When I first visited Janam Tea for afternoon tea, I saw that the first floor was some kind of burger bar. I was very curious, and so one day, we decided to go check it out.

This spot is pretty much laid back and a bit small, but has a good amount of seating. They had nice window counter seat at the entrance with a handful of chairs.

I really liked the cartoon wall murals here, very cute, kind of funny and fitting with the theme here. What is the theme, your might ask? Well, This spot has a dark and interesting history with very famous tenants way back when. It was the offices of felonious bankers Marcus Garfunkel and Max Tauster. The brainchild of Tim Gashi (Rocky Slims) and chef Kenneth Johnson.  They use the history to their benefit creatively, by naming some of their offerings in a unique way, like “Kick Back,” “Frank ‘Notorious’ White,” and “The Godfather.”

They have lots of bar seating, as they do offer alcoholic beverages here. The bar was a good size, fully stacked. This part is a bit narrow, so there is no table behind it.

But past the bar, they do have a few table seating in the back. Not many, and most of them are for party of two. We got there when they are just opening up, so we got to choose whichever the table we wanted.

 

They have just one large that can seat six comfortably, and maybe up to eight if you push it. If you want to go there with a large group of people, it is better if you call ahead. I liked the bad a$$ burger on the Wanted flyer here, next to a bad twin of Donald Duck who looks like he just robbed a bank or something… I guess every family has a secret dark horse…

As I mentioned, it is a bit of small, narrow space, so it might not be ideal for a big group, but was perfect for us two. Their kitchen is located next to the bar, all the way in the back. You can see them making artisanal burgers in here, and artisanal cocktails at the bar.

But then, they have something more than just burger and cocktails. Something that goes so wonderful with juicy burger… Shakes! We decided to order one shake to share. We chose Vanilla S’mores Milk Shake ($14), made with vanilla ice cream, graham crackers, Hersheys, and flame toasted marshmallow. Now, when it came out, we were completely stunned, it came with a fireworks!!! OMG!!! It lasted for quite a long time which was really fun!

After an awesome surprise and entertainment, we got to really appreciate the shake on its own. It was topped with a generous amount of whipped cream, which was a fluffy home for S’mores. The top half of the glass was covered with rainbow sprinkles, and them Teddy Grahams which was adorable. It looked like the those bears were playing in a pool of confetti.

The size of the glass was not too big, which was nice. I feel like there are so many places that offers crazy shakes with crazy toppings in a huge glass just for the show (or photo), knowing that no one can really finish that without feeling sick with sugar overload… This one was just the right size for us to share, without getting too full so that we can still enjoy the food. The S’more was nice and large, with gooey marshmallow that was perfectly toasted. Yum!!! We absolutely loved this shake!

Now, for food, we decided to order one appetizer and one burger to share. We picked Tator Totchos ($10) from “For Sharing” section. Now, I didn’t really thing too much about “For Sharing” with this dish, that was until it was brought to our table. It was HUGE! I didn’t expect it to be this big, enough to share among three or four people!

It is made with cheese sauce, pico de gallo, jalapeño, black beans, and Mexican sour cream. You can get some add-on to this, but we decided to get the original, as is. It was really tasty, and the jalapeño was quite strong! Loved all the ingredients on it. Comfort food made with high quality ingredients.

It was not easy to choose which burger to order, as they all sounded really interesting. We decided to go with The Lower Eastsider ($16), made with 6oz. dry aged beef, pastrami, Gruyère cheese, sour pickles, all on toasted Rye with horseradish mustard. I say this burger was like a work of art. Just look at this baby! It was big, standing tall and strong, just asking us eat it up! I think the bad Donald wanted to steal this burger right off my hands. Too bad Donald, it is all mine (ok, ok, “ours”)!

The burger was great, I like my burger medium well, and they made it really good! It was not over cooked, yet super juicy and packed with flavor. The cheese gently hugged the patty, with a good amount of fresh veggies with nice crunchy and crisp texture. The pastrami was like super tasty bacon the way it was sliced. The buns were super fluffy, doing its best to hold all the heavy ingredients in the middle. Totchos plus this burger was filling us up, making us to say “Hands Up” by the time we finished everything.

They bathroom is all the way in the back, next to the secret door leading up to the speakeasy. They have two bathroom, both uni-sex. Some say that it is funny I (almost always) talk about their bathroom, and I do think it is kind of funny… But, it is useful to know if they have a bathroom, and what it looks like, don’t you agree?

The inside was kind of raw and tough. Interesting coming through a beautiful door under a sparkling chandelier… It was clean, roomy and nicely lit.

The staffs here were really nice and friendly, polite and helpful. We had a super awesome brunch here, delicious, comforting, and relaxing. They had daily specials on shake and drinks, they both sounded interesting too.  I had a bit of high expectation before coming here, and they totally delivered and then some! We loved everything we had, we would definitely go back for more!

The Burgary – 67 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002