Crif Dogs

On Saturday, Chris and I headed to Crif Dogs in the East Village for some hot dogs and to compare them to Dash Dogs, a place we visited a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed. Crif Dogs is in a prime location for NYU/East Village bar-goers because it’s close to all the action. Crif Dogs’ outside:

We walked inside to a dimly lit area with all these East Village hipster types waiting for their hot dogs and a blonde-haired woman behind the counter impatiently waiting for us to decide what we wanted to eat. I had a bad feeling about the waitress – she looked a little too old to be happy working at a hot dog stand. :/ Anyway, we ordered their special – one crif dog, one New York dog, and a soda for $5.95. Pretty expensive for two hot dogs and a drink, don’t you think? Our dogs:

Relish, tomatoes, raw onions, spicy mustard, and ketchup on FRIED hot dogs. I think the reason Crif Dogs fries their hotdogs is to have a really crunchy bite to their dog. While we were waiting for our hot dogs, we were talking about the “phone booth” next to the bathroom door, which opens to a secret bar you can read about here. Apparently, you need to call to make a reservation for the place and the drink list was created by seasoned barman Jim Meehan. Here’s the entrance:

Chris tried to peek in and the waitress behind the counter was incredibly rude and yelled at Chris AND every other person that tried to look in! It kind of ruined the Crif Dogs experience for me…I don’t like rude waitresses.

I preferred Dash Dogs for the following reasons:

1. Toppings: the toppings were free at Dash Dogs and they were really creative and FREE whereas Crif Dogs charges 50 cents for each topping, even for diced tomatoes, which adds up really fast considering the hot dog costs like, $2.50 to begin with,
2. Customer Service: the people at Dash Dogs were incredibly nice and made recommendations on which dogs to order vs. Crif Dogs’ rude waitress that didn’t even bother taking my order,
3. Taste: I think this also has to do with their toppings – maybe we didn’t get the right toppings at Crif Dogs and we got the right ones at Dash Dogs, but the toppings at Crif Dogs seemed a little too odd (a hot dog wrapped in bacon? Gross!). Plus, the hot dog was so small that you really couldn’t taste it. They need to work on their hot dog to topping ratio.

If I ever went back, I would try going to the “secret” bar, PDT (please don’t tell), to try out their drinks (maybe their dogs will taste better with a little alcohol). Chris liked the dogs more than Dash Dogs, but I have the final word since I actually write the reviews. 🙂