Waterfront Ale House

A strong showing this week. The Waterfront Ale House is a pub on the corner of 30th and 2nd, boasting bad food, warm beer and an ugly owner. The burgers were so good they can easily get away with this.

It seemed to be full of regulars, mostly having an after work drink, indulging in (at least) one of the nineteen beers on tap. I'm always a little intimidated by beer menus of that stature...which to pick? I want to try them all, but I know I shouldn't and they probably won't let me.

The Ale House appears to be a standard pub, but between the beer selection and the burgers it is anything but. The service was very quick, we received our burgers much faster than expected. A stunning array of condiments, including home made hot sauce, home made barbeque sauce and something called "sauce" line the windows and ledges. The burger is served with waffle fries, lettuce, tomato, and a pickle. The bun is a tasty, flaky brioche. You can a variety of cheese, fried onions and chili to your burger. I can't resist fried onions and this is the cheeseburger society, so a melting of cheddar was in order.

The burger was a great ball of beef. They cooked it medium rare when medium rare when asked and cooked it more when (for reasons I cannot understand) asked. The burger was very juicy and had it's own distinct taste that was complimented, not overpowered by the cheese and onions. A quality that I've only really come to appreciate recently is the burger staying-togetherness. The Ale House burger stayed together better than any burger the society has tried yet. Few things are disappointing the way getting to the end of your burger, only to find it's a tomato stub, wilty lettuce and ketchup in a giant hunk of burger bun is. Each bite of this burger was tasty and balanced. This was a very satisying burger.

The Waterfront Ale House really delivered. The quest to find the greatest burger in New York may not be over (it may never be over) but I know we've gotten very close.