Murray's Cheese Bar Visited 10/19/2012 3.5 Forks

Murray's Cheese Bar 264 Bleecker St., (between Cornelia St & Morton St), New York, NY 10014

Except for those who are lactose intolerance, how the heck doesn't LOVE cheese? I love cheese on anything and in any formation.  So I was thrilled when Murray's Cheese Shop decided to open a restaurant completely dedicated to cheese.  When Anuja and I looked at the menu, we were so excited.  Every dish has a cheese component.  Wahoo!  The front page is mostly individual cheese portions for a cheese (and meat if you are interested) board and the back side are all dishes that somehow incorporate cheese (fondues, grilled cheese, burgers, cheese spreads, fried cheese like haloumi, mac and cheese, and baked cheese).  They do have a very small section of sides that don't have cheese such as beet salad and bibb lettuce salad.  I was torn between ordering a bunch of different kind of dishes like a fried cheese and fondue or getting a burger, but ultimately I was craving meat so I went with the special burger which came with gorgonzola cheese on it ($17).

But first Anuja and I split a flight of cheese (3 kinds) for $12.  The selection is the cheesemonger's choice, which takes the pressure off of trying to pick from the 20+ types of cheese they have on their menu.  You can tell them if you don't like certain types of cheese, which prevents you from getting some cheese that you don't like.  I see ordering fancy cheese as similar to ordering wine.  I know that there's a lot of variety and I know what I like but I couldn't tell you for the life of me the names of what I like besides some of the very basic ones.   The cheesemonger came out with a plate of 3 cheeses and she started to rattle off their names and their texture and flavors and honestly, it went in one ear and out the other.   The 1st cheese was similar in consistency to a brie (a soft cheese) but it had a light taste to it.  It was served with a delicious apple butter jam that I wanted to put on everything.  The 2nd cheese and 3rd cheese were both harder cheeses that were similar to a cheddar cheese but not as sharp.  Sorry, I know these are pretty lame descriptions but I just had a hard time remembering everything the cheesemonger told us.  I also loved that they served the us breads and fancy crackers in a little cute bag with the cheese. I was glad that we only got the 3 flight because I was starting to get kind of full off of it. 

I was super excited for a big juicy burger but imagine my surprise when my burger came out and there was no bun.  This was not mentioned anywhere on the menu nor did the waitress tell me about it.  Now there was bread, the burger was served on a large kind of multi-grain Texas style slice of bread but I was expecting an actual bun that would hold my burger on both sides.  But I was willing to give it a try.  The burger itself was almost a bit too rare.  I do like my burgers medium rare and it didn't really bother me, but to those who are squeamish of a lot of pink in their burger, I would say be forewarned because it was borderline completely rare.  The gorgonzola was in full force on the burger.  I know it's a strong cheese but good god, it was very strong and there was a tad too much of it on the burger that it made it hard to taste much else.  I did finish my burger completely but I would have still preferred a traditional burger with an actual bun.  Some people at the table next to us got the cheddar  burger and it was served the same way and instead of it being served with a slice of cheddar it was a liquid cheese that you pour over the entire burger.  Crazy.  They should be a bit more descriptive on their menu with their burgers.  I didn't try Anuja's grilled cheese but she mentioned that that cheese to bread ratio was a bit too high (I could tell as at the end of the meal she just had a huge pile of cheese on her plate).  She did say that the bread was nice and buttery and toasted well.  The dish was served with a small cup of tomato soup, which is always the perfect match for grilled cheese.

All in all, I loved the concept of the place.  I totally get that they are dedicated to cheese, but they kind of need to dial it down on their dishes.  The cheese can still be the star of a dish without overpowering it.  But it's a fun place to try and a cute date place if you just want to get a meat and cheese plate.  Total bill: $78 (mostly because Anuja accidentally ordered a $22 bottle of beer. :) ) with tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp