Flat Out Burger

Flat Out Burger is a counter-service smash burger shop at 139 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side, the second location of a small chain that started in Bed-Stuy, has since opened in Fairfield, Connecticut, and has an East Williamsburg shop on the way. The founders have chosen not to put their names on it. What they have put their names behind is sourcing: 100 percent grass-fed Pat LaFrieda beef in a chuck and short rib blend with a fat content set just for them, pickles brined especially for the shop by The Pickle Guys, and brioche delivered fresh every day. Between us we worked through four doubles: the Flat Out Classic, with American cheese, grilled onions, pickles, and signature sauce, which is the burger ranked here, plus the Flat Out Spicy, The Big Flat, and the turkey burger.

The beef was incredibly juicy, and you can taste the quality of the ingredients front to back. For a fast-food burger it tastes remarkably clean, and the kitchen keeps the griddle super clean between every batch.

The bun deserves its own paragraph. It is a super thin, buttery brioche, and it is one of our favorite fast-food burger buns in New York.

The pickles are the other surprise. They lean a little sweeter and less acidic than most, which makes them genuinely unusual, and they still give the burger enough cut. They come from The Pickle Guys, the Lower East Side pickle shop, brined especially for Flat Out.

The craziest part came afterward. We each ate two doubles and felt great, which is not how two fast-food burgers usually end. There is clearly a lot of care going into what they are building here, and for the quality of the ingredients it is a great value.

Sneakily, the turkey burger might be the best thing on the menu. It was incredible, and the founders have said it was selling around 150 a day before it was even listed. It is not the burger ranked here, but order one alongside it.

Gotham is the only grab-and-go burger in New York we would pick over it.

One note for anyone ordering: every burger comes as a single or a double, and we ate doubles across the board. The turkey burger carries the Classic's build, the Spicy swaps in jalapeños and a spicy sauce, and The Big Flat moves up to a quarter-pound patty. Flat Out's other locations keep different hours; this review is of the Eldridge Street shop.

Flat Out Burger separates itself through ingredient quality and execution within the fast-food format: juicy grass-fed beef, a thin buttery brioche, distinctive pickles, and a burger that tastes remarkably clean for what it is.

The tasting record identifies no component-level flaw, so none is written here to explain the number beside it.