SoHo Park

When I’d mentioned to SpB that I’d really enjoyed the fried pickles at Yankee Stadium, she’d responded that I had to go to SoHo Park and try their fried pickles – much cheaper and also delicious.  (She’s a Yankees fan, and has been to new Yankee Stadium a few times this season already, so I would presume she’d tried both!) 

Unfortunately, the night HB & I were both free, SpB had other plans, so we went without her.  SpB had also mentioned the bratwurst being really good, but neither HB and I wanted bratwurst… we’d both heard the burgers were excellent, so we opted for that. 

Of course, SoHo Park being a bar-ish, we started off with drinks.  A blueberry beer that didn’t taste like blueberries for HB, and for me?  A Pimm’s Cup!  I’ve read about this drink for ages upon ages across blogs – for some reason, it became a point of near-obsession a year or two back, I don’t know.  I drink… but I’m not like, omg artisanal liqueur or organic wine or… yeah.  Anyway, so I haven’t really seen it on drink menus, and decided to order it.  It tasted refreshingly of cucumber and very surprising… I liked it though I couldn’t say I would order this very often, but it was perfect on the hot and sticky night. 

HB ordered a burger with fries.  I know she liked the fries but I opted to not try any because it turns out she doesn’t like pickles, and…

the entire order of fried pickles was just for me.

That’s pretty much an entire jar of pickles, deep fried, and I ate the entire thing.  HAHAHA yes I did.  The only thing I didn’t like – these were not drained/cooled properly, so initially, they were too hot for me to even think about biting into (uh, hot pickle juice squirting into my mouth = FAIL, so, no thanks!) or even picking up with my fingers.  Then, as they cooled, all smushed together in the basket, they sogged up fast and the batter/crust slid right off, resulting in hot pickles.  Which isn’t my idea of YUM… fried pickles that are hot?  OK!  But just plain hot pickles?  No… not WIN.  If they were drained/cooled properly to achieve maximum crispness, these would be actually quite delicious, the breading was seasoned properly, and all the components for delicious are there… just needed to be crispy.

Of course, I did wonder if maybe frying as ‘chips’ instead of ‘spears’ would increase the yum-factor… higher ratio of crispy exterior goodness, less juice… to pickle.  Yes?  No?  Thoughts? 

The pickles come with your choice of two house sauces, though the waitress was surprised when I tried to tell her what sauces I wanted… I guess most people don’t read the part of the menu where it says you get two sauces?  I opted for regular aioli (left) and basil aioli, which tasted deliciously like pesto (and why wouldn’t it…).  The aioli had a subtle hint of garlic, and was nice, but the basil aioli was definitely my preferred sauce of the night.

Oh, here’s my plain burger, a very blurry shot.  (It was dark out and in the restaurant, it was pretty dark, too. 

Slightly less blurry cross-shot.  I’ve mentioned my preference for thinner/smaller burgers, so this went over well with me.  HB really liked her burger, actually, and was raving about it at the table.  I liked mine, though not as much as she did.  She said it was juicy, seasoned properly, tasty, and a good combination of things, and inexpensive.  This caused us to “argue” over the price and value of Shake Shack (of course; I can’t discuss burgers without bringing up my favorite!), leading to her surprise when I reminded her that a single Shackburger is only $4.75!  Anyway, overall, I could see the point that the SoHo Park burger is at once more easily accessible – we didn’t have to wait for a table around 8pm on a Friday night, and the wait to get the burger was your normal restaurant wait… and we had table service, while the burger alone is only $1-2 more than Shake Shack’s.  It is a very good burger, with a good ratio of bun-topping-meat-sauce/juiciness.  I enjoyed it greatly, actually, and would definitely go back for another one.  I’d probably opt for fries next time, unless I have someone to split the pickles with (then I can have fries AND pickles, right?!),… and I might ask for the pickles to come on an open plate so I can spread them out and let them cool properly!!! 

Yvo says: Honestly, a very good burger, especially if your preferences run to the slider/smaller burger as mine do.  It isn’t often I can get a smaller burger in a restaurant setting, actually – most of them seem to want to serve pub-style/sized burgers, which don’t appeal to me.  So this is actually a pretty excellent choice for someone whose preferences, like mine, are for smaller burgers.  I would definitely go back and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it for a future catch-up dinner with friends.  (The one downside is that post-dinner, we normally hang out a bit further north, so it’s a little bit of a walk, but still doable.) 
burger highly recommended; fried pickles need a lil work