Eat Gastropub, located in Oceanside, New York, opened in early August of 2014. The restaurant and bar is very modernized and sophisticated when it comes to presentation of the food and of the establishment. There are 24 taps all in a line along the back wall of the bar, which is excellent since no taps are blocking customers from the bartender. If you are planning on going here with a group of more than four, definitely make a reservation, regardless of the night of the week. The menu is apparently available in the restaurant only. I say this because I was planning on mentioning a few menu items, but the menu is no where to be found online. The gastropub's website is "under construction" but if this place was opened almost a year ago, the website should be functional and we should not be resorting to their Facebook page to see posts of their brunch menu and guys sticking up their middle fingers (check it out, you'll see it).
The 50/50 Burger: 10 ounce blended beef patty (50% bacon, 50% house-ground, grass-fed, Piedmontese beef), topped with cheese, and crispy potato sticks, served on a pretzel roll.
The Beef: After inquiring with the waitress, the bacon is cooked before mixed in with the beef. I asked how it should be cooked, and was told medium was the way to go. The burger came out and medium tasted like well-done. The combination of the pre-cooked bacon, mixed with the very lean ground beef, did not give off the taste of a great burger. It was a bold strategy for them, but I don't know how well it paid off. The beef was dry, and very grainy as it fell apart with each bite. Although the grade of beef was excellent, the taste did not satisfy its demand. 3 out of 4.
The Bun: The bun was a pretzel roll which was not too thick, and very well-toasted on the inside. The subtle hint of soft pretzel was nice with this burger, since a normal bun would have been weighed down and crushed by a ten ounce burger. 3 out of 4.
The Beef to Bun Ratio: This ratio was excellent. The bun plays a huge part, as does the beef (obviously), but as I said before the bun really made this ratio something special. Any more beef on this burger would have made it overwhelming. Any less bun with this burger would have agreed with my previous statement. This is the golden burger ratio of all golden ratios. 4 out of 4.
The Presentation: I was looking for something crazy to give the first perfect presentation to, and this is it. The burger came out on a cutting board with the Eat logo branded onto the board. I like the cutting board idea because your food is not contained in a certain area, there is no lip or edge holding your food in one place. It gives an entire new aspect of food presentation by eliminating something that is almost seen everywhere. There is some sort of pipe that protrudes from the cutting board and inside the pipe-like structure is a piece of paper rolled into a cone-shaped container for the fries. The fries sit in the this container very nicely and take up virtually no space on the plate (since they are elevated in the air, see picture). The toppings are served in two ladles on the cutting board instead of only on a plate, or in a plastic container. The presentation was definitely well-thought out, and is very different than anything I have ever seen. 4 out of 4.
The Cheese: For a ten-ounce burger, one slice of cheese was not enough. It wasn't even decipherable through the taste of the bun, meat, and crunchy toppings. It took extra work to even find it underneath the bun. I was not impressed by the amount of cheese. 2 out of 3.
The Sear: The sear here was just okay. It was seared well in some places, and not so well in others. The outside was under-seasoned, hoping the bacon extravaganza would pay off. It did not. 2 out of 3.
Overall Taste: I really couldn't get past the fact concerning how dry this burger was. And I wasn't alone. There were five of us. Four of us ordered the ten-ounce 50/50 burger. All of us received dry burgers, lacking the juice you expect to pour forth after your first bite. It did taste great, but I'm going to have to bump this rating down to a 3 out of 5 because the main part of the burger, was essentially ruined.
BBSR: 21 / 27
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