458 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10018
(212) 643-1200
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After dinner over at Pad Thai, my boyfriend and I took a walk over to burgers&cupcakes, which another friend had told me about quite recently. Their “gimmick” is … they only serve burgers&cupcakes because that’s what the chef likes. (Along with a few select other desserts, but with a name like burgers&cupcakes, why would you order those?)
Unfortunately when we arrived- seeing as this was on the far west side on a Friday night, I definitely did not expect a crowd; the place was pretty empty- someone had just placed a large phone order so the selection of cupcakes was less than even their 5-6 varieties. We could choose from vanilla [cake] with chocolate, carrot cake with cream cheese, or vanilla with vanilla. I wanted chocolate with vanilla, but had read good things about the carrot cake cupcakes, so when my first choice was unavailable, I went with carrot cake. My boyfriend went with vanilla with chocolate (of course he got his first choice!).
(The picture came out off because of my flash, and as soon as it went off, he attacked the cake. Oh well.)
His cupcake was moist, light, and really good with the fudgy frosting. It was also pretty big, which you may not be able to tell in the picture, but for $3 it was “alright”. I’m not a huge cake/cupcake person to begin with, but this one wasn’t bad.
Unfortunately, mine came dusted with coconut flakes. I’m allergic to coconut (not deathly, but too much will make me sick or itch), and having just come from Thai food, I had to pick off a lot of these stupid coconut flakes (I also genuinely dislike coconut shreds- it tastes like paper to me, and adds no value to food I feel. It just gives it a texture that I do not care for). After that, I cut into it and discovered the top for a good inch was completely soft… oh my gosh… it’s got an inch of cream cheese frosting on top! The carrot cake itself was pretty good (though I have no comparison), with carrots and some vegetables? inside making it slightly crunchy. I saw some green in there.
To really give you a sense of how much frosting it was, I took a picture of it after I’d cut it in half. The frosting is only a little bit shorter than the cake itself. (The chocolate one was not so much, though I wouldn’t have minded.) After about 3-4 bites, I started to get sick of the cream cheese taste in my mouth- I LOVE cream cheese on bagels, but this was too much. I could tell it was cream cheese and it just was making me nauseous. I wound up asking for the check; the waitress asked me if I wanted a bag, and at first I said no, but then realized that someone at home would like it, so I took it with me… in a paper bag… that was completely soaked through with oil by the time our movie was over. Gross. (I still have it, I put it in a sandwich bag when I got home.)
(Can you see the green in the cupcake in that second picture? Does anyone know what that is?) I got sick right after, while we walked to the theater, and really did not enjoy those results. It’s hard to say if that was from the Thai food (the Thai iced tea perhaps) or from the cupcake, or even the glass of skim milk I had at b&c.
Yvo says: I guess if you’re in the area, and want burgers and/or cupcakes, you should go here. A few people seemed to be really enjoying their burgers around us. The cupcakes were better than the one other place famous for cupcakes in the city that I’ve been to (Magnolia), but I really did not enjoy Magnolia at all after the hype, the wait on line, and the $1.75 price tag for a small, dry piece of cake with a little smudge of frosting on top. (Ooh, that’s basically two reviews in one there.) Do NOT go out of your way to come here. (Also, supposedly during the lunch rush, there is a line out the door- people who work in the area, I guess?- so it isn’t worth the wait, in my opinion… though I didn’t try the burgers.)
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