The vibes are slightly off at Burger Vibe

Thursday, December 20, 2023 — Burger Vibe, a relatively new spot located at 3730 Washington Ave, recently hit my radar and subsequently became this week’s Friday burger adventure. For a place called “Burger Vibe,” the vibe is super-weird right out of the gate — nestled inside a La Vita Coffee (across the street from Velvet Taco), it’s not even clear there *is* a burger component to the establishment until you walk up to the register area and haphazardly discover a freestanding 8.5×11 menu. I dig a little bit of mystery and “hidden” eating establishments (NYC loves this tactic), but in this instance I’m not sure it’s working. There was *no one* in the entire shop and it was prime lunch hour. I can look past ambiance (ahem, Old School Burger), but there’s something slightly off about ordering a burger in a place that’s very specifically primarily a coffee shop. In any case, enough about this bizarre experience.

Burger Vibe’s supposed hook is “proudly serving flame-grilled New York-style burgers.” I’m a native New Yorker and *I* have no idea what constitutes a “New York-style-burger,” but sure, why not? (Maybe the restaurant-inside-a-restaurant gimmick 😂)

I ordered a double cheeseburger, which comes with cheddar, tomato, lettuce, and onion. I added jalapeños and bacon, because when those are available as extras, you do it. Overall the patties were thick — this is no smash burger — and cooked satisfactorily if a little overdone. The meat blend was solid but I didn’t detect a ton of seasoning.

You could do worse, but you could also do better. 3.75 burgers out of 5.