Last night, I made a trip to Bamn! with Adam of Slice and AHT fame. Bamn! is an automat, which means there are vending machines that provide hot food. The establishment also has a counter where you can order drinks, soft serve ice cream, fries and hot food made to order. Below is a very TGWAE-like photo recap of my trip. If you don't feel like following along, know that the food we sampled was average save for the fries and the mac & cheese kroket, but the experience was novel for the likes of me. You can view a flickr photo set here.
You can see it's a pretty typical automat. You put in money, open a small glass door and an edible item is waiting for you.
They also have a menu that you can order items from. As I said before, these are made to order.
The change machine is pretty self-explanatory. You put in paper money and you get quarters or dollar coins (they happened to be out of dollar coins during our visit).
At this point, we made our way to the food. To avoid clogging up my entire front page with this post, you'll have to click through if you're reading this on the homepage.
We started with their Teriburger, which is a burger with teriyaki sauce. Everything about it was great except for the meat, which is clearly the most important aspect of the burger. It didn't seem overdone, but it was really tough. It'd be great if they could fix this as they have the potential for a delicious burger.
Next up is the mac & cheese kroket. It's essentially a fried log of mac & cheese and it was delicious. It wasn't terribly filling, but it was my favorite item at Bamn!
The pizza dumplings weren't terribly pizza-like. There was some flavoring added, but it didn't remind me much of pizza. They should try baking these.
Next, we turned to some items off the menu. We went with cheeseburgers and fries. The cheeseburger, even fresh off the grill, was still too tough. The fries, fresh out of the hot oil, were fabulous. They have a ton of sauces to choose from at 75 cents each (the first one's free) and we went with the wasabi mayo, which was yummy but quite spicy.
Next up, the pork dumpling. After my many visits to Momofuku, I'll never be able to eat average pork again. This was fine, but if you're looking for a real pork bun go up the road to the Momofuku Ssam bar at 2nd ave. and 13th street.
I finished things off with Japanese donuts. While they were definitely sugary goodness, fluffy donuts and automats don't really mix. This is the kind of thing that is perfect right out of the oil.
All of the items ranged from $1 to $2, which makes the pill easier to swallow. Even if you don't love your food, you're only out a couple bucks. I have photos of pretty much everything not shown in this post in a flickr photo set.
In the end, I was a little disappointed. While I loved the concept, I think the allure of a 24-hour automat will wear off without great food. Hopefully they'll spend the next few weeks refining the recipes. In the meantime, I'll keep coming back for those mac & cheese krokets. Yum yum.
08/30/06 7:47 AM
Yeah. The mac-n-cheese krokets were the best thing there. I was so disappointed about the burgers. I hope they can get their schtick down.
My suggestion, apart from fixing the burgers, would be to add two items:
1. Kaassouffle. They had these at the FEBOs in Amsterdam. Essentially a little deep-fried, cheese-sauce-filled pocket. No mac in it. Just the good part: cheese. They're a little dangerous, though. Very hot. Mouth-scorching potential is high.
2. Crab rangoon. Usually not found outside Chinese food places in the Midwest. From Wikipedia: Crab rangoon "are deep-fried dumplings served in American Chinese restaurants, stuffed with a combination of cream cheese and imitation crab meat. They are made from Chinese wontons and deep fried."
08/30/06 9:23 AM
as you know i live only a few blocks away from bamn and have been curious about it ever since they shut down the new york grilled cheese company (r.i.p.) which was in that spot. thanks for the indepth look matty and adam, seems like you saved me a visit.
08/30/06 2:21 PM
I have a blogging style? :D PHOTOS EVERYWHERE, WEEEE!!!
Mac n cheese log sounds pretty good, but I guess I'd pass on the other stuff since you've sacrificed your stomach for the rest of us. Tough burgers are not cool!
08/30/06 6:56 PM
what are these things that i'm suddenly finding on this site? posts? no way.