New York Grill and Cuisine is a new resto down Saranankra Road, right next to where Thawalama is. With a bit of a modern vibe and a variety of food that takes inspiration from the food scene in the Big Apple, it's a good place to drop by for a filling meal.
Food
Scanning through their menu, it’s apparent that they lean towards the greasy, meaty stuff. You can find finger foods, grilled stuff, burgers, and mains like fajitas and brisket, as well as salads, fried rice and wraps here.
Sporting a thick patty and a side of hand-cut fries, their Signature NY Jack Daniel Chicken Burger (Rs. 1250) caught our attention right away. We went with the chicken patty here, even though by default it comes with the beef.
They managed to get the chicken patty to retain its moisture and the sauces that came with it helped to make things interesting. The patty was slathered in a sweet-and-slightly-spicy Jack Daniel Sauce with their special twist on it, and had infused with bits of green chillies and onion that added to the extra flavour.
Texture-wise, the patty was a tad off the mark as the abundance of cartilage mixed in with the minced chicken. Still, given its gigantic size and the well-marinated flavours, we enjoyed it.
We detected some cheesy flavour in the mix, and coupled with veggies such as lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, the flavours were well balanced. It added depth, texture, and crunch to the burger but sadly, all that moisture from the sauce and the vegetables sogged up the bun. Having the bun toasted a bit could have solved this issue.
The portion of hand-cut fries served alongside this tower of a burger was nicely fried and was made in-house with a good amount of dusting of salt, and pepper. A bit oily for our liking, but flavoursome.
Juicy, and messy in a good way, we felt like this meal landed on the expensive side of things.
We were dying to try their Brisket, but unfortunately, it wasn't available, therefore we decided to go with the Beef Steak (Rs. 1200). On top of a bed of mashed potatoes laid this beautiful serving of beef that has been sliced into pieces. They use local beef for their steaks here so you don't get a say it how you want your meat – it comes well-done by default.
Nicely seasoned with salt and pepper, the flavours of the beef stood out and was well complemented. Being infused with garlic and having some occasional charring, it carried some much-wanted smokiness with a tiny bitter punch here and there.
Although creamy, the mashed potato that accompanied the steak ended up being more like a potato purée. We feel that if the texture was improved to be a bit less smooth and more body, it would have been better. It could just be my preference because I like my mashed potatoes to be a bit lumpy.
The NY Style Seafood Fried Rice (Rs. 550) had a generous serving of well-cooked and not too oily rice. Topped off with a lot of prawns, cubes of fish, cuttlefish rings, and some cucumber and lettuce for that added freshness, it was a sight to see. We were glad that they didn’t skimp with the amount of seafood in this dish and we have nothing to complain about.
The seasoning here was very mild, but mixing things up with the piping hot, chilli paste remedied this issue well.
Ambience & Service
The food took around some good 30 minutes to arrive, but given what we ordered takes time to prepare, we didn’t mind it much. They are pretty much in the process of getting things ramped up, being just over a month old, so we can give this a pass.
The place was clean and spacious enough with comfortable seating to hold more than 15 or so people.
Conclusion
Given that they are pretty new, we can feel that they have a few things here and there to get in order but our expectations were met in the overall experience. As for the food, they are of good quality and with a bit of a tweak here and there, they can do even better. Prices are not the cheapest but we didn’t feel like we got robbed either. So, if you want to enjoy a good steak or a meal to fill you up, this is a place to drop by.
