Little did I know when I first signed on to take the Benjamin Burger Challenge that it would eventually morph into the “Underrated Midtown Steakhouse Burger Challenge” with a showdown between the Benjamin Burger and the Michael Jordan’s Burger. It all started a couple of weeks back with the following call to action from the Benjamin’s PR firm to NYC food bloggers and burger critics: “Critics are invited to come into Benjamin Steak House for the challenge, where we can speed deliver our competitors’ cuts right to the table; or, if preferred, directly to your desk to sample from comfort of your office.”  Some bloggers wasted no time in denouncing the legitimacy of the challenge in light of the Benjamin’s obvious “home-field advantage” and the inherent unfairness to the challengers. Adam Kuban, managing editor of Serious Eats and founder of burger blog A Hamburger Today, left the following comment on Eater: “Home field advantage is right, which is why AHT won’t be taking them up on this thing.”  My feeling was that I would take them up on their offer and, at best, I would get to simultaneously try four NYC burgers, including one burger I had yet to try, and, at worst, I would write about the misgivings of a one-sided burger challenge organized by a steakhouse PR firm that will go to great lengths to garner publicity for its client’s burger. Besides, unless your a burger aficionado the likes of Josh Ozersky or Nick Solares, it’s not often you get the invite to taste test four of NYC’s best burgers side-by-side. So I put my conscience aside and contacted the Benjamin’s PR team to see if I could get in on the action (see disclaimer at the end). I received a response asking me to pick a time and day and informing me of the following: “Our main challengers are BLT Burger, J.G. Melon, Corner Bistro and Burger Joint. We are recommending that reviewers pick their top three from these to rate side by side, but if you have one you absolutely MUST try next to Benjamin Burger, let me know and I’ll try to make it happen.” I was hoping for at least one or two other steakhouse burgers (Smith & Wollensky Grill, Michael Jordan’s, Wolfgang’s, etc.) but I decided not to be difficult and selected J.G. Melon, Corner Bistro and Burger Joint as the challengers. A follow-up email informed me that we were all set for 1pm on Tuesday, May 5th for the challenge. To compare opinions and help determine the “winner”, I would be joined by my friend Mark, who is a burger aficionado in his own right. Mark was the first to tell me about the famed $26 Minetta Black Label Burger, which I tried for the first time just two days before this challenge. You could let a Minetta Black Label sit in a ‘fridge for two days and I’d still put it up against any burger in the city. Yes, it’s that good. But back to the challenge at hand.

Mark and I arrived at Benjamin Steakhouse and were graciously greeted by the staff and led to our secluded tasting booth. The four burgers were brought out to us and we didn’t waste any time. We followed the Rachel Ray method of burger tasting, which involves cutting each burger in quarters and tasting from the middle. First up, we tried Burger Joint and the Benjamin burger.

Burger Joint tasted like classic Burger Joint to me though it was closer to medium than medium-rare. I did notice that the meat doesn’t seem as fresh as it used to be. Mark didn’t care much for the Burger Joint burger, likening the meat to something out of a can of dog food. We both agreed that the Benjamin burger was well-prepared as a nice medium-rare, if not just a tad more medium, and exhibited a nice flavor profile. The difference in the quality of the burger blends between the two burgers was readily apparent.  The Benjamin meat was juicy and moist with a nice char on the outside and had nice texture and a great depth of flavor. I guess the 28-days of dry aging has to count for something. It’s only seasoned with kosher salt, and that’s definitely all it needs. Just check out the juices seeping into the bun in the picture below and you can tell this is one heckuva burger.

Of these two, the Benjamin was hands-down the better tasting burger. The meat quality wasn’t even comparable. Next up was Corner Bistro and J.G. Melon. I’ve had numerous Corner Bistro burgers in the past and unfortunately the one that was delivered to us was nothing like what I usually get there. First of all it was way overcooked. Unlike the picture of the Benjamin burger above, there are no meat juices flowing between burger and bun. The burger was fairly dry and lacked the buttery texture and delicious flavor I have come to know from a Corner Bistro burger. You can see the difference in the bottom picture of a CB burger from a few months back.

It was supposed to be medium rare and what we got was something between medium and medium well. This was my least favorite of the four burgers, lending some credence to the notion that Corner Bistro is the city’s most overrated burger. I viewed this instead as an anomaly, or perhaps a sign of Corner Bistro’s inconsistency, since the most recent burger I had there was one of the best I’ve had in the city. Mark pretty much agreed with me on this one, except he disliked the Burger Joint burger even more than the Corner Bistro one. Now, I’m not a huge fan of J.G. Melon (largely because I find the burgers a bit too small and not entirely satisfying) but the burger they delivered was pretty much spot-on medium rare.

It was a well-constructed burger with a good burger-bun ratio.  Solid. Very solid. We both agreed that it was far and away better than either Burger Joint or Corner Bistro with good flavor and texture, but that it still didn’t hold a candle to the Benjamin burger.

VERDICT

Mark and I both agreed that the Benjamin burger out-classed and out-muscled its competition in this challenge. To be honest, it really wasn’t even close. The half-pound, dry-aged Benjamin burger is the creation of Executive Chef Arturo McLeod, who spent 20+ years honing his meat talents at Peter Luger’s. His burger blend consists of New York Strip, Ribeye, and Filet Mignon- all dry-aged for 28-days and seasoned in-house (using only kosher salt). This is one high-quality beef blend that exudes tons of flavor. At $15.95 including fries it’s not a bad deal at all for a steakhouse burger, though it should be noted that none of the other burgers we tasted cost more than $8.50. If Benjamin would offer a quarter-pounder version w/ fries for $10 it would be a force to be reckoned with among Midtown Lunch’es.

BUT NOT SO FAST

I wasn’t fully satisfied though. In light of the factors below that unfairly tilted the playing field, I couldn’t bring myself to write this review of the challenge without confirming on my own whether the Benjamin burger is always prepared as well and tastes as good as it did that day. I needed another challenger. For months I’ve been hearing great things about the burger at Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse. In fact, on the Eater post about the Benjamin challenge two commenters mentioned the Michael Jordan’s burger, with one pledging his loyalty to it. As Michael Jordan himself is no stranger to what home-court advantage means, I decided to set up my own little follow-up Burger Challenge without either side knowing what was going on. Stay tuned to find out how the Benjamin burger stands up next to the burger that many call the most underrated burger in the city.

I provide the following disclaimer in good faith and in accordance with the Food Blog Code of Ethics:

1. We did not pay for any of the burgers involved in the challenge (or for the glass of Malbec I drank).

2. All aspects of the competition were coordinated and organized by the Benjamin’s PR firm, i.e. they ordered and picked up the challenger burgers, they selected the pool of challenger burgers, they hijacked the challenger’s daily meat deliveries, etc.

3. The challengers faced a number of disadvantages, including but not limited to, the following: (a) there is no such thing as “speed delivery” in Manhattan during lunch, and as such, the challenger burgers experienced a significant delay time between exiting the grill/griddle and entering our mouths; (b) unlike the Benjamin, the cooks of the challenger burgers had no idea that the burgers were going to be involved in a competition; and (c) they’re not using the exclusive Black Label blend developed by Pat La Frieda (note: the Benjamin burger and every other NYC burger is equally disadvantaged in this respect).

4. Benjamin Chef Arturo McLeod knew that he was preparing a specific burger specifically for our Burger Challenge.

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