Revamped Donovan’s Pub of Bayside Still Can’t Match Pre-Renovation Burger

February 28, 2008

Before you jump all over NYC Food Guy, I admit, it was a good burger. It was juicy, cooked to order, and the onions, despite not being up to par with the pre-renovation style, were better than my previous visit. In the end though, it just wasn’t as good as pre-renovation.

The burger patty wasn’t as big, the bun was burnt, the onions were too greasy and not burnt enough, and the ketchup situation was dismal. No more bottles of Heinz, just little thimbles of ketchup which we had to ask for more of at least 6 times. King of Ketchup was furious. Our waitress even admitted she hates that ketchup isn’t served in bottle.

In the end, after eating a renovated Donovan’s of Bayside burger for the second time, I was pleased but not wowed. The burger certainly stuck with me like it used to (I tasted fried onion the rest of the day) but it wasn’t up to par with pre-renovation. I don’t know what they changed in the kitchen but it’s just not the same. If I want the authentic, no frills Donovan’s Burger experience, I’m going to head to Woodside where it all started.

Read on for more greasy burger pics or check out my first review here…

Here’s a shot of the onions this time around. I wish I had a picture of the sauteed variety from last time, it’s a complete turnaround. The first visit, about a week after the renovation was completed, I was offered frizzled onions (seen here) or sauteed onions. I mentioned my disappointment to the manager and I’m glad to see they stepped up and brought the old onions back. Even though they were overly greasy and not too crispy, it’s better than the previous visit.

Here’s the burger as stacked. You can see the blood from my medium rare patty on the bottom bun. The ordinary bun couldn’t really handle this kind of juice and when I picked up the burger it was pretty sloppy

Not that it’s a bad thing but the burger was pretty sloppy on the inside too, as you can see from this cross section.

And last but certainly not least, here’s a shot of the multitude of ketchup cups we had to go through to finally get our fix. We kept asking for more and they would bring one or two at a time. Not cool. The worst part of it all is that these were obviously pre-made cups because some of the ketchup arrived with a layer of water on the top, a result of just sitting around.