Le Gratin

Le Gratin is Daniel Boulud's Lyonnaise bouchon at The Beekman Hotel, named for his mother's potato gratin. The burger fits the room's ambition, which is a correct version of a familiar dish rather than a reinvention of it.

Two things are right and they are the two that matter most. The patty was well seasoned and flavorful, which is the part restaurant burgers at this level most often miss. And the Gruyère against the caramelized onions is a really strong combination, sweet and nutty in a way that gives the burger its identity.

It is a small burger. Worth knowing before you order it as a meal.

Past that, our honest summary was that nothing was extraordinary and there were no big complaints. Both halves of that are worth saying. Plenty of more ambitious burgers hand you something to argue with. This one does the fundamentals and stops there.

Two notes for anyone ordering. The current menu item is called the Le Gratin Burger, and the restaurant now builds it with crispy pork belly, tomato, Boston lettuce, and a peppercorn-cornichon mayo alongside the Gruyère and onions. Our notes mention none of those, so the burger described here is the part we can vouch for rather than the full current construction. The fries, separately, are in the Five Guys mold.

The seasoning on the patty and the strength of the Gruyère and onion pairing are what lift this above an average bistro burger.

What keeps it where it is, is the absence of anything beyond that. We found nothing wrong with it and nothing that made it memorable.