Upper West Sider Kara Rota will be reviewing inexpensive local restaurants for the West Side Rag. This is her first review for the site.

By Kara Rota

While some of us were still in a mild daze from the lost hour of sleep last weekend, the perks of “springing forward” were also clear this week — long post-work evenings where you could finally eat dinner and walk home in daylight. After an anticlimactic global-weirding winter, we’re longing for the familiarity of an early spring.

My boyfriend and I took advantage of the weather to eat al fresco twice this week. There were Chirping Chicken lunch specials on Tuesday afternoon, barbecue sauce and plastic forks on the benches by the 72nd street red line (5 for food, 1 for failing to include wet-wipes even though I ordered a quarter-rack of ribs).

And on Wednesday, we tried Island Burgers and Shakes on Amsterdam between 80th and 81st. With an outpost and a vehement following in Hell’s Kitchen, Island Burgers (Home of the Churasco) opened on the UWS in September 2011. We’d never eaten there before, but my boyfriend is a sucker for good online reviews and regards each new promise of the-best-insert-food-type-here-you’ve-ever-eaten with inextinguishable enthusiasm, so we stopped in.

I had the People’s Choice burger, served medium-rare on a sesame bun with swiss, mozzarella and sauteed onions (as well as the tomato, raw onion and pickles that come with all the burgers). The meat was actually medium-rare, not medium or medium-well, which I take for granted less than I should be able to. Island Burgers sources their meat locally and its quality is obvious, but the mushrooms were vaguely bland and supermarket-y and the onions weren’t nearly as caramelized as I’d hoped. The sesame bun didn’t hold up to the burger juices, and ketchup was definitely required to liven up the proceedings.

About three-quarters of the way through my burger, I tried the mustard standardly placed on each table – spicy and creamy, I wished I’d put it on the whole thing. My mustard discovery made me think that perhaps I’d ordered wrong – that I would’ve been better off with the Boss’ Burger on toasted rye, or something involving sauerkraut and sourdough. But I believe that a strong menu shouldn’t have any ordered-wrong possibilities, that each dish should deliver. Especially one labeled the “People’s Choice.”

My boyfriend had the Acapulco Churasco, “served with a sweet and spicy mexican sauce with blended roasted onions, jalapeno, garlic and cilantro.” I had a bite: just okay. The cilantro dominated heavily.

The fries at Island Burgers are good, salty and twice-fried with a thick, crusty coating. A black & white milkshake that I watched a waiter tote by looked like a solid choice. And a family eating next to us made an order including a baked potato with cheese and jalapeno slices that was so fragrant we stared openly and jealously and considered having one for dessert. But that’s the problem with a menu as overwhelmingly extensive as Island Burgers’  – no matter how satisfying the meal, I have a suspicion I’d always be worried I’d ordered the wrong thing.

Island Burgers & Shakes
422 Amsterdam Avenue (btwn. 80th and 81st)
212-877-7934

Photos by Kara Rota.

Kara is a professional food enthusiast at Cookstr, a freelance food writer (about.me/kararota), and a sporadic livetweeter @karalearota. She lives across the street from the AMNH with her boyfriend and their cat, Mel.