Inga's Bar

Inga's Bar is a New American room on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights, and it sits in the Michelin Guide. We went because the burger is very highly rated by others, which is worth naming as the reason rather than pretending we arrived without expectations.

The burger is dry-aged beef with pickles, onions, and mayo, and the trouble is that nothing in it has an edge. Dry-aged funk and mayo fat are both diffuse flavors. Neither is sharp, and together they produce something without definition, with a funky aftertaste sitting behind it. The onions and the pickles are exactly the components you would reach for to fix that, and they were not enough.

Underneath, the patty gave the burger nothing to build on. There was no crust on it, which costs both texture and roasted flavor, and it was underseasoned, so there was no salt to sharpen anything either. Our own words were that it was alright and nothing crazy.

On a burger this stripped down, the patty is the whole argument, and this one did not make it. We were underwhelmed.

What we would go back for is breakfast. The banana bread and the hash were excellent, and we still want to try the cinnamon roll.

The dry-aged beef is a real ingredient and the build has the right corrective components in it, which keeps this from being a bad burger.

What holds it down is that the two dominant flavors are both indistinct and the patty supplies nothing to sharpen them. No crust and no seasoning on a burger with nothing else going on leaves very little to recommend it.