Rare Bar & Grill

it’s small enough to hear your friends speak, but large enough to hold a few people.
the burger was HUGE!!! I was still full the next day.
i prefer mine medium rare and they did a great job with it.
the options for sauce were good.
sweet potato fries just that… SWEET ! ! !
remember, this isn’t mcD’s… so it ain’t cheap.
i’d go back, and have.

Great burgers, very juicy and flavorful. I went there twice with my bf (a vegetarian) because we enjoyed it so much.
The first time we had:
1. French Fry Tasting Basket
The sauces were amazing, the fries tasted amazing as well, we loved the sweet potato fries with the honey maple dip, the waffle fries were so crispy. The basket was such a great combo of savoy and sweet. I even had some sweet potato fries for dessert!
2. Bleeker burger
Medium rare and it was so juicy it is definitely one of the freshest burgers I’ve ever had.
3. Vegetarian Stuffed Portobello
The burger was really great a wonderful alternative for vegetarians!
Overall a wonderful first time experience.
The second time we ordered:
1. Lollipop Wings
It was not very spicy for my standards, a little dry but OK over all.
2. Fickles
I do not see it on the menu anymore, but it is basically fried pickles, we love fried pickles, but nothing out of the ordinary.
3. The Mexican
Again I ordered the burger medium rare and this time it came out a little on the well done side, and they left out the black bean spread, but it was still flavorful.
4. Vegetarian Stuffed Portobello
Overall we wished that we didn’t go back again, even though the food was good the second time around, but we would have loved to have kept the wonderful tasty memory of the fist time we went.
This is a great place for burgers and vegetarians, service was good as well.

The basket of 3 different types of fries and 5 dipping sauces alone is worth a trip here, if you’re a group of 4+ and looking to get an amazing deal. $ 10, and absolutely HUGE. I wasn’t as impressed with the burger that I had though — bison, medium well. It was just not anywhere near as delicious as it should have been. It lacked all flavor. They also make the burgers extra tall, so it’s almost impossible to bite into. Weird.
This location recently moved up town, so although the store front is still there, no burgers will be served.

If you’re in the mood for a pretty good, incredibly tall burger that doesn’t quite fit in your mouth, Rare is the place to go. But if you’re in the mood for a great burger at a good price, I’d say no. Rare is a small bistro style restaurant set in a buzzing area of the Village, with a full bar and maybe 15 – 20 tables. The burgers were decent, and what they may lack in circumference, they make up for in height.
I ordered the regular «Rare» burger ($ 9) with additional burger toppings of goat cheese and a fried egg (each $ 1.50). Yes, odd combination, I must admit, but it was what I was in the mood for. I was tempted to order the special Cheeseburger that is topped with a selected cheese from famous Murray’s Cheese (the special was Manchego aged 3 months the day I dined there), but since they didn’t have the price on the menu (adjusted depending on the cheese), I went with a safer bet.
Burger was pretty good, but not the best that I’ve ever had for that price. Plus, it didn’t come with any sides, (we added sides of truffle fries $ 5 and sweet potato fries $ 4). Honestly, if you’re in the mood for a really good burger, walk a couple blocks down to Prince and eat at Shorty’s =)

The burger was ok. I got the Blue Moon burger and was expecting heaven in my mouth, but alas, no. It honestly tasted like it needed salt/​some sort of seasoning. It looked delicious, but was just eh. I will say the fry basket was delicious.
The service is great, but he talked about everything as if the gods were going to come dance on my tongue as I ate the most amazing food of my life. I was let down in a hard way. The food is pricey and doesn’t taste as good as it should for how much you pay.

Yes, it’s a little expensive. When I am broke, I go to Corner Bistro or Wendy’s if I’m really, really lazy. But you get what you pay for.
We got a cute little table at Rare and ordered a couple beers. I had a Grolsch. They had a decent selection. Then down to business…
I believe I got a burger with gruyère. They had a lot of delicious looking options for burgers. It was as good as I hoped. Juicy, so much cheese. Really great.
But the shining star for me were the FRIES. A delicious tower of fries with three levels — waffle cut, curly, and sweet potato. Each with their own separate dipping sauce. Maple brown sugar sauce for sweet potato fries? Now I’m in heaven. I think my boyfriend and I were fighting over the last drops.
We probably spent $ 60 total but it was worth it for a treat if you love burgers like we do.

My mom really wanted a burger, so we checked out this place. It was good! She actually said her burger (the M&M) was «one of the best burgers she has ever had.»
I’m not crazy about burgers in the first place, but I have to admit they are good here — and they should be, for the price (at least $ 15 for anything other than your basic hamburger).
You can tell they use really good quality beef, and the burger itself was nice and fluffy, not compacted frozen sh*t like in some other places. We both ordered medium, but they came out more like medium rare, which was fine. I also really liked the bread they used for the burger bun.
The burgers don’t come with fries, so we ordered the fry tasting basket, and it was huge! It comes with four sauces to dip, and we thought one of them was too sweet, but the others (tangier) were better. However, I do believe we were missing one variety of fry — the basket was supposed to include four varieties, but we only identified three.
Overall, a good choice for a high-​quality, filling meal.

You can make it out of here with a good meal — tuna burger, chicken burger, turkey burger. Basically almost anything ending in –ger, except for the important one Honestly. the meat they use for the regular burgers is just not good. You might not be able to tell if ordered medium well, but really who orders their burgers that way? In the rare to medium rare space the poor quality of the beef comes through. On my last visit it was quite gamey & even bacon & Murray’s cheddar couldn’t mask it. Over the past 3 years the meat quality has gone increasingly downhill, not sure what’s happening.
That said, service is nice, fries are great, I even like the onion rings.
2 burgers, side of fries & 4 glasses of sangria ran me $ 100. Wish I had just taken my hungover self to Five Guys.

So you’re paying about $ 15 for a burger which does not include fries. Therefore, you are to order a basket filled with fries with various dipping sauces for $ 10. Pricing was a bit much for your typical foods, but I had a nice lunch with a friend. The fries tasting basket is huge! It is consisted of 3 different fries and we were unable to finish it. The burgers were huge too!
Very friendly staff! Good place for a burger, if you’re willing to spend.

At a restaurant called «Rare», the first thing that caught my eye on the menu was the Chicken Pesto Burger. Hearing about the special that night with its «special cheeses» I quickly opted for something that once said «moo.»
A tall burger, really liked the onion ring on the burger holding the salsa, but scraped it aside and piled on the ketchup. Great sampler fries basket (enough for four people) and lots of different sauces. The honey maple sauce with the sweet potato fries will make you double take. I told the manager I wanted to die in it since it was so good.
Friendly staff, cool scene, a bit pricey for burgers and fries I thought. Would like to try that chicken pesto still, so I’ll be back.

Great lunch special, $ 10 for a 6oz burger, fries, and a soda. Tough to beat in this town. Also only $ 12 if you want a beer instead of a soft drink, but you get the full 10oz burger and I think that special goes later til maybe 4 or 6.

I had dinner here a few days ago when it finally started getting warm in the city. They opened all the doors/​windows so it was pretty breezy. The place is dim but had a nice atmosphere. Good selection of bottles and drafts of beer.
I had the bison burger (which, if you didn’t know, is also commonly known as a buffalo, however wikipedia says it is a misnomer. I say this because I spent a good 10 minutes discussing this with my friends and no one had a clue what they were talking about so I went home and looked it up. You learn something new every day). The meat was very tender and it came with BBQ sauce which was nice and sweet.
We also had the basket of fries before our burgers. My bison did not come with fries, but if you’re going to get one of the usual burgers there I would opt not to get a basket of fries beforehand. Otherwise you’ll be stuck with a whole table full of shoe-​string fries. While this may sound fantastic to fry-​lovers, I’m pretty sure you’d agree there will be a bit too much for your fancy.
The location is also good for going out afterwards, so overall a good time.

The burgers here are good quality but a little pricey comparatively to other excellent burgers I’ve had in the city. They do actually cook them to perfection, just the right amount of pink/​red for medium rare! Most people always bring medium rare burgers out completely medium, so this was a nice change of pace.
The fries here are delicious mostly because of the multiple sauces they come with and that you can get a platter with three different types of fries. Definitely for sharing!

Though the restaurant is named «Rare», I didn’t actually realize that my «medium» burger would come out mooing. Seriously, it was purple and goopey and I’ve grilled enough burgers in my life to know raw ground beef from cooked ground beef. Tré disappointing. I attempted to eat it anyway since I was in a bad mood and though I should have just sent it back my grouchy low blood sugar state disturbed my judgment. I got through about a quarter before my gag reflex set in. It must have been a fluke since my friend ordered a rare burger and it was cooked more than mine… crossed signals perhaps so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt with 3-​stars overall.
The burgers also didn’t come with fries which my dining partner and I were both a bit surprised about since that seemed standard at a sit-​down burger stop.
The lollipop wing appetizer was the saving grace of the meal. Perfectly spicy wings with blue cheese dipping sauce… mm mm good! Paired with their sangria it would have been an ideal little meal. Too bad I went for the burger.
A note on the décor and ambiance. They should rid themselves of the wood paneling, it’s garish and clashes with the weird neon art placed around the walls. The window space is great and it’s too bad there are only 2 seats near the window (one of which we snagged!) – the bar extends a little too close to the window… a bar is always better a bit recessed from the entrance… we actually had a hard time figuring out how to get into the restaurant because of the awkward bar positioning. Also, loud emo music should be replaced by jazz or some classier tunes… it’s not a dive bar and it has a great location so make people want to come in!
That’s my $ 0.02 … very mixed experience and I won’t be back for the burgers.

As burger goes, this is good and heavy. I had the burger of the day with Murray’s cheese. This was a heavy deal and felt more like I ate a steak more than a burger. The dipping sauce was good with fries made them a little extra tasty. If you want to splurge on a burger I think this would be on the top of the list to go.
4 stars for buger joint

QUALITY. easy as that. the fries and dipping sauces are great and the lamb chop salad is amazing every single time i order it.
a tiny bit pricey for not such a special atmosphere but the food doesn’t disappoint. i love a restaurant you can count on.

This is a quality restaurant. Despite having a very burger-​centric menu, the feel and service is considerably classier than one would expect of a burger-​focused restaurant. They have weekly specials, and this week was the recession special (very optimistic of them). This included two small cheese burgers (or sliders) and a heaping of fries, all for $ 8. I tried it out, and wasn’t disappointed. Even in small form, the burgers were juicy. The fries, which dominated the plate, were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I still want to go back to try one of their regular burgers, but so far I’m pretty impressed!

Holy yum.
If you like burgers, you’re doing yourself no favors by delaying a trip to this restaurrant. I don’t care where you live — if you have to cross town — if you have to cross state borders — seriously.
The ribeye, one of their «steak» options, was positively the best burger I have ever had. Based on the perfection of that meat and the delcicious freshness of every ingredient, I imagine they are all good. But definitely have your waiter/​waitress walk you through the categories.
Food aside (which is very hard to do), the service was spectacular. Before we even sat down, the host chatted us up about his favorite items. He then led us to our table, and our friendly waitress gave us her take. My husband was thrilled that while oreo was not a shake flavor on the menu, the waitress had them whip one up for him anyway. After our meal, the manager came by to ask how everything was (and I think he really cared) and offer us a coupon for our next visit.
All around, this was just a really pleasant dining experience. I only wish we’d had time to stick around for dessert, because they sounded DIVINE. Next time.
NOTE: Truffle oil fries were awesome, but only get one bowl for two people (that goes for any of the fries). And this comes from a woman who can eat — a lot.

On my quest for truffle oil anything I came across this burger joint. Now I don’t have any reason to give it less than 4 stars other than the fact that it’s the type of restaurant you eat at and have a good meal, but don’t really go back to unless your in the neighborhood and craving a burger.
For those of you who details:
We went on a Friday afternoon. The weather was pleasant and it wasn’t crowded so we got our pick of seats. We sat at one of the tables that’s half outside. that was cute. I got the M&M burger which was tasty but greasy (which is common for a big burger). Of course I got the truffle fries. They were decent, but they were shoestring which aren’t my favorite. I say they should mix it up and make truffle oil onion rings!
Long story short: Good food, decent price, but won’t be craving it.
HUNGRY HIPPO PICK: The M&M Burger was good, but I’d definitely try something else if I went back

Please see the photo of the «burger tower» as I like to call it, in the Photos section of this review. Here’s what you’re looking at:
A burger called «The Mexican» — and BOY, it can!
from the bottom to the top:
— lovely little bun, either v. lightly toasted, not toasted at all, couldn’t tell
– black bean spread on the bottom bun, v. tasty, not at all detrimental to the bun.
— massive burger, nearly as high as it is wide, well cooked (well done — I don’t care, I like it that way. keep «but it’s not-​… the worst part of the cow-​… overcooked-​» blah blah blah to yourselves please), v. juicy.
—- guac. ’nuff said.
********* SPICY HOT RED STUFF I HAD TO SCRAPE OFF AFTER NEARLY BURNING MY TONGUE WITH A TINY TASTE
I don’t like spicy. I might be the only Latina who doesn’t, so this might be a bit biased, but seriously. DAMN. I could appreciate the taste though; of course I didn’t get it all off and still had to taste remnants which was fine. If you like it spicy, go for it.
PS. I got bacon, too, but it came on the side. Good crispiness, yummy! A meal without bacon is no meal at all I say.
PPS. My co-​workers got Sangria (they only have red) and they said it was lovely. I can attest their Sprite is top notch.
PPPS. Fry basket is a must, if only for the assortment of dipping options. Very cool.