The Great Hunt for Mac and Cheese

If I had to eat mac and cheese for every dinner for the rest of my life, I’d be perfectly okay with that. Homemade, Kraft, generic brand, baked, or from a restaurant I love every kind. Who really makes the best mac and cheese though?! At least in New York that is… I’m on a mission to find out. For this post, the contenders are as follows:

Southern Hospitality: I’ve eaten there a number of times, but this was a first for their mac and cheese. Their mac and cheese was classic with elbow pasta, and a four cheese blend that defines creamy. I was a little surprised that there weren’t bread crumbs on top, being that it was a southern restaurant, but the cheese blend was delicious.

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese: Aw, I was really excited to try this place out! I saw it through a post on my digital reader and when I saw “world’s best mac and cheese” you know my eyes were caught. Once I looked the restaurant up online some more cool details emerged. Turns out, Beecher’s actually originates out of yours truly, Washington! Pike Place Market to be exact! How cool right? They just opened their New York location this summer and their only other location is back in Seattle. I ended up getting a grilled cheese, with a cup of their mac and cheese and some Boyland root beer.

What is really cool about Beecher’s is that they make their own cheese in the shop! You can even watch them prepare the cheese through the glass windows. They actually have a sit-down restaurant downstairs, but we just stopped by the cafe. Their cheese in the grilled cheese and mac and cheese was to die for! I’m a huge fan of Oregon’s Tillamook cheese, and Beecher’s gave me a taste of the west coast. The mac and cheese had penne noodles and tasted like perfectly fresh ground cheese. I still have a lot more mac and cheese to try before I say they are Anna’s world best mac and cheese, but it was definitely wonderful, and their grilled cheese was one of the best I’ve had.

MacBar: We stumbled upon this place by accident in Soho, but with a name like MacBar you knowwwww I couldn’t just walk right past. The restaurant is tiny, and resembles a cheese block with a yellow interior. It was the perfect stop-and-go place to drop in and grab some mac to go. We tried the cheeseburger mac and cheese.

My motto with mac and cheese really is, “the cheesier, the better” and Macbar did this really well. My favorite mac and cheeses are the ones with an extra layer of cheese melted on the top and Macbar had my mouth singing songs with their cheese! They had some pretty unique flavors on their menu too that I’m definitely going to have to go back and try.

So who has the best mac and cheese in New York? Well, I’m still deciding that.. but MacBar may have stole my heart for now…