Superiority Burger spent years as a very small takeaway operation with a cult following and a veggie burger that people crossed the city for. It is now at 119 Avenue A, across from Tompkins Square Park, with a dining room, a Michelin listing and a considerably longer menu — and it is worth understanding what that change did before you go.
The hours here are unusually irregular — different opening times on five of the seven days, with no lunch on Tuesday or Wednesday. Ask Karpo whether the kitchen is serving right now and what else around Tompkins Square is open at this hour.
The burger itself
The patty is made from quinoa, chickpeas, carrots and walnuts, and it is around $17 now. It is small — deliberately, not stingily — and dense, with a texture built from grains and nuts rather than from a meat impersonation.
That last point is the whole design. This is not an Impossible or Beyond product and it is not trying to convince anyone it is beef. It is a vegetarian patty that tastes like the things in it, in a soft bun with sauce and shredded lettuce, and it works on its own terms rather than as a substitute.
$17 is a real price for a small burger and there is no way around that. What it buys is a specific thing that nobody else makes, in a room with service, in a neighbourhood where a mediocre lunch costs about the same. Whether that is cheap depends on the comparison you are running.
The rest of the menu is why it is a restaurant
The Sloppy Dave — the house take on a sloppy joe — and the burnt-broccoli salad are the two dishes that come up as often as the burger among people who eat here regularly. That is a meaningful signal: the burger is the name on the door, and it is not the only reason to be inside.
The kitchen is lacto-ovo vegetarian with a substantial vegan section, and the vegetables are treated as the main event rather than as a constraint. Burnt broccoli is a good example — charred hard, dressed aggressively, and closer to something you would find at a serious restaurant than at a burger counter.
Gelato and desserts rotate and are genuinely good. Fries appear at dinner around $12. A meal of a burger, a vegetable and something sweet is a proper dinner rather than a snack, and it is priced like one.
The hours are genuinely confusing
This is the most practically important section. Monday runs 12:00 to 9:30pm. Tuesday and Wednesday run 5:00 to 10:30pm — evening only. Thursday runs 12:00 to 10:30pm. Friday runs 12:00 to 11:30pm. Saturday runs 11:00am to 11:30pm. Sunday runs 11:00am to 9:30pm.
Five different opening times across seven days, with no daytime service at all on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nobody remembers this correctly and the Tuesday-lunch mistake is the most common one.
The weekend is the most forgiving — an 11am open on Saturday and Sunday makes it a genuine brunch option, which the weekday schedule does not.
What the move changed
The original operation was tiny and takeaway-first, and the queue was part of the experience in the way that queues become part of the experience at places that cannot seat anyone. Getting a burger involved a decision to go and stand somewhere.
The current room removes that friction and adds table service, a longer menu and the ability to have dinner rather than a sandwich. What it also removes is the specific pleasure of a very small operation doing one thing perfectly, which is what a certain group of long-time customers actually valued.
Both readings are fair. The honest summary is that the food is at least as good and the menu is considerably more interesting, and the thing that has been lost is a kind of scarcity rather than a kind of quality.
Where it sits among cheap eats
It should be said clearly that this is not the cheapest food in the East Village and does not pretend to be. There are counters within a few blocks selling a full meal for under ten dollars, and if the goal is purely to eat for as little as possible, those are the answer.
What this is instead is a restaurant where a vegetarian can order anything on the menu, which is a rarer and more useful thing than it sounds. Most cheap eating in New York is structurally meat-centred, and the vegetarian options are usually the adaptations rather than the point.
Tompkins Square Park is directly opposite and is the right place to eat if you are taking food away, which remains an option. Avenue A north and south of the shop has a dense run of bars and cheap counters, which makes this a reasonable first stop in an evening rather than a destination on its own.
Practical notes
119 Avenue A in the East Village, across from Tompkins Square Park; (212) 256-1192. Hours vary daily: Monday 12:00 to 9:30pm; Tuesday and Wednesday 5:00 to 10:30pm with no lunch; Thursday 12:00 to 10:30pm; Friday 12:00 to 11:30pm; Saturday 11:00am to 11:30pm; Sunday 11:00am to 9:30pm. The veggie burger is around $17 and is small by design; fries appear at dinner around $12. Order the Sloppy Dave or the burnt-broccoli salad alongside rather than a second burger. Lacto-ovo vegetarian with a large vegan section. Weekend late mornings are the easiest window.
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Ask Karpo first
The opening hours here change on five of the seven days and there is no daytime service midweek, which is the single easiest way to waste a trip. Ask Karpo whether the kitchen is serving right now, whether it is a lunch day or an evening-only one, and what else around Tompkins Square Park is open if you have arrived at the wrong hour.
