Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Coming from the West Coast, nothing compares to places like In N Out and the Apple Pan in New York, the best places to find burgers in NYC are the Crown and Kennedy Fried Chicken shops which are usually in rougher parts of town, they really go out of the way to make a good burger, even toasting the bun for you, unheard of in a fast food joint. To date these places are the only places where I have eaten a satisfying burger, ironically these places mostly sell fried chicken, but they offer burgers as an extra item, and only make them fresh to order, kind of funny the best burgers in NYC come from a fried chicken joint.

Royale is very good. But I gotta say my fave (even though they recently got rid of the english muffin buns) is still a Pianos burger. You must try one... If you don't want to try one of the specialty burgers, you can ask for just a simple cheese burger (not on the menu).

The specialty burgers:
Grand Piano Burger emmental cheese & special house sauce
Red Wine Burger black pepper crusted w/ caramelized onions & bacon
Goat Cheese Burger fresh herbs, goat cheese, basil, & shiitake