This one they actually call a burger.
Dressed with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and feta, the Sarajevo burger ($8.50) is distinct from the pljeskavica (Place-kah-Veet-suh), also served here and nicknamed the Bosnian burger at many other Balkan joints. A side-by-side taste-off would have required a second plate: Compared with a burger, the pljeskavica is famously "longer, lower, wider," like the new season's models from Detroit, many seasons ago. The mildly seasoned pljeskavica patty is typically a blend of beef and lamb, which I believe was the case with my burger, too.
As for the bread, what the waitress originally described as a pita proved thicker, denser, and chewier than most pitas of my acquaintance. Afterward I mentioned the name "somun"; she said that this was simply the Bosnian word for "pita." They're the same, she maintained, though she did add the familiar plaint that the bread here, in New York, is not the same as back home.
Old Bridge (a.k.a. Stari Most, its Bosnian name)
28-51 42nd St. (28th-30th Aves.), Astoria, Queens
718-932-7683
www.OldBridgeNY.com
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