Lavinia at Home

Mmm…! A fully-loaded burger can be a guilty pleasure when prepared well and boy-oh-boy, my dining experience at brgr was well worth the break in my diet. With a motto of “we go against the grain to create a better burger”, it’s not surprising to hear that they make their burgers with fresh ground beef from 100% grass-feed cows—free of artificial hormones and antibiotics. This bit of news made me feel better about my flavorful indiscretion. On both visits, I ordered the Blue Sky BRGR—a delectable combo of beef, Roquefort cheese, bacon, sweet onion marmalade, lettuce, tomato and pickles. For a side, you have to try “The Trio”, a melody of russet fries, sweet potato fries and onion hay. These may be my downfall as they are downright awesome. The well-lit, brightly decorated restaurant is creative in its presentation, and food preparations are visible to the eye. They clearly are not trying to hide anything in terms of their ingredients, adopting a fully-transparent approach to food prep. Burgers range from the beef, turkey to vegetarian varieties, paired with simple to complex fixings. In addition to standard bottled beverages, they serve milkshakes, beer and wine. Desserts options are limited to “home made” chocolate chip oatmeal cookies made with Grape Nuts cereal and mini 5 ounce shots of their milkshakes—a great idea in my opinion. Did I mention that the milkshakes are made from milk products free of hormones, antibiotics or additives? As a mom, I was happy to discover this fact. Indeed, the menu and atmosphere make it a family-friendly burger joint, earning it high honors in recent years within the burger and/or milkshake categories by New York Magazine, the New York Post and Next Magazine.

With their recent addition on the East side of Manhattan, you now have twice as many opportunities to sample their fare. Visit their website (www.brgr.com) to check out their menu and run to their nearest site in NYC (Westside location – 287 Seventh Avenue between 26th and 27th streets; Eastside location – 1026 Third Avenue between 60th and 61st streets) for a delicious juicy burger and fries.

I saw this guy dressed in a lobster suit who was handing out flayers for Urban Lobster Shack new location in Midtown, East Side. It’s located at 805 Third Avenue (between 49th and 50th streets) in lower level food court. This place is the “hole in the wall” – first time going there, I could not find it and just by asking building security, he was smiling and told me how to get to the Urban Lobster Shack.

I was surprised how fast food was ready. I tried the Manhattan and New England clam chowders with the lobster roll and crab roll and green salad on side with a creamy dressing. And it was really good meal. The lobster roll and crab roll had good amount of meat, not too much mayonnaise and they were delicious. They offer also appetizers and I wanted to try ‘Scallops wrapped in bacon’, but they were sold on scallops.

I’m looking forward to my next trip there!

This is tiny, but very nice little place and I almost missed it. There are no big signs for Txikito (it means small) and it’s very crowded. It’s located at 240 Ninth Ave. (bet. 24th & 25th Streets), tel.: 212-242-4730

I really enjoyed delicious Basque tapas and the food is original, innovative and fresh. We tried many things of the menu and everything was great – mini mushroom and shrimp grilled cheese, octopus carpaccio, crispy blood sausage, roasted sweet pepper and tuna …

If you like Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine, the ilili is the best restaurant in the New York – fresh, authentic middle-eastern food. It’s located at 236 5th Avenue in New York (Between 27th & 28th Street), tel.: (212) 683-2929. The lounge area is spacious and fun with high ceilings. We had variety of dishes mezze style, each one better than the next and it was really great meal.

I would definitely go back, I loved the food and atmosphere!

Avra Estiatorio is cozy Greek seafood restaurant located at 141 East 48th Street in New York, tel.: 212-759-8550. We were very happy about trying this restaurant, everything was perfect and portions were good size. We loved the olives that was served with bread. For appetizers we had oysters and delicious grilled calamari stuffed with cheese. Avra specializes in grilled seafood and for main course we had pretty good fresh tuna sushi style.

This is definitely one of our favorite Greek restaurants and we are planing to go back soon. I would recommend this restaurant for good food and good atmosphere.