give a reason for not having any of the veggies.

It turned out I was right and this was a solid burger. Each patty was pretty huge and smothered with cheese. Yet, while the patties were more reminiscent of fancier burger spots, the flavor was all greasy goodness that you’d expect more from a diner. Moreover, they were plenty juicy.

We were pretty lucky to have Burger Joint right downstairs, but I would have been happy even if I had to move my body to get there.

The Park in Chelsea is quite literally a beautiful place to eat. It isn’t an actual park, but the marginally glassed-in courtyard area is so full of growing green things that a bird took an actual crap on my mother-in-law before we had the opportunity to order our food. No joke. But this was brunch, so we laughed it off, took down some Bloody Mary’ses and pressed on.

Our group was limited to smaller version of the brunch menu designated the “Large Party” menu. If the reasoning was to make the service more efficient then The Park completely failed in that regard, because despite how nice the staff was they took an absurdly long time to do about anything and continuously forgot drink orders. The good news was that the company and setting were enjoyable, but it eventually got so bad that they started offering us free stuff.

Nonetheless, I wound up ordering the Classic Park Burger (because the waiter told me it was better than the Breakfast Pizza). This was simply topped with cheddar and served on an English muffin with fries on the side. Or at least that’s what the menu said. I asked the waiter if it came with any veggies and when he said it did I said, “No thanks.”

When it was eventually served, it looked pretty good and I dove in. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare and aside from that it was pretty good. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can say about it. There wasn’t really anything special and the English muffin didn’t really change the game at all. Considering how long it took, I would have been better off just hitting up Shake Shack. Or, better yet, I should have just gone with the pizza, which I tasted and was a step up from the burger.

After a long evening of drinking in New York City, the only reasonable thing to do is grab at least one slice of pizza. Such is what I did in the East Village when I essentially stumbled into Baker’s Pizza. As fate would have it, I ran into my drunk friend on his way out (he had left the bar five minutes before), which convinced me that I was in the right place. Just like all pizza by the slice places in New York, there was a display case showcasing the available pies and my eyes wandered to the one topped with meatballs and ricotta.

It took a few minutes to heat up in the oven and then it was good to go. The crust was super thin, with a bit of a crunch to it, and the tomato sauce was slightly sweet and also thin. This allowed the taste of the meatballs, ricotta and the sprinkles of parmesan to stand out. After all, a lot of good pizza is simply a conduit for toppings. Was the pizza amazing? For a drunk, of course. For a discerning New Yorker? I can’t really say. But I can say that it got the job done and tasted delicious while it was doing that job.

From the people that brought you Bar Bill in East Aurora, comes 189 Public House literally right next door (with the address of 189 Main Street). This Southern-influenced jazzy gastropub is a far cry from its neighbor, which might be ill-advised considering the perpetually long lines for tables at Bar Bill. On the other hand, it’s perfectly positioned to pick off those who don’t want to wait so long and want something a little bit different.

As for me, I ordered something far different. I went with the Giant Meatball Sandwich. This was topped with marinara and mozzarella and served on a bun with a choice of sides. Diverging from my normal path of fries, I picked corn on the cob for no reason other than the fact that I really never see corn on the cob as an option.

The corn on the cob was a good choice, however, the rest of the meal could have used a little work. For starters, a bun was a bad choice for these meatballs, as there was essentially no good way to eat them. A baguette or hoagie probably would have worked better, but instead i had to work to cut apart the balls into chunks that wouldn’t squeeze out of the bun with each bite. Secondly, the balls could have been a bit juicier. They weren’t dry, per se, but a little more moisture would have gone a long way. Nonetheless, they were quite flavorful and the marinara sauce was pretty nice as well.

While my Giant Meatball Sandwich could have used a few tweaks, it was still pretty acceptable. Nonetheless, I was left thinking a Bar Bill sequel would have been a much better use of the space than 189.

Chicken Wings (or Buffalo Wings to everyone else) can be found pretty much anywhere in Buffalo. And while pizza places around the country have tried to introduce wings as a side to pizza over the last few years, this is nothing new to La Nova Pizza. With a location in the city and another in Williamsville, we made our way to Williamsville to get all of their goods.

Little did we know that this location was more of a carry out situation, but we grabbed seats at basically the only stools available and placed our orders. We began with some of their hot wings, then topped it off with their bacon cheeseburger pizza. And before I go any further, I should also mention that my buddy got some Bar-B-Que Wings “from the Pit” that had no business being as good as they were. Much of this was due to the fact that they were actually grilled and had perfect char to go with the rest of the flavor.

But as for my food, the wings were certainly tasty. By no means was their sauce amazing, but it was better than average and at a heat level that most people would find comfortable. The pizza we ordered was massive, sliced into squares and oozing with cheese (mozzarella and cheddar), ground beef and bacon. It also had tomato sauce, which was actually the best part of the pizza. Sure, the cheese, beef and bacon were great. I mean, how could those things not be? But that tomato sauce really solidified why La Nova was a worthy pizza joint to visit.

Having now visited La Nova, it is obvious to me why nationwide pizza joints want to capitalize on the addition of wings. The trouble is that to do so, they have to really care about their wings, like by preparing them the way La Nova does. It doesn’t hurt to make a damn good pizza either.

What would you do if you had a few drinks and found yourself face-to-face with a menu item filled with steak and poutine for only $19.99? If you’re anything like me, you order the crap out of it. This lovely scenario is exactly what happened when I found myself at Rohrbach Brewing Company in the Gates neighborhood of Rochester. Of course, I had already enjoyed some of their beers, including their delectable Scotch Ale.

As for that steak, it was called the Great Canadian and featured a 12 oz. flame-grilled Montreal-seasoned Delmonico steak (of unknown variety), with poutine and a vegetable. Even in my state, I knew to ask what the veggie was and upon learning ensuring a swap out of veggie for their house-made chips. I ordered the steak medium-rare and awaited my feast.

I won’t go so far as to say ordering steak at a brewery was a bad choice, but I will say it wasn’t the best choice. Was the steak cooked right? Yes. Was it well-seasoned? Sure, why not. But as I ate it I was certainly jealous of the people eating burgers around me. Because in the end, while the steak was nothing to complain about, I was silly to not to order something that breweries do best. I will say, though, that the poutine was a damn nice touch and was filled with nicely crisped fries, decent gravy and gooey cheese curds.

Rohrbach was a solid introduction to Rochester, but I had bigger fish to fry. I enjoyed my meal, but had to save space for what food may come.

As a fan of Mexican food, I often find myself fighting against Mexican food pretenders. Yet, when a restaurant embraces its non-authenticity I am all for it as long as it’s good. Cantina Loco in Allentown is one of those places that isn’t feigning authenticity, but it has apparently been crazy popular since opening back in 2011 and I hoped that would mean good things for the food.

We started with an order of their chips and queso (you know, after a round of drinks). It was a good way to start out the meal, because the queso was a delicious mix of cheese and chili flavor with flaky-thin chips. I would have preferred more queso, but the dip was actually so rich that just a little bit on each chip was plenty.

As for my main course, I ordered one of their special tacos, specifically the pork belly variety. This came with a pineapple and red pepper relish, cilantro, some melty cheese and of course the belly of the pork. Ordinarily I would have ordered without the relish because of the red pepper, but I was told it was sweet and crossed my fingers that it would taste nothing like the nasty vegetable it originated from. Oh yeah, I also ordered a side of refritos (refried beans), because I was in the mood to be gassy.

Fortunately, my wishes came true for the taco relish. It was undoubtedly sweet and actually pretty tasty. Overall, the tacos were pretty good-sized and had a fair amount of meat. In a nice twist, the pork belly was actually kind of pulled apart instead of coming in big fatty chunks, which made them unique. Yet, while the relish was good, there was simply too much of it. I had to scrape a good deal of it away to get through to the other flavors of the taco, which was a shame but at least manageable.

The refritos were a nice little side that taste good on their own, tossed on the taco and even dipped in with the remaining chips. They were different from your ordinary Mexican restaurant refried beans because individual beans were actually visible, but then Cantina Loco isn’t an ordinary Mexican restaurant. Even so, it is a good spot with a some unique eats and with just a little more balance it could be even better.