Shauna Eats Sunnyside

Best Burger in Sunnyside

PJ Horgan’s Pub and Restaurant (on Queens Blvd. b/w 42nd and 43rd Sts.) has long touted their meat patty superiority with sidewalk signage (during business hours) boasting the “Best Burger in New York.” Bold words from an old-school Irish pub on a dense strip of Queens Blvd. snuggled between craptastic-yet-inexplicably-hip Chips Mexican and a ramshackle discount movie theater ($7 tickets!)

It’s the type of pub you’d pass regularly with only an inkling of curiosity, perhaps peering through the front window into the darkened dining area where elders are elbowed up to the bar before perfectly-executed pints of Guinness and aging waitresses converse at low levels to familiar patrons and bartenders with hardened glares and iron wrists. If you were ever to pull open the heavy wooden door and enter the enclave dimly detailed with a mosaic of yellowed hanging fruit lamps and strings of sparsly bulbed holiday lights, the dankness of a swollen tap melding with back-kitchen aromas of stewed meats and roasting potatoes would immediately permeate your senses, cradling you into PJ’s cozy, dark-wood booths. An overhead chalkboard lists daily entree specials (on any given day, shephard’s pie, house curry, fish and chips, gaelic steak), and waitstaff are attentive and respectably standoffish. Of note: we’ve been chafed once or twice when entering PJ’s just for a beer — the booths are reserved for dining patrons, only.

On this particular night, we went for their so-called “Best Burger in New York” (around $10), which we’ve frequently (and joyously) partaken in. Our rule: always start with a Guinness. The pour was solid, the guzzle was clean and the dense head was complementary (Paul Scholes approves).

B asked for his burger cooked medium-well with cheddar and chips. Much to his chagrin, I went for an identical formula. Normally I’m a medium-cooked beef gal, but for some reason that night, I just wasn’t feelin’ the pink squidge factor.

Our burgers came on fresh, seeded buns and a bed of lettuce, white onion, tomato slices, and rippled dill pickles alongside a considerable stack of thick and crisp fries. B went with a steak sauce sprinkling; I opted for ketchup and the works. What we like about PJ’s burgers, which may set them apart from the bevy of passable patties in this region, is that, for a straight-up burger of middle-class appeal, the meat is good quality (no grissle, pretty lean), grilled to specification with a delicious charred exterior, and comes thick and retainably juicy, though not overbearing on the plate or the gut. Cheese is measurably melty. The fries are superbly crisp-and-creamy wedges of veg (the Irish know potatoes), and when this kind of attention to detail is present in both a burger and its fries, you know you’ve found a winning combo.

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P.J. Horgan’s Pub and Restaurant
42-17 Queens Boulevard (b/w 42nd and 43rd Sts.)
Sunnyside, NY 11104
718-361-9680