This is the second edition of JA.com’s most beloved feature: A Vegetarian’s Take. For background and the first edition—a look at the Flatiron BBQ restaurant Hill Country—click here or forever hold your peace.
Story: Located deep in Alphaville on Avenue C, Royale was a hit right off the bat, as the Times called their burger the best in the East Village—on par with city-wide heavyweights like Corner Bistro. A very unlikely success story, considering the seeming lack of credentials: 1) Royale is more of a bar than a restaurant, albeit a bar with a very nice back garden. The food is served in baskets and the silverware is plastic. The music is loud and mostly shitty. 2) Royale is owned by the people behind another Avenue C hot-spot, Cafecito, which is Cuban, not burgerific. Cafecito is pretty gosh-darned good though, even if I’m currently in a love-hate thing with them.
Selection & Satisfaction: The first time I went to Royale, I didn’t know if they would have anything veg. I expected to just grab a beer and snack on some fries, and I was v. v. surprised to find both a veggie burger ($7) and a grilled cheese ($5) on the small menu. I figured the veggie burger would just be a grocery-store bought frozen job, but I ordered it anyway. Good lord, was I wrong. I’m not sure if Royale has their own in-house recipe or if they get their veggie burgers via a distributor a la Tiny’s, but this mf’er is good. It’s the traditional veggie burger make-up, with greens and grains mashed together in a patty. Combine a buttery brioche roll, pickles from the Lower East Side’s pickle district, and a “secret sauce” that most likely involved mayo and horseradish, and boom, Bob’s your uncle. I have never sampled the grilled cheese, because I just want that damn veggie burger. In the cam-phone shot above, you can see that one side of the burger from this past Saturday’s trip was a little undercooked. Friends, it did not matter. I would pencil this in as my #3 NYC veggie burger, behind Houston’s and Westville, and ahead of Tiny’s Big Mack Daddy and Curly’s chili-cheeseburger. Fries and onion rings ($3) are the sides options.
Scorn: Of course, there’s some inherent shame in ordering a veggie burger or grilled cheese at a burger palace like Royale, but there’s only eight dishes on the menu total, so a quarter of the selections are veg. They can’t fault you for ordering a veggie option when 1/4th of the menu is veggie, right? RIGHT?! I carefully studied the waitress’ reaction when two-third of our party ordered veggie burgers, and she didn’t crack. Was there fire and brimstone behind those eyes? I can’t really say, but I detected a slight hint.
Squirm: It’s a burger, not meat off the bone, so it’s not really that hard to deal with. Especially when the most popular burger, the Royale with cheese, has a big melted slice of American draped over it. Even though there will be meat juice dripping off your parties/ fingers, you’d have to be pretty squeamish to be freaked out by Royale, although I say that, then I see this (scroll down a bit), and it gets a little too rawdog for me, ya dig?
Summary:
Selection & Satisfaction rating: 8.2
Lack of Scorn rating: 7.0
Squirm Factor rating: 3.7
