on my recent trip to nyc, it’s an understatement to say i was stoked to try out better burger, a natural and healthy “fast food” joint with a huge menu and some very impressive vegan options. they had so many choices, from multiple vegan burgers to a vegan hotdog, even sides like vegan chili. so when i read a positive review of them on another blog, i made it my mission to get to better burger no matter what.

ick, what a letdown. better burger ended up being anything but. i guess it was better than eating a meat burger, but it sure wasn’t better than any of the boca burgers in my freezer at home…especially considering the price, service, presentation, and amount of time the food took to arrive. when my husband and i went to better burger, we were the only people eating in the restaurant…and from the time we placed our order at the counter, it took 25 minutes for our food to arrive. food which ended up being very meh.

homemade veggie burger: a medley of organic grains & veggies. $5.99 + soy american cheese. $1.25

one good thing about better burger, is they have 2 different vegan burgers and each one scratches a different itch. they have the savory soy burger, which consists of a meaty protein patty that’s more like a real hamburger—and then they have the homemade veggie burger, which is a blend of grains and vegetables, you know, a more “healthy” tasting hippie-style burger. i went with the homemade veggie burger which wasn’t totally awful, but it was definitely the wrong choice for me. some of the prominent vegetables making up the patty happened to be bell peppers, which i absolutely deplore. i covered the thing in ketchup, mustard, and anything else i could find, but the taste wouldn’t go away. i ended up only being able to stomach about half the burger.

that’s my own fault though, not everyone hates bell peppers. even then, the patty was dry beyond belief and kind of burnt. i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. plus, i forked out an extra buck 25 for a slice of soy cheese which tasted like tofutti straight out of the fridge. it was cold and lifeless, not even slightly melted. highway robbery, i tell ya.

my husband, on the other hand, was in more of a meaty mood. so he went with the savory soy burger and some baked fries. they were also pretty disappointing.

savory soy burger: rich, hearty flavor turns soy into high protein salvation. $5.99 + soy american cheese. $1.25 + air-baked fries. $2.75

the savory soy burger was puny, and at these prices we expected so much more. plus the presentation was poor, the vegetables didn’t taste fresh, and again the cheese was limp and chilly. ugh. not to mention the soggy fries and the inexcusably stale bun.

when they took 25 minutes in the kitchen (seriously, i’m not exaggerating!), we thought they were making some awesome homemade patties that would be so much better than the mass produced vegan burgers most sit down fast food joints use (for instance, johnny rockets offers a boca burger), but no way. this homemade burger wasn’t better than its brand name counter parts, in fact it was much much worse.

it was tasteless. it was overcooked. it was small. the best way i can describe it is “pffffffft.”

oh wait, and i haven’t told you the worst part about better burger. when we dined in, they had a really loud radio station playing. you know the type, where obnoxious top 40 hits blare through tinny speakers and annoying djs interrupt the awful music to shout cheesy one-liners and throw to advertisements? well it was one of those, on a bad day. see, while we were there the station was having a beyonce marathon. i’m talking stale songs from 5 years ago (think “crazy in love” and “baby boy“) turned right up, all the way to 11.

imagine sitting with that, on an empty stomach for 25 minutes, then having to listen to it while you eat the most depressing meal you’ve had in days. total hell on earth.

so as you can imagine, my recommendation is to skip better burger when you visit new york. maybe it has a place for vegans who live there and have exhausted all their options….but for vacationing vegans, manhattan has so many better restaurants to offer. eat at every single one of those first.