Clarke’s Standard

Great customer service! The food fell off the map. worst than Mc D’s…Real talk!

My first burger at Clarke’s Standard in midtown: Delicious
My first turkey burger at Clarke’s Standard in midtown: Mediocre
My first turkey burger at Clarke’s Standard in FiDi: Fantastic
My second turkey burger at Clarke’s Standard in FiDi: Terrible
Long story short, this place is inconsistent. Fries are tasty and staff are beyond friendly but be warned that the quality of your meal may be a mystery (but nothing disastrous by any means (except maybe that last time)).

Clark’s SUB-​Standard! I used to love this place. But they took the green chili burger off the menu. Everyone i know that ate there loved that. Who knows, maybe we were just the odd ones. They they switched from thick juicy patties to some think discs that would be rejected by mcdonalds. They seem to think they are smarter than their customers, serving a mushroom cheddar rather than a mushroom swiss. And they having chicken tenders but don’t serve ranch dressing. The check out clerk confirmed that they are asked for swiss and ranch many times everyday.
In summary, save money and have a better burger by going to mcdonalds.

Burgers are good but over priced. Staff is atrociously rude and unprofessional. PJ Clarke’s should be ashamed to have their legendary status potentially tarnished by this place.

Perhaps the same quality of burger can be had at BK’s or Mickey D’s but you will pay double or triple the price point at this place. Fries are pretty good, but that’s about it.
My mom did not like her veggie burger. She said it was too mushy. Even after she sent it back (to be cooked more to be more well done) she still did not like it. My son and I opted for cadillac burgers (those have bacon and cheese on them). My burger was fair to middling. My son ate about half of his.
My daughter ordered chicken strips /​chicken fingers but did not finish them. They were good when they were piping hot, but once they cooled down they were tasteless and bland. The only high point were the fries; however, 5 Guy’s does those way, way better than these guys do theirs.
This place attempts to replicate the 5 Guy’s concept and perhaps that is what drew us in initially; however, they missed the mark by more than a mile.
I like the idea of the different condiment dispensers that they have; however, the quality and taste profile of those (spicy ketchup, barbecue sauce, chipotle mayo and spicy mustard) reminds me of what you might find at your local Arby’s.
Perhaps this place really deserves 2.5 starts; however, because of such a high price point for such bland and mediocre food I really don’t feel all that bad about giving them 2 stars. I would not return.

It’s Saturday 5pm, 2 hours before closing, and the 2 of us walk in to order burgers.
A morose employee was outside locking up half of the chairs and tables. The tables were dirty and made a point to say to eachother «oh we can eat outside» assuming it would cue him to wipe a few off.
We step to the counter where two employees start fighting with eachother about who has to take our order. About 45 seconds later, we still weren’t so sure who won (lost?), so we awkwardly asked if it’s ok if we order. «Sure,» the guy in the right responded, so we did.
He was confused for some reason that we were ordering together. But we’ll just assume he was so overwhelmed from the aforementioned argument that he was still having a hard time concentrating. We stated we would be sitting outside.
The Dr. Pepper in the fountain machine is broken.
We go to sit outside (tables were still gross, to the point I was tempted to ask for some cleaning spray) and wiped off our own table. This would be totally understandable if it was a weekday, or even if there was more than one other customer in the place. And especially if there hadn’t been an employee locking up other chairs and tables 2 hours before closing that were also disgustingly dirty. Couldn’t that time have been better spent wiping them down?
A few minutes later an other customer inside comes out holding a milkshake asking if it’s ours. It had been sitting on the counter for minutes, he told us.
Figuring they may not bring out or even come tell us about the rest of our food, we kept an eye inside. When it was finally ready, they did not even attempt to let us know. Good thing we were watching.
Hot dog was missing. Everyone seemed to imply it was normal that it was forgotten. Doesn’t it print on the chit?
Went back outside to eat the burgers, and someone came and sat down at a table with food from another restaurant. A female employee who later identified herself as the manager came out to tell them that they had to leave. To note, it was completely empty other than us, and the very dirty tables did seem to imply it’s sort of communal seating for all the restaurants in the zone considering there’s no sign and no one was taking care to clean them.
A few minutes later, we noticed them waving a hot dog in the air at us from behind the counter. My friend remarked, «Seriously, they will come outside to kick someone away who is eating from the restaurant attached but will wave a hot dog in the air behind the counter to their own customer?»
Went inside for the hot dog. Came out and randomly ran into a friend who was coming in to order. He went in. Came out 5 mins later and just said, «What the f – , I just stood there for 3 minutes while they ignored me and then some lady came over and was just like, ‘You ready to order.’» We hadn’t told him about our already poor service. He also mentioned that they were telling people they were closing and making them take food in to go bags. Closing time was 90 minutes away. He saw them doing the kind of grill cleaning you do only at closing and not before making more burgers. You’re not supposed to do that while making food because dust gets up onto the grill.
Someone else came and sat down with food from next door (it really, really, really does appear to be communal seating), and the same female employee came out to shoo them away.
I had sort of had enough and decided to ask her why it made sense to come out twice to ask people to leave but no one had come out to bring us or even tell us about our food being ready, or to wipe down the tables. Her response was a textbook result of shockingly poor management training. Something about the external food being a «major violation» (I’m sure the DOH would consider the disgusting and sticky tables more of a major violation) and how she’s so busy managing inside and that they aren’t the type of place that serves at tables. Also that it was an ongoing joke about who has to take orders at the register. I didn’t want to be part of their joke, I just wanted to order a burger.
It went on a bit back and forth, but the short version is that this team has simply not been trained in proper customer service and there was no corporate representative onsite as manager. When I concluded that I hope she understood I wasn’t trying to be hostile but pointing out that we had consistently received very poor service, she replied that she was sorry I felt we received poor service. I reiterated, I didn’t «feel» as though we had received poor service. We plainly had, undisputedly, received poor service. She was quite polite, and it didn’t get heated in any way.
She went inside, they all stared at us and talked, we enjoyed the rest of our meal. As usual, totally unimpressive burgers, great fries, decent hot dog, pretty good shake.
A few minutes later, a male employee departing the restaurant spit in the corner of their declared private eating area directly in our view.

This place has been astoundingly successful in living up to its name — standard. Came here for lunch around 1pm on a workday and the line was basically nonexistent, which is such an odd sight to see in FiDi… that probably should have tipped me and my friend off. Despite the very few people in front of us, it still took 25 minutes until our orders were ready.
My grilled chicken sandwich was utterly basic, literally just a grilled chicken breast with some lettuce and tomatoes on a hamburger bun. That made me sad, the hamburger bun did. Of all the breads in the world, why a hamburger bun :(Flavor did not impress much of anything either. Friend’s original burger was reportedly also very mediocre, though I will concede that from a table-​length distance away, the beef looked ravishingly tempting. Both orders were infuriatingly small — I’d somehow actually finished my sandwich by the time we found a table, and my friend worked through his in four bites. There were terrible time-​waiting-​to-​time-​eating ratios to be had.
Will not be back. So disappointing.

This place is a perfect reason why I wish automats were brought back. The service here is beyond bad. It used to be simply slow, but now it’s slow with a side of lack of intelligence.
Today’s encounter had the following actors:
1) The counterman
2) The foreign tourists with minimal communication skills
3) The manager (?)
4) Special guest star — random guy off the street
5) Me, although I will simply call myself the director.
I enter the near empty establishment and see the first 2 sets of actors, so I stay back and read the menu to make a decision.
I walk towards the register and overhear the lack of communication going on. The latest discussion was how many orders of french fries. How hard is it to point and then hold up either 1 or 2 fingers?
The register popped open at one point during the transaction and the manager came over to ask why and had some discussions, but I wasn’t really paying attention.
Then as this was all finishing up, some guy walks in off the street tries to order from the manager and the managers tells him to order from the register. The guy waits for the foreigners to finish and cuts in front to me to order and the register guy takes the order,
I whip out my camera to capture all of the actors and was able to display the whole scene, but have been told my attorney not to share this due to potential libel.
End scene.
The food here is decent, but I am sadly recommending to please close this place down and replace it with another Duane Reade.

Clarke’s just lowered the standard of burgers in New York.
I used to go here weekly for a decent burger lunch. Their combo was a decent quality burger and fries. Today I went in for lunch and got the standard cheese burger to go. When I got back to my desk I was horrified! They cut the Beef portion size in half! In place of the thick juicy burger they used to sell, there is a 4 oz. burned dry poop patty.
What do I do now? I felt so disrespected. I’m halfway through my lunch hour and stuck with a terrible meal! It was so ghastly that my employer insisted that I deserved a good lunch and that I should go get my money back. So I went back and returned it and went and got lunch from a Halal cart.
I won’t come back until they let me know that their burgers aren’t a sham.

I was walking towards Brooklyn on a recent lovely Friday evening, fresh off of long week at office and wanting to get home on my own two feet when a sudden downpour forced me into Clarke’s Standard, PJ’s Clarkes attempt to develop Five Guys Burger Franchise.
The décor, which seems inspired by an mid-​priced independent film set decorator’s take on a small town diner, seems both replicable and forgettable. The boxy, serifless is particularly egregious in its awful conformity.
The food is better. Everything is cooked to order, and its not particularly quick. My chicken sandwich took a leisurely 15 minutes to prepare, which is fine for a Friday night, although might have been more problematic if this was the lunch hour. I was pleased that everything was customizable, allowing me to switch out American Cheese and loose the tomato and avocado that comes standard with the chicken sandwich.
The bun isn’t anything special — Five Guys has the same problem — but the chicken was fresh and not dry. Things get more exciting when it’s time to top the burger (or chicken sandwich) with spiced ketchup, root beer BBQ sauce and three kinds of mustard available for garnishes. The sweet potato fries were also solid receptiles for these sauces, although they were greasy enough that it doesn’t seem like a pretty healthful option over the standard ones.
Clarke’s Standard is summed up right there in the name, a pretty standard fast-​casual eatery perfectly in line with American 2014 dining trends, and perfectly exportable to other parts of the country. It’s also nothing special.

Had a dine-​in lunch recently. I ordered the Bklyn Au Poivre, sweet potato fries and soda. Liked everything EXCEPT the cracked pepper sauce on the burger. Twice, my teeth CLENCHED something like a pebble. Each time, I spat it out like a lady. The 2^nd time, I looked at it and realized those are WHOLE peppercorns. NOW, I remember WHY I do not order items with «cracked pepper». It’s cuz I’m afraid I’ll break a tooth.
Before I left the establishment, I pointed the whole peppercorns to a staff member who said he’ll let the mgr know.

«Beer sold here» got my attention quickly, although do they in fact sell beer?! I didn’t dare ask.
I wasn’t sure whether this was just a fancy alternative to a say… burger king or what not, or does it have claim of its own. I liked that it had hamburgers and hot dogs on the menu. Not sure how I felt about the existence of combo meals, although I ended up getting one.
Combo #1, since it was my first time here, come on down. Good old cheeseburger, fries and soda (for just a little over $ 10). You had the option of fries or sweet potatoes and I opted for the latter. I liked that I was asked how I want my burger (Medium, please) and I was given a plastic cup to get my own soda. A different table has a variety of 5? condiments that you can put in a small plastic cup that even comes with its own cover. Although I could not find the cover for my drink.
You get a number and so you wait for when it’s called out. At 12ish, there weren’t that many people, but I would say I waited a good 5 to 7 minutes for my meal. Standing. Waiting. They have high tables inside, and some regular tables outside. U2 or something was playing for the musical background (Yes, please!) The cheeseburger was on the small side, but it satisfied that «I think I want a burger today» craving. The sweet potato fries was a little tricky to eat with just the fingers, since it was the waffle cut kind, not the sticks and I wished I had gotten a fork or something, but I was too lazy to get up from my high chair. At some point the fries did feel a little to fatty. (Don’t roll your eyes, I know I went for a burger and fries, but I could still point out that the oil/​fat was a little extra).

I work around the corner from here and I decided to come for lunch and I’m glad I did — I was pleasantly surprised by the food.
I ordered their buffalo chicken sandwich and got fries. My boyfriend ordered a burger and what’s cool is they ask you how you want your burger cooked. He asked for medium rare and while the burger wasn’t completely medium rare, it was still pretty tasty. The buffalo chicken sandwich ran me about $ 9 and it was pretty decent size. The sauce was flavorful but not completely over powering and their bread was really, really good. They also had a good chicken breast to bread ratio. Their fries were super crispy and not too greasy.
Wait time is kind of long, but it’s not too bad. They also have a variety of sauces to choose from — we tried their spicy ketchup and the root beer barbeque. Definitely try the root beer barbeque — it’s a unique take on a classic sauce.
As far as prices go… it was kind of pricey but pretty relative to other options in the area. A chicken sandwich, burger, and an order of fries cost us $ 21. They do have specials which include either a burger, hot dog, or chicken sandwich, your choice of regular or sweet potato fries, and a fountain soda for around $ 10 (plus tax), so that’s an option that we’ll definitely consider next time. I will probably come back here, I think it’s a good alternative from the other places in the area.

I walked over on the first warmish sunny day of the year, and ordered a regular burger and fries. «Medium ok?» the counterwoman asked. «Sure, medium is fine.»
The wait was a little long, but I figured they were busy and they were cooking all burgers to order.
The fries were excellent, warm and salty. The burger was waaaay too small for the bun. And undercooked. It was way too pink to be medium. I ate it, though it was quite underdone, and it was tasty. But if you offer a medium burger as your default… serve a medium burger, you know?

Standard is a perfect word to describe the food here. Very average, nothing special.
The burgers were actually pretty disappointing compared to the rest of the meal.
I got The Caddilac ($ 8.50), which has cheddar, bacon and the Standard sauce. The worst part about the burgers here is the terrible meat to bun ratio. I was done with the tiny patty and left with way too much of the not so great bread left over. Also, the cheese was mostly unmelted, which was kind of nasty. The flavor of the burger was pretty good, but overall it wasn’t great.
The best thing here by far were the regular Fries ($ 3). They were really crispy and well-​seasoned. The Sweet Potato Fries ($ 3.50) were pretty good too — note that they are waffle fries in case that’s not your thing. I do like waffle fries, so I enjoyed them, but not as much as the regular. Lastly, we also got the Cheesy Tater Tots ($ 3.90), which were decent, but I’ve had way better tots. The moral of the story: stick with the regular fries here.
I also got a small Black & White Shake ($ 4.75), which was very standard. It obviously tastes fine since it’s a shake, but I wouldn’t waste myself on one of these if I ever came here again (which I am not really likely to anyway).
The soda is self serve. They also have ice cream cups for dessert. The service was nice and quick (I placed my order for pickup and it was ready in 5 minutes by the time I got there). It’s a decent option for an OK burger, but I would rather walk the pretty long walk from here to the Shake Shack in Battery Park instead if I want a good fast food style burger.

I think the reviews speak for themselves. The food is just OK and the burgers are small over cooked and not worth the price. The sweet potato fries are tasteless.
Not worth going back.

YES. Thank you for being right next to my work place. Without you I would have had to live off of Starbucks salad or Chipotle…
I’ve tried chili cheese fries, sweet potato fries, the cadillac burger, and brooklyn au poivre burger. (You can see the details of the burgers on their menu)
The wait is REALLY long, so order online and pick it up (takes at least 15 mins from online order time to them finish making it, even if you’re the FIRST customer). I just figure that it’s better to cooke a burger slowly but surely, then just cook it fast and burn the outside without getting the inside cooked. So I won’t complain! :D
Delivery starts from $ 15.
My review:
(3.5÷5 stars) Chili Cheese Fries — not what I expected. The cheese + chilli is basically mixed up in a cup and comes out separately from fries, and it wasn’t even real chili, but more like chili flavored cheese. However, fries were cut right and fried to perfection.
(4.1÷5 stars) Sweet Potato Fries — I’ve never had better sweet potato fries than from here. It’s waffle fry style and is very good. Only thing I don’t like is that it feels bit greasy when it’s in my stomach… but I’m really sensitive to too much grease.
(3.1÷5 stars) The Cadillac — Pretty good, but small. It’s how a burger should be sized like (in between regular burger size and slider) for a «correct» portion. However, if I’m paying $ 9 for it just by itself, I would like some more meat! Asked for medium well, and it was cooked medium well. :)
(4.5÷5 stars) Brookyln Au Poivre — Really good. Patty was bit thicker (thick as 2.5 McDonald’s patties) than the Cadillac and gouda cheese made this taste even better. Not crazy juicy but really juicy patty… I just ate this but I’m hungry again thinking about it. I wantz it againz!

WORST BURGER EXPERIENCE IN MANHATTAN
My coworker and I showed up at 11:15 before the lunch rush and there was no line, very excited for the new edition across work and the menu looks amazing.
WRONG maybe one of the worst burgers I’ve had in Manhattan
Let’s just start by saying no line, therefore the attention to my order and the creation of my burger should have been spot on. WRONG.
I ordered the Blue burger and asked for green chiles to be added. What I got was an overcooked dry burger, stale bun, and flimsy (not crispy) bacon with no blue cheese (must have been forgotten). The burger is slightly bigger than a slider, but not an average sized burger. The fried chile was really just fried batter no chili (at least I did not taste any).
Our other coworkers commented the dry burger was visible and laughed at our adventure of trying the new venue.
My coworker ordered the Cadillac which came dry and stale as well. The lettuce was actually shades of green and BROWN (Yes, BROWN as in wilted).
The side of tater tots was mushy, no crunch and undercooked.
Overall, overpriced burgers with no taste. I’d skip this and walk over the other places.
One side note: Service was nice, but burgers were awful.

I ordered a black & bleu ‘burger medium-​rare, my roommate ordered a brooklyn au poivre ‘burger medium-​rare, and we split an order of butcher’s chili with a side of cheesy tater tots and a side of sweet potato fries. We both agreed that the best part of our meal was the condiments: spicy ketchup, root beer BBQ sauce, tomatillo relish.
The buns (an odd hybrid between baguette and croissant) were stale and chewy. The meat was coarse and flavorless. The blue cheese was runny like mayonnaise. The crispy shallots were limp and greasy. The bacon was cold and tough. The peppercorn sauce was bland and almost nonexistent. The chili was watery and boring. The sweet potato fries were forgettable. The cheesy tater tots were non-​memorable. And to top it off, the burgers were small; for $ 8 they should come with a side of fries for free.
But, no, a side of fries will cost you $ 3 extra. So for $ 11 total, you get a ‘burger ½ normal size and ½ the amount of fries you would expect in any average restaurant. For the prices they charge, the portions are tiny, and the quality is really sub-​par.

I’m glad this burger joint opened up rather quickly after the closing of GoodBurger. The setup is quite similar to goodburger with hightop seating on the right and you can order as soon as you walk in.
I ordered the Cadillac with cheese fries. The burger came out in a timely manner and it was pretty good. My one complaint was it was kind of greasy.
I did not like the cheese fries. The cheese was some sort of chili cheese and it was a topping which seemed more like a dip than actual cheese sauce or real cheese.
Regardless of my opinion, I’m sure Clarkes will do well in the neighborhood!