Pizza and a Burger near MSG: New York Pizza Suprema & Stout’s Bacon Cheeseburger

March 25, 2008

NYC Food Guy loves pizza and burgers so Saturday afternoon I figured why not have both. I grabbed two Sicilian slices at New York Pizza Suprema, where they take pizza seriously enough to prepare 3 different sauces for various pies, and a bacon cheeseburger at Stout NYC, which was voted 2007’s 10th best burger in NYC by Citysearch.

Can you guess which place NYC Food Guy will not be returning to? Read on to find out if you’re right…

New York Pizza Suprema wowed me. The Sicilian slices were spot on.

The Upside Down Slice ($2.25) was excellent…

The sauce was sweet but the sharpness of the grated parm really balanced the flavor.
The crust was light and crisp without being doughy, perfect for a Sicilian slice.
Perfect amount of cheese to provide great textural buffer between sauce and crust.

The regular Sicilian ($2.25) also excelled…

Cheese to sauce ratio was perfect.
Balanced flavor for sauce, not too tomatoey, not too acidic.
Same crust as Upside Down Slice, tasty and delicious.
Very re-heatable, a big plus. Most Sicilian slices that need to be re-heated look like they’ve been on the counter for weeks, these didn’t.

NY Pizza Suprema had around 15 different pies at the counter when I arrived. They all looked pretty delicious. The Regular and Margarita stood out however, as did the Suprema Special (sausage, pepperoni, onion, peppers, mushrooms). New York Pizza Suprema is open 7 days a week but only until 9pm.

If you chose Stout NYC as the place I will not be returning to, then you are correct.

I don’t know how this place eeked into Citysearch’s 2007 Top 10 burgers, it was really weak. Where’s the love for Brooklyn Diner, Houston’s or even Blue Smoke?

The burger ($8.95 plain, $1.50 for bacon, $1.00 for cheese) was pre-formed, griddle cooked, unspiced, overcooked, and overpriced. It was like a bad diner burger.

The lettuce, tomato, and onion was all wilted, not that I eat veggies with my burger anyway, but still, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have.

The only redeeming factors were…

The Stout Sauce (Russian Dressing)
The Fries, skin on crispy and potatoey, but not worth going back for on their own
The grilled brioche bun, but only because it was grilled, the brioche itself, while airy and light, was the most generic I’d ever encountered.
Stout NYC is actually a great Midtown spot for watching sports, particulary Soccer, Rugby, and all the other sports Americans don’t respect enough. They have 6 huge TVs over the bar, private pool tables for rent, dart boards downstairs, and private dining rooms all in a cavernous space. I don’t recommend going for the burger but it’s a worthy spot before or after an event at the Garden or while waiting for a train in Penn Station. They’ve got at least 50 beers on tap and probably another 50 in bottles. Pass on the burger and drink up.