Dumont Burger Visited 4/9/2011 3.75 Forks

Dumont Burger 314 Bedford Ave., (between 2nd St & 1st St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

 For those of you who have been following my blog you'll know that I gave the regular Dumont a pretty low rating.  I had such a crappy experience there that I vowed never to go back.  But that didn't include Dumont Burger which is on the other side of Williamsburg.  Dan and I were hankering for a good burger and despite having been around Williamsburg for years, we have never gone to this neighborhood staple. 


We went at 9pm on a Saturday and it was packed (with hipsters but what can you expect?)! The place is tiny so it's not hard to be packed but they make sure to use up every single square foot of space so there is almost no place to even stand and wait.  We finally got a seat at the communal table but it was right next to the door, so that was bit annoying.  As you can imagine the main feature here is the dumont burger ($12.50).  I got it with cheddar cheese ($1 extra) and sauteed mushrooms ($1.50 extra) and the green salad (it took a lot of restraint to not get fries or the potato leek soup).  Dan got it with cheese ($1 extra) and caramelized onions ($1.50 extra) and a side of chipotle mayo (another $1 extra) and onion rings.  The one thing that really irked me is the feeling that I was being nickeled and dimed for my burger toppings.  Cheese should always be free and mushrooms don't cost $1.50, nor does a small container of mayo cost $1.  I just wished more places would just offer more robust burgers without charging you extra for everything.  The burger itself was cooked nicely and there was a good bun to burger ratio.  It was the right amount of juiciness (I had to use my napkin several times, but that's a good sign when eating burgers) and flavor.  Size-wise, it was just the right size.  It wasn't flat and thin but it wasn't some monsterous piece of meat that would make me feel sick at the end.  It was just the perfect size.  The bun was a nice and soft brioche bread and I had a good heaping of mushrooms.  The one down side was that my cheese wasn't as sharp as I would have liked it, in fact I could barely taste it.  Surprisingly, the green salad was really good.  It was just mixed greens but it had a great light dressing on it.  Dan's onion rings were battered lightly and had a good crisp to it.  They went really well with the chipotle mayo (I mean what doesn't go well with chipotle mayo?).  

Dumont Burger actually had a very surprisingly good sounding cocktail menu (all were $10) but after a weekend of drinking I wasn't really in the mood for more alcohol, but I would definitely give them a try next time.  While I liked the food there, the atmosphere was just so claustrophobic on the weekends, that I would only consider going on a weekday or off hours. Total bill was $50 with tax and tip for two.