Sunshine Burgers

I wanted to try a new brand of store-bought veggie burger, so I picked up a box of these the last time I was at Whole Foods (which has by far the biggest selection of frozen veggie burger patties). I’d never heard of Sunshine Burgers before, but they looked good (and weren’t as expensive as some of the other options!).



The box says “not meant to be a beef imitation but an excellent flavor sensation of their own” – that’s my veggie burger philosophy too! These patties are organic, vegan, and gluten-free as well.



I fried a patty (frozen, straight from the freezer – I never let them thaw, and some packages even tell you not to) with a little bit of olive oil on my stovetop. And because I was craving sweet peppers, I sautéed a few slices of those for toppings. With barbecue sauce. Yum.



The patty was delicious – the flavor was very rich and nutty. Slightly sweet but still savory. If you don’t like sunflower seeds, I can’t imagine you’d enjoy this, because it tastes very strongly of them. But that was a plus for me, as I enjoy them quite a lot. The ingredients are so simple – listed on the box as brown rice, ground raw sunflower seeds, carrots, herbs, and sea salt. That’s it! But so tasty.

And yes, that’s one of those amazing buns that I buy at my local Greenline Organic Grocery. These buns are my first choice for making burgers at home.


I was really, really craving barbecue sauce at the time.

While nothing beats the convenience of the Morningstar and Boca products that my local grocery store carries, and nothing beats the price of Trader Joe’s burgers… as far as taste goes, these Sunshine Burgers may be one of my new store-bought favorites. I bought the “original” but on their website it looks like it comes in other varieties too, so maybe I’ll try one of those next.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Sunshine Burgers
purchased at Whole Foods
price: $4.39 for one box of 3 patties

YumVeggieBurger review #72

Queens Restaurant Week

Did you know that it's Queens Restaurant Week? (well now you do)

And one of my all-time favorite veggie burgers is a part of it - Astor Bake Shop has a special restaurant week menu featuring their orgasmically-delicious lentil burger.



The $25 prefix menu for a dinner for two (how can you beat that??) gives you an appetizer (soup or salad), a burger, and dessert (and trust me, their desserts are amazing!). You have the option of the beef burger or the lentil burger, so it could be the perfect date night dinner for a vegetarian dating a meat eater ;)
Click here to view their events page and download the full restaurant week menu.

I'm definitely going to be heading there for dinner one night before restaurant week is over!

check out the review I wrote last year of Astor Bake Shop HERE.

lunch from 5 Napkin

I am getting seriously spoiled by the places we've been ordering lunch from at work... First Bare Burger and now 5 Napkin Burger!


decadence.

Don't eat this one too close to your computer! It will fall apart a bit in your hands and land in heavy pieces splattering delicious sauce everywhere. Although I have still never had to use quite as many as five napkins to clean it up ;)

read my review of dinner at 5 Napkin HERE.

El Ay Si

My friend had a groupon to El Ay Si, so he invited me to come have dinner with him after work. Since I’m working in Long Island City right now, I happily agreed to meeting in such a convenient spot – particularly at a restaurant I have been hearing good things about since it opened.

But somehow, despite having read numerous rave reviews of El Ay Si online, I had overlooked the fact that they serve a veggie burger! So I arrived at dinner armed only with my iPhone’s camera – which wouldn’t be such a problem in a brightly-lit space or in broad daylight, but we sipped drinks at the bar for awhile as we waited for a table, so the sun had set by the time we ordered our food, and the lighting in the restaurant is dim and romantic – great for a date, but not for food photography!



So I apologize in advance for the quality of these photos – because they definitely don’t do this burger justice.



The bun was flakey and sweet, just the way I love a good burger bun. The toppings consisted of a deliciously-smokey chipotle sauce, carmelized onions, lettuce, and tomato.

This is an example of a case where the bun and the toppings really make the burger – because they were both spectacular, while the burger patty itself in this instance was a little dry, and not quite up to the same level as the amazing flavors of the other components. It consisted mainly of beans, and its flavor was good, it just needed a little extra something.



The waitress told me it was made with eggs, so not vegan – and she didn’t know if the bun contained dairy or not, so the lactose-intolerant should err on the side of caution here.

I was so annoyed at myself for not carrying my real camera with me this day – the restaurant was beautiful, a great place for dinner (and would be an even better place for a date!). Hopefully I’ll return sometime in the future and get some better photos to share!

Cost: $8 +$3 for avocado
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 3      Bun: 5      Toppings: 5

El Ay Si
47-38 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11101
718.389.8781

YumVeggieBurger review #71

Stand4

I came to Union Square after work yesterday to run some errands, but quickly realized I was starving. So I checked the yelp app on my phone where I’ve bookmarked all the veggie burgers I have yet to try (best idea EVER! Such a quick and easy way to look up a nearby veggie burger when I am out running around the city!). I thought I had already tried all the spots near Union Square, but to my surprise, I noticed one little arrow on the map that was unfamiliar – Stand4.


I’m not sure what the bull is for… beef?

It looked like a bar from the outside (complete with tealights spread across the bar), but the menu said it was all about burgers. And they had a $9 veggie burger, so I decided that would be dinner.



Fries are sold separately (I’m getting used to this the more I see it, but it still feels wrong), and there were additional toppings you could add to your burger for a few extra dollars, but aside from a variety of cheeses there weren’t many options, so I just ordered a basic veggie burger with no extras. The bartender who took my order confirmed that the burger was vegetarian, but not vegan – although she didn’t say what ingredient prevented it from being vegan (I’d guess eggs).



When it arrived, I was surprised and delighted to see the two tiny fried pickles on the plate next to it – what a cute idea! Unfortunately, the pickle slices were so small and the fried batter so greasy that all I tasted was fry grease. Big disappointment. I’ve been spoiled by Sweet Afton’s fried pickles anyway though, no other ones taste quite as good anyway, even when they aren’t smothered in grease.



Luckily, the burger itself was better than the pickles. The patty was tall and thick – I’d call it a very aesthetically pleasing patty (something I’ve never considered giving points for before, but this one deserved it). Packed with beans and bits of zucchini, it held its shape well – with a nice crispy fried exterior. The flavor was slightly earthy, very mild. Savory.



The patty was definitely the best part. The bun was fresh, but nothing exciting. Not even toasted. I thought the tomato and lettuce were not enough toppings to compete against such a large amount of bun and patty. There was some “onion marmalade” hidden underneath the patty (at first I thought it was part of the patty), but it didn’t add too much flavor. I added the house-made ketchup to the second half of my burger, and it did have an interesting zing to it that ordinary ketchup does not – but it masked the nice, subtle flavor of the patty which I had been enjoying. I think a different flavor of sauce would be a better compliment for it.

But still, I was pleasantly surprised by this burger place which I hadn’t noticed before (aside from having obviously bookmarked it on yelp and then forgotten about it). Especially since just a couple weeks ago I was right next door for the screening of a film I worked on last year...


Cost: $9
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 4      Bun: 3      Toppings: 2

Stand4
24 East 12th Street
between 5th Ave and University Pl
New York, NY 10003
212.488.5900

YumVeggieBurger review #70

Bare Burger Delivery

We ordered from Bare Burger for lunch at work today
(just one of the many perks of having an awesome job)


obligatory iPhone filter

I got the veggie burger (of course) California Avocado style on a brioche bun. It held together quite well in the little cardboard box it arrived in. And tasted just as good as I expected it too. Maybe even better, since work paid for it (haha).

read my original Bare Burger review HERE.