Bar Six

Bar Six is an old-school French-Moroccan bistro in Greenwich Village, and its cheeseburger is exactly what that description implies. The menu lists it with pomme frites and nothing else. No blend, no cheese, no bun, no toppings. That is the restaurant's own menu rather than a gap in our research.

What we can tell you is that the fundamentals were right. The patty was cooked well and it was juicy, and it was very well seasoned, which is the observation our notes make twice and the one that matters most. Seasoning is where bistro burgers at this price most often fall down, and this one did not.

The cheese worked really well with the whole build. We cannot tell you which cheese it was, because neither the menu nor our notes says.

We did add onion and pickles, and that is worth being direct about, because if you order it as listed you will not get them. They gave the burger the little bit of bite it needed. Without them the construction is very plain.

This is not trying to be an over-the-top burger and we did not judge it as one. For a classic neighborhood bistro burger, it was really well done.

The execution is genuinely good. A well-cooked, juicy, strongly seasoned patty with cheese that works is the whole job of a bistro burger, and this does it.

The limit is scope rather than performance. The build as listed is spare enough that the one adjustment we made is the thing that gave it contrast.