Bar Sardine

I wish I had two more hands, so I could give this place four thumbs up! This was my first time at Bar Sardine and the owner, Gabriel treated me like I had been coming there for years! Great rum and bourbon selection. Great service from our bartender, also named Gabriel and one of the best burgers I’ve had in a very long time. In the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, «I’ll be BACK!».

This little place has amazing oysters, the best (and most interesting) bloody Mary’s, a singularly scrumptious black and blue burger, and a great staff and owners that we come back for again and again. Great location. Perfect if couples and small groups and also love when it gets a but rowdy too! Hip location walking to everything.

Love this little gem. It is a bit tight on space, so know you will be rubbing shoulders with the person you went with or strangers sitting beside you. But the food, drinks and service is top notch, so you will quickly forget that someone is violating your personal space.
Tom our waiter/​bartender was attentive, knowledgeable and friendly. Tom, shout out to you, you are the best!!!
Must haves… Fedora burger and any of the cocktails on the cocktail list. Well except for the Ramen drink. Too much going on in it! But otherwise, Bar Sardine, you did not disappoint.

Good selection of seafood and wine. Very fun atmosphere with lots of good looking people walking about in and outside. Only complain is that the space is really cramped. Stools on far left are also bolted down, so you end up awkwardly bumping into people on your way out if your are so unfortunate to be seated there.

a small bar with a handful of small square tables, we stopped for a burger at lunch time, we were the only costumer, got our burgers pretty fast, medium rear without even asking, i would say they were adequate and a bit expensive for what they are but still better than average… 3 ½ star well deserved!

To be fair, I’ve only visited during weekend brunch hours, but my experience was consistently amazing nonetheless the handful of times I visited. To start, the corner location and floor to ceiling windows make this one of the best people watching spots in New York City. While largely seafood themed, the food menu has something on it for everyone (and is actually reasonably priced for West Village). Being a «Wisco Bar,» this place serves up a tremendous batch of oysters to compliment an awesome selection of Bloody Marys (the Green Bay Bloody Mary is essentially a spicy green juice with vodka; The Bloody Caesar actually comes with a beer chaser).
The space is tight (with mostly bar and window spots seating maybe 20 people), so don’t expect to get a seat if you show up during prime brunch or dinner hours. The staff can also be a bit overwhelmed during prime hours, but they are usually exceptionally friendly and welcoming .
Menu Recommendations: Egg in a basket, oysters, and an enormous Bloody Caesar to wash it all down. The Fedora Burger will also blow your mind.

Easily in the top three burgers of Manhattan! Soooo delicious. Excellent staff. Cozy dining room. Reasonably priced. Oh and the grilled cheese is fab too. Love his place. So glad it’s in the neighbourhood.

Everything was just ok– overall.
The service at the bar was awful– the bartender couldn’t handle keeping up with drinks for guests and giving menus and and and and and…
The décor is classic mid century modern perfection with an homage to the owner’s Midwest roots. It’s lovely in there, but the spirit of the staff is not quite matched to their other establishments (Jeffrey’s, Joseph Leonard’s).
When our server took over, he was nice.
We ate the Char tartare (yummy, but needed more crunch). The fries were ok– the aioli (which I think no one can and should fuck up) was delicious. Maple is always a great flavor!
I hear their burger is amazing but I just didn’t want to stay & order more because I felt a vapid energy in the space. I get it– no one wants to be working on Mondays but damn.

My friend in NY who’s been here for 4 years decided to take me here for lunch since she’d heard about their top quality burger. I have to say that it definitely lived up to the hype! The meal was spectacular, with the meat cooked medium rare and the crunch from the fried potatoes really adding to the experience. While the burger wasn’t enormous, it was sufficient for a lunchtime meal, along with a side of fries to share.
In addition to the food, I had two delicious cocktails. The bourbon toddy was fantastic for the weather, warming me up and was nicely mixed with hints of lemon and honey. I followed that with a ‘Brazilian’ which was cachaca based and was also top notch.
I definitely recommend checking this place out, it had a nice vibe, as well as great food and drinks!

KenScale: 8.0÷10
One of the more surprising restaurant news I received in the past year was that Gabriel Stulman decided to ditch the inventive Japanese gastropub concept at Chez Sardine and replace it with a more classic American bar concept of Bar Sardine. I absolutely loved Chez Sardine and can’t still forget their creative sushi pieces, so this came as a mild shock. Bar Sardine seemed a little bit more predictable (what cocktail bar in NYC doesn’t have a burger these days?) so it’s been on the back of my hit list. I was meeting a friend on Valentine’s Day and figured that why not try this place now while all the other restaurants are probably serving expensive and boring prix fixe menus. Overall, the food at Bar Sardine, while not as memorable as my visit at its predecessor, generally delivered.
The menu at Bar Sardine consists mostly of shareable snacks and small plates. The deviled eggs at Bar Sardine came in with soy and black garlic. I can’t say I was a huge fan of the flavor and wished for a more straightforward deviled eggs. Corn fritters with miso cream, on the other hand, was spot on and should you at your table. Frisee and lardon salad with slow-​cooked egg, purple potatoes and ranch was surprisingly good, with the light touch that made the dish particularly addictive. Arctic char tartare was another winner; I really loved the tender texture of the tartare with horseradish cream underneath. The menu that everyone is talking about at Bar Sardine is the Fedora Burger, and its reputation is well-​deserved. Served with smoked cheddar, crispy potatoes, cucumbers and BBQ mayo inside the bun, the meat was more or less perfectly cooked; the whole ingredients were working together beautifully for a wonderful sensation every bite. I’m not ready to declare this burger the best one in NYC (that label still goes to Minetta Tavern), but this is definitely a very good one that you should try at least once if you have a huge craving for burger. There was only one dessert, and chocolate pot de crème with whipped cream and honeycomb candy was a surprisingly light and delightful dish that ended the meal on a pleasant note.
The restaurant/​bar doesn’t accept reservations so just show up in advance. Given the tiny size of the place, it packs up pretty quickly. Bar Sardine has some really good cocktails, including different regional variations of «fashions» (for example, American fashion is pretty similar to the classic old-​fashioned) so definitely try one or two to complement your meal. Whether you come for a full meal or just a couple of drinks with snacks, Bar Sardine is the type of place I would recommend if you are wandering around West Village.

Small friendly restaurant with delicious food this is the place!
Great menu, small and interesting!
Will be back!

If you’re a burger connoisseur, the Fedora Burger should be next on your list. Smoked cheddar, BBQ mayo, and topped with crispy fries, the Fedora Burger just might be perfection personified. I consider it and the Bone Marrow & Brisket Burger at Swine to be the best burgers in the West Village. The deviled eggs (sadly just one egg) was light and flavorful, but not a must-​have.
Service was prompt and polite. Highly recommend.

We walked by this place randomly last night and decided to grab a bite and drink. Best decision! It’s such a cute little bar with great music and an awesome staff. Everyone is super nice and friendly. We got the burger and the grilled cheese with a side of fries. Sooooo good! Whether it’s for dinner or drinks, I absolutely recommend this place.

This is the best bar in the W Village. There. Simple.
I know I should elaborate about the magnificent food (best deviled eggs and best burger I’ve ever tasted), fantastic bartenders (like Alex, who has an uncanny knack for the perfect rye manhattan) and the general sense of hospitality about the place, but I don’t want it to get too busy.

It is a nice space, and I have had some solid cocktails there in the past. But the service and staff there are so appalling that ultimately nothing else matters.
My two friends arrive first. As soon as I arrive, the man up front makes me feel super unwelcome — telling me to «stay out of the way» since I didn’t have a seat and was standing (How about try, once a seat opens we will be sure to accommodate you!) A little later on, a seat opens up. The server asks me not to sit there, despite there being NO wait list. While we planned on staying for dinner and more drinks, we simply could not stay, as it was clear they did not want us there nor value our business.

It’s the kind of neighborhood restaurant you wish you had. It’s also a good thing it’s not in your hood because you will be fat and broke. It’s not expensive but eating out does add up. The food is delicious. They season heavily and you are happily licking every finger because you don’t want to miss a bite of flavor. The fries are a must. They are fried perfectly! Who needs ketchup when you have maple mustard aioli or black garlic aioli?! There many good burgers in this city and you can add this one to the list. It may not blow your socks off but it’s solid. The combination of flavors and texture is done nicely. Hats off to the chef!

Came at lunch for their Fedora* burger (not hat) to go, and they seemed kinda annoyed by that request, despite only one other rowdy regular patron during my 10ish-​minute wait at the bar. While an excellent burger, $ 14.15 with no fries at lunch seems steep (especially since the price skyrocketed since opening); Might return for their much-​lauded Octopus hush puppies nonetheless.
*Not to be confused with Fedora, the standalone sister restaurant. This place was also previously chez sardine and still appears that way on CC statement

No, Bar Sardine does not in fact serve any sardines. Which is fine, because I wouldn’t have ordered them anyway. Why? Oh, because they’re gross.
But what Bar Sardine does serve is a mean burger, and that’s exactly what I came here for.
Their increasingly famous Fedora Burger is gourmet at not-​so-​much gourmet prices, which is pretty much precisely what I look for across all aspects of my life — something fantastic and decadent and in-​demand, but no, I’m certainly not gonna pay that much for it, thankyouverymuch, and are you crazy? Problem solved at Bar Sardine!
Despite a somewhat sloppy appearance, the Fedora Burger is expertly assembled. It’s smushed with smoked cheddar, red onions, cucumbers, BBQ mayo, and a bird’s nest of matchstick potatoes, all the accoutrements working in harmony with one another for one big, cohesive flavor. The sear I received was a perfect medium rare. The flattened, soft bun was a very nice touch, especially with so much else going on.
On paper, this burger might be perfect. But in my mouth, have I had better burgers? Well, yes, but I’ve had a lot of damn burgers, and the Fedora still stands out. So since it didn’t set my tastebuds off into the stratosphere (perhaps the combination, inventive and a bit avant-​garde, can’t replace a big, juicy traditional style for me?) that doesn’t make it any less worthy. It’s its own animal and I would still order it all over again in a heartbeat.
If there’s a must-​order after the Fedora Burger, for me, it’s the Brussels Sprouts. It seems every restaurant has succumbed to serving sprouts as a staple in the past five years, but Bar Sardine’s take is one I’d yet to encounter — heavily charred and tossed about yogurt, hazelnut, and golden raisins. It was hearty, brightly flavored, and delicious. The Herbed French Fries are another high point, many thanks to its ramekin of really awesome maple-​mustard aioli. The Crispy Local Squid, served with tzatziki and picked jalapeños, is a nice, lighter take on calamari, but truthfully, I could take ‘em or leave ‘em.
Bar Sardine’s set-​up, despite being a tiny corner property, somehow manages to create three distinct areas — the bar, the perimeter seating that looks out onto the intersection of W. 4^th and W. 10^th (probably the most desirable and certainly the most people-​watching friendly), and then traditional two-​top table seating right in front of the kitchen. All in all, it’s cozy (read: tight as all hell), cute (date-​baiting you into bringing your girl here), popular (packed as shit), and has a framed black-​and-​white R. Kelly photo in the bathroom right above the toilet as you piss (a double-​meaning piece, one can only assume).
That last bit is maybe an outlier, but goes to show that what could’ve been an all-​too-​trendy West Village spot deep down doesn’t take itself all too seriously in the end. It’s as Kel once said:
«Sex in the kitchen, over by the stove
Put you on the counter, by the buttered rolls
Hands on the table, on your tippy toes
We’ll be making love like the restaurant was closed»
Really nothing to do with Bar Sardine as an establishment per se, but when you get the chance to quote R. Kelly, you take it.

Super personable service: Thomas and Brian are kind and welcoming hosts who know what they’re doing (and how to do it).
We went last night (Saturday) around 8 and only had to wait 5 minutes. We were lucky, because within minutes there was a line of 5 – 6 waiting outside.
The place is tiny, and keep in mind that despite a few tables, most sits are at the bar/​against the windows. It didn’t bother us at all, as there was more than enough space for our food and drinks.
We opted for their famous Fedora burger, which didn’t disappoint us. Juicy meat, delicious sauce, soft bun and crunchy potato strings. Truly very good.
We also ordered their sunchokes (which I had never had before), and they were mouthwatering.
I can’t wait to go back and try more food.
Highly recommended.

Stopped in here for an afternoon snack and absolutely loved it! This was one of my favorite meals of our recent NYC trip. It’s mostly bar seating with a few tables in the back near a petite open kitchen. The front windows are reserved for afternoon cocktails and offer glorious views of the West Village.
It was a Sunday afternoon and they were still offering brunch items. We shared the breakfast sandwich which was on the most divine bun with a baked egg, smoked chicken meatballs, jalapeño gruyère and a sauce so creamy and thick I wanted to smother each and every bite in it.
We also shared the asparagus tartine, which I believe is normally on their lunch and dinner menu. Smoked ricotta, a perfectly cooked fried egg and chili oil was an explosion of flavors.
I am always impressed by the restaurants in this group. Cannot wait to try others.