Mel’s Burger Bar

Burgers are ok. Mine was a lil over cooked though and chicken fingers were way overlooked, almost black. (Posted pic)

Fun bar/​restaurant to get drinks with friends, although it has sometimes been unclear to me whether you have to order food to get a table. The food (burgers) is good, albeit not great; the real reason to come is the alcoholic milkshakes, which are delicious. Good selection of beer as well.

Burgers were decent, nothing over the top. Good service, but felt like the food wasn’t worth it. The burgers could have been a little better or bigger. The buns were the same buns I buy a sandwhich from the deli.

Nice food with terrible service. I don’t even remember how many different waiters got our orders again and again, and they all forgot things. We had to tell everything maybe ten times. And the worse thing is they act like being this bad at service and forgetting everything always is a normal thing.
Can you imagine we had to wait more than 30 minutes for 2 burgers? Finally we got the burgers but this time we had to wait for the drinks and dealt with 3 different waiters just for the drinks. Eventually they brought the beer finally, but this time forgot the coke. It’s just a beer and a coke and we waited for this for more than 10 mins.
It was like a very bad joke.
Oh yes, the burgers are fine if you can still enjoy them.

Let’s start with the good stuff, the food! I had the Dirty Hipster and it was delicious! I shared an order of garlic fries. It wasn’t what I expected. Not garlicky at all. Just a chunky of tiny fresh garlic bits in the very middle. We couldn’t really taste the garlic. My date had a Backyarder Burger which was also delicious! (I totally took a juicy bite out of it). We chugged it down with a Growler of Flying Dog Numero Uno beer. It was very good. If you like Coronas then you’ll like this.
The ambiance was very melo. A bit dark lighting with country music in the background. But you can always request to sit outside and enjoy the new York noise and lights.
The service was great. Our waitress was very attentive and so super sweet. Gave us a sample of the beer to make sure we like it and had a smile on her face the whole time. Thank you so much Simone! :-)

The burgers are very good and the frys are good also. The only downside is that you have to wait for a while to get your order in, since the line is always a long one. But the food makes up for the wait. The service is good and the menu is very easy to read and the shakes are good also.

This place has decent burgers, if you can get service. For the second time in the past few months, we were seated by the host and then ignored by the servers for over ten minutes as they waited on tables on either side of us. At the very least they could acknowledge our presence by saying «be right with you» if they don’t have time to even take a drink order.
That being said good burger and beer selection, hit or miss service.

Comfortable and relaxing scene. Staff extremely cordial and polite. The food was delicious. We got the hot mess burger with jalapeño parmesan fries. I had a pomegranate mimosa and he had a mint Oreo shake. Definitely will be going back!

Stopped in for a quick lunch and probably should have gone somewhere else. The place wasn’t too busy, we told our waiter we were in a hurry, and we barely made it out in time.
Food wise, there are plenty of different types of burgers. I got the classic, which was pretty good but a little pricey. There are so many burger joints nowadays, not to mention in NYC. If you happen to be near Columbia, cool, but otherwise not much to talk about here.

It’s really frustrating to love the food at a place that has horrible service staff. It’s like dating that person that you really want because of something superficial, but they’re actually very bad for you. That has become my story about this restaurant, after having gone to it for about a month now.

This was my favorite food stop on my trip to New York. The burgers are excellent, the staff is friendly, and the beer is good. The service was fairly quick and they offer one of the best craft beer selections that I saw in New York.

So I gonna keep it short and sweet.
The place has cozy, dark mellow feel. I have to give it to this place, the shakes are a greattt idea, I had the Dulce de Leche Jack Daniels shake. It was definitely mouth watering, the Jack Daniels whisky takes a second to taste but it’ll definitely shake you when it does. For an appetizer we had the Spinach Artichoke dip which was delightful. I also had the cadillac burger with a side of sour cream bacon wall fries and my date had the Bo burger with onions rings. The burgers where amazinggg, succulent, juicy and tender. I gotta say the sides were cold and bit soggy, I barely touched them.
I suggest specifying how you want fries before ordering them. Also the Onion rings were bland and lacked flavor.
Over all I’m definitely going back for the burgers and shakes.

We were told the wait would be about 5 minutes, we waited at least 20. After we were seated it took them 10 min to get us water then another 10 to 15 min to take our order.
We put the order in at 6pm and got it at 6.45pm. I order a salad with fried shrimp, it was not fried. I will post pictures of our food, you be the judge.

Skipped the Tattle app freebie and the Groupon and the Foursquare specials and finally dropped by for their ghost story shake, which allegedly uses s’mores ice cream from Max & Mina’s. Unfortunately $ 8.17 and 19 minutes later, I was handed an overpackaged and overbagged disgrace: a vanilla shake with a bunch of marshmallows and chocolate at the bottom, all in a straw-​unfriendly coffee cup.

Lets talk about it…
Delivering takes forever
Food is disgusting
A burger which doesn’t look like it
Terrible experience. Even if we laugh so much just to look at it. Crazy !! Imbelivable.
They should be shame to sell what they do. Never ever again!

We came in at around 8 on a Friday and walked right in. They have really good drinks, strong, lots of choices, and lots of different cocktails. I got the haymaker, and for $ 8 it was pretty good and pretty strong.
I ordered the iceburg salad because I was in the mood for lettuce…7/10…kind of sloppily put together but not bad.
Fried pickles were super good, sweet potato fries were also pretty good, but seems like the burgers are the go to (duh), as my burger babe ordered one and it looked classic and like a normal portion, not one of those man vs food burgers.
They have a large bar area and huge tables for big parties and it gets pretty loud. The service was really nice and fast.
So, I know nothing of the UWS, but if for whatever reason you’re up here, this is a great option. It’s medium-​causal, so not fast food panera but also not white tablecloths and good start to a night out.

Burger was raw… need I say more?
Yeah, let’s elaborate, shall we?
$ 9.75 Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, no onions on potato bun. It is basically paying an extra dollar to add cheese.
My burger looked like an average, slightly pitiful diner burger. The outside of the patty looked cooked, but as I bit deeper into it, it was very clearly undercooked. At first I just thought it was more rare than I was used to. But there was no way I could finish that, & I always finish my food. The meat did not even come together during the cooking process. It pretty much only had a sear on the outside.
$ 12.50 Dirty Hipster — spinach dip, jack cheese, onion rings on a potato bun
Mr. Joy’s burger was cooked a little bit more, but still somewhat of the same raw meat, which was hidden under a mountain of spinach dip. The spinach dip was so thick and heavy, just too much.
Mr. Joy said the fries were good. I guess they were. I’m not a French fry aficionado.
$ 14 Loaded nachos with beef, beans, pico de gallo, sour cream, avocado vinaigrette, cheese
The nacho plate is massive. It feeds about 2 – 3 people. Other than its size, I wasn’t impressed with the nachos. But for $ 14, I guess they need to deliver on quantity.
Mel’s does have a good selection of beer and sells growlers. So that’s nice, but I don’t drink much at home.
I thought the restaurant and service were okay, but I got to give it 1 star for the raw meat. That’s a big no-​no. I didn’t even want to bother asking them to remake it. If they made two raw burgers, I doubt the third one will be much better. I just wanted to get out of there.

Okay, so I would probably give it a 3.5. I loved the experience but the food didn’t rock my socks.
We had a really comfortable booth for a party of 6. The atmosphere was pretty cool though at times it had a dark and lonely feel. When we first got there at 12 it was pretty empty but slowly filled up. Almost every table had parties with kids. I guess kids love burgers???
Anyway, I came on a groupon deal 2 burgers and 64 oz growler for $ 29. Pretty good deal.
We ordered the cider they had on tap. It was really tasty but I’m under the impression the cider on tap may change often. I ordered the cowboy burger without the mushrooms. Idk. I just wasn’t in love with it. I mean it didn’t stop me from eating the whole thing lol but I’ve had similar burgers that were better and cheaper. The bun was also really small (what’s up with that?). So no matter how I tried to eat it-​it was just messy! Couldn’t hold it. Couldn’t cut it. Sigh. Trying to cut it-​you go right through the paper they serve the burgers on. We all realized we were essentially eating on the table after a point. The fries were pretty good. Not the best-​but good!
I also like the fact you can substitute any burger for turkey, veggie or chicken!
Our Waiter was really good. Efficient, nice, etc.
I won’t be rushing back! If I do go back, I’d try the veggie or chicken since I wasn’t overly impressed with the beef burger.

Came here Sunday for a late brunch with a group of six. We had a dog with us, so we sat outside in the sun. Since this place had «burger» in the name, we all decided to skip brunch and go straight for the burgers. Our server brought us our drinks promptly and then took our order. I had a regular lemonade and then had the most unusual lemonade (alcoholic).
Then, we waited and waited and waited. I think we waited over an hour for our food. That was the only down side to our experience. I know it was busy, but it would have been nice if we were given free drinks or even some bread to munch on while we waited and waited and waited. Heck, it would have been nice if we were told at some point that our food would be coming soon.
When our food came, we dove in. The California burger was cooked perfectly. I am not sure how sauce got on the bottom of the burger before it got to me… but it was good, messy but good. A half fries/​rings basket is definitely enough for two people. The rings were outstanding, flaky and flavorful. They have a nice selection of beers on tap including Ommegand Witte. Again, the only down side was the wait. Delicious food.

I’m the idiot that goes to a burger place and doesn’t order a burger. There were so many options and we were in a rush so I was overwhelmed! I went for the fish tacos instead.
The tacos were HUGE but lacking in flavor. I actually got the tacos thinking they’d be a lighter option than the burgers, but the burgers really aren’t huge. They’re expensive burgers considering their size and they don’t come with fries. I will try a burger next time and I will update my review.
Very busy and it was a Tuesday night, however service was very quick.
Ambiance is casual and loud with tables pushed very close together. Great place to come for a casual night of drinks and food with friends, but I wouldn’t come here for a date night!