A Korean in Harlem
Last week a friend of mine invited me to Harlem Soul’s opening. A little food venue inspired and brought to us by the streets of Harlem and some of its foody culture. I was really hyped up especially as I heard there are burgers. The place with all the graffiti looked amazing and had a great feel to it. Trying sliders all night I had a pretty nice experience and here is a share of it
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How tasty is the Motherf*#$&r? – 8/10
This was the tasting menu and was a great sample of what to expect from the venue. Happy to say I wasn’t dissapointed with the burger
The burger had:
- Crispy Spirced Buttermilk Chicken
- Pak Choi
- Chilli Pepper Slaw
- Pickled Red Onion
- Coriander
- Sweet-Chilli sauce
- Toasted Brioche
It has been a time since I have reviewed a chicken burger so I’m happy I landed on this kind of chicken. I have forgotten how important texutre is in a burger and the crispy shell of the KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) re-proved that to me. The crunchyness was followed with a lot of taste and light spiciness from the shell but I can’t say the same for the chicken. The flavour was lost there in between the crunchy exterior and the intense flavour from the other ingredients. It acted much more as a base than anything else. Maybe I have the wrong expectations for the chicken burger or maybe the crust was a bit too much but with a bit more flavour that would have been a top chicken burger.
The lack of cheese was a good choice. Especially with this twist of the burger I think it was going to be difficult to incorporate it unless it was tofu (which we all know is simply a spounge for other flavours). Instead the burger pushed heavy on the pickles with the red onions and the chilli pepper slaw. I think the chilli pepper slaw was an amazing addition to the burger that added that freshness yet spiciness and the sweet chilli sauce brought everything together.
A nice addition was the corriander it went well with the pickles and yet it pushed a bit more that fresh flavour. The pak choi was a bit of a dissapointment. Being little and overwelmed from the other flavoyurs I didn’t really find a need for it except for the sake of adding more greens. On the other hand at least it stayed in theme with the rest of the burger.
Toasting a brioche is always a great idea but I would have loved a bit more slaw or more sweet chilli sauce to take away from the dryness of the burger.
Burger joint venue and overall experience? – 9/10
Live music, great food, amazing atmosphere and incredible sides it is a place that fits a lot so I can easily give it a very high score.
Quirkiness level of the experience? – 7//10
The Korean burger influence is not something you see every day and it was very well executed.