By Owen Lee, Staff Writer
Burgers are the perfect food, because they’re so flexible. You have a classic burger which includes ground beef and two buns, and maybe some condiments, lettuce, tomatoes, et cetera.
But that formula is easily modifiable. If you’re a vegetarian you can have a veggie patty instead of meat, if you want barbecue than you can use barbecue sauce instead of ketchup, and that’s not to mention what you can simply add on top of it all in terms of sauces, toppings, vegetables, and more.
Mary’s Steamed Cheeseburgers in New Bedford absolutely understands the full customizable ability of the burger. A flat hamburger from Mary’s, just meat and bread, is just $4.75.
From there, you can customize that burger with more than seventy different options for toppings. There’s the classics like ketchup and lettuce of course but the menu includes sriracha, creole seasoning, thousand island, mac & cheese bites, peanut butter, teriyaki, and a lot more.
And the best part is that more than more than half of these items can be added for free, and the rest is still pretty affordable. A $5 burger that can fulfill your most obscure sandwich dreams is absolutely incredible to me.
And if you don’t know where to start, the menu has tons of signature burgers that take full advantage of this huge menu.
They have options like Taco Cheeseburgers, cheeseburger with buffalo sauce named the Buffalo Bleu, and a burger with pepper jack cheese, pepper jelly, pepper candy bacon and chipotle sauce called the Pokémon.
I’m gonna give a special shoutout to my first Mary’s burger, the Mass Attack Roller Derby with bacon, fritos, pickles, American Cheese and PMA sauce (a hot sauce), because it was delicious.
Also they serve plenty of other food, like different kinds of hot dogs, breakfast and omelettes all day, and avocado toast, a.k.a the millennial white whale. Despite the fact that the burgers are front and center, there is a ton of variety to this menu that you have to check out for yourself.
Also, I should point out that the chefs are also constantly experimenting. The owner, Mary Hocking, is frequently in the kitchen with the chefs, talking to customers and helping come up with new ideas.
In fact, when a friend of mine took me there for the first time, Mary gave the both of us a sample of a new spicey ramen soup that they were working on, and it was excellent.
They also love doing specials for community events and holidays. In fact, on Saturday, October 21, they are providing free appetizers for the Collective NB theater group’s Halloween 24 Hour Project.
I’ve only been to this restaurant once, but it is already a favorite for me. It absolutely beats the competition in terms of quality, quantity, and affordability. I’d recommend this to anybody that likes burgers, because you will be able to find what you’re looking for here and it will be affordable. It’s on 288 Union Street in New Bedford, it’s BYOB, please check this out. Do it for me, man.