Rock solid burger; curious fries

Burger source 

Well done, Flip & Sear. Known for its Wagyu (we didn’t stretch to it), it’s a highly rated burger spot founded by North London cousins Abu and Munib. And the idea of cousin-brothers working together on a project like this immediately made me fond of it. As with so many burger entrepreneurs (burgpreneurs? Entrepreburgs?), their focus is high quality ingredients, but they’ve made some interesting choices – including the Wagyu – that make the end result special.

The order 

A classic cheeseburger (5oz NZ Grass-Fed Beef Patty, American Cheese, Sliced Red Onion & Flip Sauce in a Toasted Brioche Bun), with regular fries, house ‘flip’ sauce and a Vimto Zero, because I LOVED the 80s but 2020s me doesn’t need extra refined sugar. For Muslim readers, they’re all halal, so there’s a bonus if you need it.

The meat of it 

Well, it doesn’t look bad! That demi-brioche bun looks soft and inviting. True to its name, the burger looked both flipped and seared – with a fabulous crust. There’s a good melt on the cheese, and the gherkin infused flip sauce + red onion makes it a tidy and not too messy combination. Fries look decent, pot of flip sauce is generous.

No cutlery, so first bite gives us the cross-section.

It’s a tidy stack. The demi brioche bun is warm and adds starch without overpowering sweetness. Thin sliced red onions give crunch but are easy to eat and add a gentle, sweet flavour. The crust is perfectly seasoned and gives way with a delightful bite to a soft, tender centre; with the coarse ground, loosely packed meat melting in your mouth beautifully. That said – whilst the meat is tasty, well ground, well seasoned and well cooked – it is unremarkable – lacking the delightful funk of the dry-aged cuts, or the fatty richness that the Wagyu might have had. It was just solid.

The pickley, Big-Mac-reminiscent ‘flip’ sauce adds sweet sour pockets of bright freshness and helped bind the burger; the cheese adds savoury unguence that melts [sic] into the melange of flavours that make this burger more than the sum of its parts. It’s really very, very good.

As to the fries? They don’t get a close up as whilst they were sort of fine – they were 1/ reasonably generic freezer-style skinny chips 2/ slightly greasy and stale and 3/ somewhat underdone. But I think I got unlucky – the two friends I was with had better portions which were crisp and tasty. And even slightly stale – they were very moreish; well seasoned and delicious dunked in that pot of sweet, savoury, sour and crunchy flip sauce. Yum.

It’s a delicious overall experience, despite this, in the food-courty vibe the Edgware Road branch has. Recommend!

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  5/5  
Build – 5/5
Burger – 4/5 
Taste –  4.5/5  
Sides – 3/5 – pretty average fries, but props for the sauce
Value – 4.5/5 – £16 for burger and fries and drink, ish.  

Burger rating – 4/5 – very solid. Can and do recommend!

The deets 

It’s a short stroll from either Edgware Road tube station. And very close to that favourite pub of mine, the Lord Wargrave, which is always good for a nightcap.