Goes together like peanut butter and bacon!

RESTAURANT:  City Kitchen 
DATE: March 10, 2015
LOCATION: 700 8th Avenue at 44th Street

It's been a long harsh winter. I lie it's been a mild winter, everyone just likes to whine about it like they've never seen winter before. But the days are getting warmer and longer and that means I am more excited to go outside and stuff my face instead of rushing home to put on 7 sweaters. Yesterday's dinning selection was City Kitchen. The best way to describe it is a "gourmet food court." The 2nd floor location on 8th avenue houses six dining options (all pop up versions of their brick and mortars), along with two desserts kiosks and one pretzel stand. I planned before hand to have Gabriela's tacos. But when I saw the size of the taco and the size of the price tag, I decided that $6 was not worth a small 2-bite taco. While three of us waited for our 4th member of the food absorption committee, we witnessed many people get these long sort of wraps from Box, a Mediterranean cuisine place. They looked to be pretty popular; we even witnessed one lady rush up to get her order, plop back down and ravenously tear the wrapper of her very long, thin wrap and scarf it down! Oh my! Someone was very hungry! Anyway, with my go to cuisine choice out of the running I had to really figure out what I wanted to try. That expression 'right under your nose" worked today- because I ended up getting the item that was advertised right in front of our table at Whitman's: the Peanut Butter Bacon Burger. 

So, possibly somewhere in this blog, I'm sure I've mentioned that I love peanut butter. I don't however like peanut sauce in Thai food that much, and because of that I always am kind of hesitant to try it on food other than sliced bread with jam, But since nothing else seemed that exciting to me I decided to finally bend my "no peanuts on hot food" rule and go for it. 

Maybe I have eaten too many "OK" burgers and that's why I think a good burger is hard to find. Mostly they're too over cooked, too under seasoned, the bread is cheap and gross, the meat is too thin, I always need ketchup and mayonnaise to save it. But this burger was the  Best. Burger. Ever. The peanut butter was very subtle, and the bacon was not overwhelming at all, which is one reason I typically don't enjoy bacon on things. I'm not even sure if this burger was great because of the toppings, because the meat was seasoned perfectly and cooked a perfect medium. It was the right thickness, and served on a potato roll, the only kind of roll that should ever exist!  For the first time I was able to give back my UNUSED ketchup and mayo packets. My one small regret: It was small and it was $9. It was about the size of a junior cheeseburger and Wendy's except maybe 2 or 3 times thicker. It was so delicious I considered getting a second one. Every once in a while I come across an item at a restaurant that I truly fall in love with, and dream about seeing again some day. Some of those items include : Dimi's Strawberry Cake, Reunion Bar's fish taco, and Mexicue's Jamburrito. It's safe to say this PB&B Burger has joined the truly elite. Congratulations PB&B burger, I love you.  

Since I didn't get the 2nd burger, I decided to split a doughnut from Dough with my comrade Jeanne. We chose the Mocha Almond Crunch doughnut. It was a fine doughnut. substantial but not too dense, and the mocha dip on the top was just the right amount of sweet. The almonds didn't add much flavor, but it did add a light crunchy texture that made it quite pleasant to chomp down on. It cost $3 and I think the size was quite generous. I was satisfied with just half, although if Jeanne hadn't liked it, I would've gladly eaten the other half.

Still not sure if you want to go here?
Read more about City Kitchen here.