Au Cheval Represents This Trait I Love About Dining in NYC

When travelling to New York City from the Westcoast, the arrival is usually late at night or very early in the morning on a red eye. In the former case, the great thing about NYC, is that you can eat great, even late, from cheaper places to more upscale. I remember one trip, arriving at midnight, and still being able to book a good seafood restaurant at 2AM. When I got there, I was amazed at how packed and lively it was, with the food being good also. In many cities, late food is drunk food, and will be of questionable quality when completely sober. Not in NYC. I guess the “city that never sleeps” designation is well deserved.

Anyway, on a recent trip to NYC, I had a late evening arrival and excitedly booked an 11:30PM reservation at Au Cheval. This restaurant started in Chicago, is known for its burger, and is part of the same group as Monkey Bar and 4 Charles. I tried the burger a long long time ago, in Chicago, and remember it being heavenly. Upon arrival, I was so glad to see the place alive and packed, with a long line of people waiting to get a table. Thankfully, I had an RSVP.

Here was the menu:

Our server was fantastic. He acted more like a food consultant, discussing recommendations from the menu with us, and adjusting them the more he learned about what we were looking for. We decided to go with the burger and French Dip with a side of fries.

Lets start with the dip. The sandwich was good, but I wish the jus was a dip thicker to coat the sandwich more. The horseradish could of packed more punch. Apparently, its the same prime rib that they server, just shaved. Overall a good sandwich but I would not order it again.

The fries were outstanding and addictive. Well seasoned and crispy. The burger, was out of this world. Its the kind of dish that makes you do one or all of the following on the first bite: curse, close your eyes, tilt your head back or any combo of the three.

Juicy, tasty, fatty, well proportioned, luxurious etc etc etc. Its probably one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.

For dessert, key lime pie. I’m not a big fan of key lime pie in general. I’ve had an amazing one once, on my way to Key West, Florida. This one was probably the best I’ve had outside of Florida.

Overall, service, food, and atmosphere were fantastic. I would definitely go back and highly recommend.