Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Well first of all I was excited to eat at Bobby Flays place so I had high expectations but that shouldn't a affect my review. I ate at the Lake Grove restaurant. I ordered a blue burger medium rare, a dark chocolate shake and onion rings. The burger was actually raw! and the bottom half of the roll was not usable because it was saturated and I was unable to pick it up. I sent the burger back and this time I got one that was well done. They can't seem to get the cooking process right. Even that bottom half of the roll was wet. The shake was nothing more than ice cream stirred up to be soft, it was too thick to drink, and surprisingly for that price ($5.00) it was pretty small. The onion ring order was also small for the price and not so great, not crunchy or that tasty, rather bland. I have to say for the value, the whole meal was definitely not worth the price and the atmosphere was very cold and uninviting. I will definitely not be visiting this place again and I will not recommend this place to anyone either. I can honestly say that burger king is better than this place. Sorry Bobby, I think you better visit this location and straighten out your good name.

I think Ramsey is a real jerk. I was watching an episode of "The F Word" on BBC America. During the opening he introduced the two new chefs in the kitchen. One he described as " ...a 22 year old American girl from Los Angeles". Then, right after saying that, one can hear Ramsey's voice overdubbed saying "Unfortunately". Like the jerk added the insult in the editing room!

I thought about if for a second and then deleted all his shows from my DVR, and all future recordings. If the Scottish twit wants to pick on American girls, he can kiss my ass. What a freakin' loser.

Congratulations medfood. You have just won the award for the blogosphere's most obvious shill.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

@ sbushore ..The Dominican Republic... my husband was sooooo sick from food poisining and he doesn't eat meat.

Bobby Flay's restaurant sounds disastrous and who needs to pay those prices?? I like buying really good meat and cooking it, it gives me a feeling of control.

Worst case of food poisoning I have ever had . The only thing that comes close is one other time in the Dominican Republic . I ate at the Monmouth Mall location on 12/8/08 . Word of advice if you do eat there make sure your burger is well cooked! Mine did not appear to be to rare which is even more disturbing .....

Recently visited Bobby's burgers! It left me flat...they are sissy mary burgers! The Good Steer a mile down the road beats them hands down..and you get fries or onion rings with them! If you love a real burger..don't bother..Bobby this is Long Island...We take our burgers seriously! Go visit the Good Steer! They have been in business for over 50 years and still going strong..bet you can't pass it without stopping in!

I also agree with Storm Cadet. Just ate there (7-22-2008 @ 5:30 pm) and it was terrible. NOT WORTH THE PRICE. We waited on the line and only one person was behind the register. Then the place was FULL of flies...everywhere. We finally found seats and waited for our food. I ordered two cheeseburgers, fries, and an order of onion rings. The hamburgers are small and the fries were just okay...nothing great. Where are the napkins??? For the amount of money I spent ($30) I really expected something quite different. Very disappointed and I wont go back.

I love steaks rare, but to be honest I really don't like burgers rare. I simply don't like the texture of it and never order them below medium.

Anyone else like that or am I the exception?

I agree with storm cadet, Terrible.

I work in the area and had seen the lines out the door so I ordered to go. I had the Napa Valley burger (watercress, goat cheese and meyer lemon honey mustard) and a few co-workers ordered various other burgers. We all agreed that the burgers seemed very small, thrown together, with fancy sounding ingredients that didn't really make a difference. The buns were basic supermarket potato rolls and came soggy. Also, the lettuce on one of the burgers was old and wilted and the watercress on mine was also very wilted and the taste almost unnoticeable. I thought that may have been due to it being take out but it has never happened with take-out from other restaurants in the area (Ruby Tuesdays, Applebees, Fridays) and another co-worker ate there and was equally disappointed.

As for sides (not included in the price of the burger), the fries were ok and the onion rings were pretty good but nothing special. I made the mistake of ordering the Hot Potato Chips as a side. I was expecting thinly sliced fried potatoes, something along the lines of butterfly fries. What I got was a single serving bag size of lays-ish potato chips that were warmed (I probably should have asked about them before ordering). The milkshakes were alright, but considering there is a Carvel and Haagen Dazs in the mall food court (the restaurant entrance is right next to the mall doors to the food court) I wouldn't bother again.

It cost about $16-$17 per person (with a burger, side and shake). I would place the burgers somewhere between Wendy's or Burger King quality and Ruby Tuesdays or Applebees quality (more towards the fast food level). Also the "medium and up" cooking level is strange because Ruby's offers "Pittsburgh Rare" which is completely red.

I know this may sound a little harsh but it was truly disappointing. I may give it one more chance after it has been around for a while and gotten its act together, though I doubt that much of the problems were due to being a new restaurant.

JUST playing my favorite role of Devil's Food Advocate here:
We are such a forensic culture! ("CSI: Burgers")...That "It's proprietary" line may seem terse, but...it's true (plus, Adam made the context clear, following up). Restaurant practices are not like our own medical records, for heaven's sakes, where we're entitled to them.
My guess would be Bobby Flay makes his own burgers Medium-Rare.
I don't want to hector the point, but it occurs to me that we (and I'm guilty of this, because I LOVE to deconstruct dishes) tend to assume we're entitled to information, simply because we assume someone COULD tell us if they WANTED to. When you own a business, people ask you the most oddly intimate (and what could be more intimate than "what's in one's squeeze bottle?..") questions, with a look of complete entitlement on their faces. Sometimes you can tell them, sometimes you can't, and sometimes you're just drawing an arbitrary line in the sea-salt.
At the risk of being dismissed as a Flay-struck female, or appearing to receive a stipend from BF PR, my own experience "interviewing" Bobby, he was nothing but generous, witty, AND gave me a personal recipe, to boot. And I'm no one.

http://www.happyhoarfrost.blogspot.com/2008/03/bobby-flay-apple-of-my-ribeye.html

He took a lot of time with me--because he had it just then. My guess is he's flat-out tired, as the current Trojan Workhorse of the Food Network.
Bobby Flay gives away plenty--I adore him and even I will let his squeeze bottle remain sacred.
Not that I won't wonder....

secret oils in little bottles are not my thing , also if you are confident to order a steak rare you should feel the same way about a ordering a burger rare.. if you sense you are going to get sick why the hell are you in the joint ?

I'm sorry but is potato chips on burgers really such a revelation? That's something I started doing when I was a kid. I really don't see the wow factor. (Doritoes with cream cheese on a bagel is great if you are interested in adding crunch!) Maybe I was just really ahead of my time. haha

Also, if the idea piques your interest why not save yourself the gas money and just add chips to your burger at home?

I'm very curious about what the price of some of the signiture burgers will be....if B. Flay can keep the price down to a somewhere reasonable, like under $10 or $12, this sounds like it might be a fun spot, and really popular.