Infamous in Chicago for their over-the-top burger and long waits, Au Cheval (as in put an egg on it) has come to New York. Opening up recently in Tribeca, we headed down early on a Friday evening to put our names in for a table. Although they do take some reservations and have a full bar downstairs, we went around the corner to have a drink and wait for our table to be ready.

Little did we know what we would find down this unassuming Manhattan alley way…Au Cheval Diner!

I highly recommend going with a small group so you can order a variety of dishes and try them all. We started out with two appetizers, first the roasted bone marrow. Served in bones, the marrow was served with a beef check marmalade. What’s crazy is that this wasn’t the richest meat we ordered! We also had the house made fried baloney sandwich. Cheesy, meaty, I’m glad I only had a quarter of this (delicious but so, so heavy).

The main event was the burger. We got the single, but this is really a misnomer, the single is a double patty (trust me, you really don’t need to go for the double). We added the egg and the bacon…very, very thick cut bacon with a side of fries.

Another classic, must-try dish is the crispy potato hash with duck heart gravy. As delicious as all of the dishes topped with egg were, my favorite of the evening was the General Jane’s honey fried chicken. Just the right blend of hot and sweet, this chicken was perfectly crispy, not greasy, fried perfection.

This isn’t a place to go if you are looking to eat light or healthy, but stop in to see the burger that Chicagoan rave about.