Mouthwatering Burgers, Salads, And Fries You Must Try From Island Burgers And Shakes In NYC

Satisfy your burgers, fries, and shakes cravings at Island Burgers and Shakes in New York City.

Island Burgers & Shakes opened its first location in 1996, and have been serving mouthwatering flame-grilled burgers, sandwiches, salads, and milk shakes for the past 20 years. Here are some of my favorite items!

1. Tuscan Salad with Grilled Chicken

This huge, entree-sized salad incorporates fresh vegetables with a protein of choice for a healthy and hearty meal. The Tuscan salad includes generous portions of raw mushrooms, onions, roasted peppers, black olives, artichoke hearts, tomato slices, and fresh mozzarella with grilled chicken rubbed with spices, all over a bed of mixed greens.

2. Build-Your-Own Turkey Burger

Custom make your own burger creation. You start with a choice of protein - hamburger, grilled chicken breast, turkey burger, or portobello mushroom - and add additional items like cheese like cheddar, Swiss, Monterey Jack, sauces, and toppings like onions, guacamole, mushrooms, and salsa. There are so many combinations to create your perfect burger.

3. Sweet Potato Fries

A side of sweet potato fries is a must. The fries are perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, and packs tons of flavors. You can also add sauces like Bayou mayo or curried sour cream to enhance the flavors.

Top 5 American Comfort Food With A Modern, Elevated Twist at Del Frisco's Grille in NYC

1. Cheesesteak Eggrolls

A fusion of America (Philly cheesesteak) and China’s (eggrolls) signature dishes, the Cheesesteak Eggrolls at Del Frisco’s Grille is an absolute must. Perfect for sharing, the crispy eggrolls are stuffed with savory cheesesteak and drizzled with sweet and spicy chili sauce and honey mustard.

2. Jumbo Lump Crabcake

A fist-sized crabcake, made with lump crab meat and topped with micro greens, sits on top of spicy cajun lobster sauce that is both rich and creamy. Unlike other crabcake, this one is as pure as it gets - real, sweet and juicy crab meat without the unnecessary, extra fillers.

3. Filet Mignon

Del Frisco’s Grille lives up to its reputation as America’s greatest steakhouse by serving one of the best filet mignon ever. Cooked perfectly rare (you can, of course, request it to be cooked any way you want), the filet mignon has beautifully pink center with grilled edges. The absolutely juicy steak that just melts in your mouth is topped with peppercorn for additional flavor.

4. A Trio of Vegetable Sides

The sides at this steakhouse is as delicious as the main course itself. The crispy sweet potato fries, pan-braised wild mushrooms, and shaved brussels sprouts with bacon all complement the steak well.

5. Coconut Cream Pie

Inspired by Boston cream pie, the Coconut Cream Pie is presented just as the name suggests. On top of a mound of fresh cream are toasted & fresh coconut flakes and white chocolate shavings. The pie is surrounded by crunchy crust made with Nila crackers, which is much sweeter and has more vanilla flavor than other typical crusts.

A NYC Restaurant Designed After A Farmhouse Serves Delicious Farm-To-Table Cuisine

A farmhouse in the middle of Manhattan might appear out of the ordinary, but that’s exactly what Black Barn aims to do - from the rustic yet chic interior modeled after country barn houses in the Hamptons to the quality of its mouthwatering food that just begs for more. Black Barn, a farm-to-table restaurant located across from Madison Square Park, has been serving modern American cuisine since it open in September 2015.

Complimentary Bread Basket (FREE!)

The complimentary bread basket contained a selection of warm cheese rolls, crusty sourdough, and thin breadsticks. The breads were complemented by a ramekin filled with soft cube of butter, garlic cloves, and olive oil with a bit of vinegar.

Roasted Sweet Potato ($23)

A few minutes into nibbling on the breads, we received the first appetizer, Roasted Sweet Potatoes. This colorful assortment of vegetable dish included hen of the wood, lentils , pears, and roasted sweet potatoes rubbed with spices, which are all tossed in savory black truffle vinaigrette. The seasonal dish was accompanied by an amuse bouche of puff pastry filled with refreshing goat cheese.

Tarentaise Cheese Soufflé ($17)

Another highlight from the appetizer menu was Tarentaise Cheese Soufflé. Baked and served in a mini crock pot, the soufflé flaunted crusty, golden-brown top and fluffy, soft center that had been moistened by speck-chive cream. A spoon was an absolute necessity to scoop up all intense, rich cheese in the center.

Amish Chicken ($26)

While a chicken entree may be viewed as a bit common, if not plebeian, the Amish Chicken at Black Barn was anything but ordinary. The flavorful, juicy chicken with crispy skin laid beautifully atop a bed of ricotta gnocchi, winter vegetables, grapes, and a sprinkle of parmesan. The dish had a wide variety of textures - from the fluffiness of the gnocchi to the tenderness of the chicken.

Millbrook Venison Saddle ($38)

Cooked perfectly medium rare, the Millbrook Venison Saddle was another entree that delight my appetite. In addition to the tender slices of venison, the dish featured barbajuan - crispy tortelloni filled with shoulder meat - along with braised red cabbage, kale, and empire apple. The juxtaposition of sweetness from the apple and the savoriness of the meat was quite unique.

Apple Cider Doughnut ($11)

The Apple Cider Doughnut made me long for autumn. While small in size, these mini, dense doughnuts are powdered with plenty of sweet sugar and packed so much flavor. The bourbon eggnog dipping sauce on the side was better than any glaze I have had before.

Chocolate Soufflé ($11)

Finally, the Chocolate Soufflé, which took about 15 minutes to bake, was all worth the wait. Gently scoop the crispy top - dusted with powder sugar - with a tablespoon to pour the sweet vanilla sauce into the center. The warm cake blended perfectly with the rich vanilla sauce to create melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake that I will be dreaming about for months to come.

Lobster Risotto, Pumpkin Burrata, And Much More At Grand Bar, A NYC Restaurant Worth Multiple Visits

With so many restaurants in New York City, rarely do I make a second trip to the same restaurant. . However, I may have found a place that is worth second, third, or even fourth visit - Grand Bar at Soho Grand Hotel. 

Located on the second floor of this elegant boutique hotel in SoHo neighborhood, Grand Bar offers exceptional cocktails and delicious food in a classy yet comfortable atmosphere with marble top oak bar, rich wooden floors, and woven leather seating.

The food menu at Grand Bar highlights local, seasonal ingredients. For appetizer, the Burrata is an absolute must. Creamy, fist-sized burrata - topped with pickled red onion, sorel, and carrots with a sprinkle of chia - sits atop two pieces of kabocha pumpkin. There are cubes of root vegetables, such as butternut squash and roasted parsnips, as well as a swipe of deliciously smooth butternut squash puree, to add additional flavors and complexity to this beautiful appetizer.

Try the Lobster Risotto, an off-the-menu item, before it's gone. This surf and turf risotto features succulent lobster tail and moist sweetbreads, flavored in rich bone marrow broth. The arborio rice is cooked to perfection with right amount of texture and consistency. 

The Harvest Vegetable Fazzoletti also highlights everyone's favorite assortment of winter squash. Made with wide, "handkerchief" shape pasta that is extremely doughy and chewy, the dish consists of everything from cubes of butternut to thinly sliced delicata with crunchy pepita in rich, creamy sage brown butter sauce. 

Order a side of Sweet Potato Fries to share. While a little bit of seasoning would have elevated the flavor of the fries (perhaps a dash of salt would have done the magic!), the sweet potato fries were nonetheless a perfect complement to our entrees. The fries sliced just the right size to be crispy on the outside and still maintain the starchy texture on the inside.

Baking at Home: Sweet Potato "Bread"

I love to eat, to take pictures, and to write about food. However, I don't have much experience cooking. The last time I tried baking at home, the cookies turned into biscuits because I didn't add butter (I substituted it with apple sauce). Hey, at least they were healthy.

I tried my luck again at healthy cooking today. I was surfing on the web when I stumbled upon a recipe for sweet potato bread. Because Mom had asked me a few minutes earlier whether I wanted to eat sweet potato, I knew we had the most important ingredient already at home. The recipe only required sweet potato, milk, honey, and egg, so I thought, "Why not bake?"

First, grab the sweet potato and washed them in cold water. I thought my hands were going to freeze! I made sure to scrub the skin to get rid of any dirt.

Next, cut each end of the sweet potato.

I sliced them into pieces so that they would cook faster.

Put the washed & cut sweet potato in a pot and boil them until cooked. It's best to poke it with a toothpick or a fork to check whether they are cooked all throughout.

While you wait for the sweet potato to cook, get one egg and separate the yolk.

Whip the white egg until it becomes bubbly. The more you whip, the softer the bread becomes at the end.

Once the sweet potato is cooked, take it out of the boiling pot and peel the skin. Make sure to peel them when they are hot (but not extremely hot that you burn your hands!) so that the skin comes off more easily.

Mash the sweet potato ruthlessly.

Add the egg yolk and 100ml of nonfat milk. I had to improvise the recipe because we didn't have milk. Instead I added soy milk.

Whip and mash the mixture until it becomes smooth.

Add the egg whites into the mixture and gently whip toss and fold them together.

Put the finalized mixture into a microwavable plate/dish.

Spread evenly so the sweet potato cooks throughout.

Pop it in the microwave for 7 to 8 minutes. Oh, the convenience of not having to use the oven!

Tada!

Decorate it with whatever "toppings" you want (fruits, nuts, and/or whipped cream right before consumption).

The sweet potato "bread" did not have any bread-like texture or flavor. It tasted just like mashed sweet potato, just a bit harder, more dense, and in a distinct, rectangular shape.

Because the sweet potato already had a sweet taste, I didn't add any sweetner, honey, or sugar. The rich flavor of the sweet potato permeated throughout the whole product. The outside was slightly dry, but the moistness remained inside.

Cheers to a healthy dessert/snack!