Upstairs at Bouley

I wanted to finish my San Francisco round up, but I’m in Detroit for the week and I don’t have the Gary Danko menu and I want to properly describe a raspberry dessert I had. For the time being, I’ll post some entries I’ve written but have been saving for a rainy day (actually, I have 46 restaurants that I have yet to post about…I am seriously behind!). Anyway, based on a MetroDad recommendation, Chris and I headed to Upstairs at Bouley for a light brunch. We wanted a soft shell crab sandwich from the bakery (below the Upstairs at Bouley restaurant) but we also wanted to try their burgers (from Upstairs at Bouley) but they wouldn’t let us bring a soft shell crab sandwich upstairs (and who would want a burger to go?) Initially, the waiter said we couldn’t bring up food from the bakery (restaurant rules or something), but it was late and he eventually gave in (and let us bring the sandwich upstairs). The soft shell crab sandwich:

The soft shell crab sandwich is lightly fried and placed inside a baguette with lettuce and avocado slices. Chris and I had a couple bites and couldn’t really taste the crab; the soft shell crab wasn’t seasoned enough to have enough flavor come through the sandwich. We weren’t very impressed (and it was $12 so it wasn’t a cheap sandwich!).

Luckily, we ordered a burger (so we could try a little bit of everything). The burger is a huge chunk of meat placed on a large English muffin with cheese, tomatoes, Boston lettuce, and tomatoes:

The burger was incredibly juicy – there wasn’t a lot of bun, just meat and veggies (perfect for an Atkin’s dieter!); the burger was seasoned well (although Chris thought it was a tad on the salty side), and it was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Upstairs at Bouley’s burger is definitely on my top 5 list of best burgers in the city.

The restaurant is very small and the kitchen is near the entrance:

You can see the chef putting everything together (the broiler for the burgers is on the left). There’s also a sushi bar for dinner:

For brunch, they have a lot of the pastries from the market (they looked delicious but we were stuffed from the burger and the soft shell crab sandwich). Downstairs at the market, we walked past lots of bread and pastries:

And tons of cakes and macaroons:

Overall, our burger was spectacular. The atmosphere at Upstairs at Bouley is really relaxing and on a nice warm day, they open the windows so there’s a nice breeze coming in during lunch.