Tag: american cheese

Maxwells, Covent Garden, London

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Great build, rubbery meat, inoffensive sauce

Burger source 

I remember (vaguely) having a really good, albeit random, night out with old university friends that started in a bar that was on the same site as Maxwell’s, ending in the nightclub that was Roadhouse on the far side of Covent Garden, about 20 years ago. Good times.

This time around, I was meeting with a former colleague who was based in the area and who – for some inexplicable reason – wanted both the experience of dining through a burger tasting with me, and to catch up at the same time. So we did both; he had a head-sized margarita and I talked him through my process. This one’s dedicated to you, Steve.

[I appreciate this section is normally occupied with some chicanery about the reasons I was drawn to this particular burger venue; their approach to farm-to-plate food, fine ingredients for fine dining, etc., but in all honesty, I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade, I’ve tried the burgers everywhere, and a lot of the new upstarts frustratingly have very little dine-in space and/or are in sites where people don’t want to meet up with me. At some point I’ll have reason to do a burger tour of Peckham but I don’t think 2025 is the year… and, well, many of the places I haven’t reviewed just don’t have as compelling a story].

But… so as not to betray consistency – they have 50 years of dining experience. And have mastered culinary whatsits. Etcetera.

More generously – the vibes and service in this place were fab. Lovely cocktail bar/diner hybrid, replete with Americana, neon lighting, generous portions and weirdly hybrid meals (a Philly Cheesesteak served in a ciabatta? Sacrilege). We had fab service, they played great music, and it was a good time all around. But let’s get into the food.

The order 

My wont is to order the closest thing they have to a paradigmatic bacon cheeseburger. However I was thrown into a flurry of indecision by the fact they had both the Maxwell’s classic (featuring a traditional burger patty) and the Big Max’s Smash burger (featuring a double smash patty), both of which had optional bacon. I did the only thing a sane person could do in the circumstances; I asked the waitress, who made clear that the sensible choice was the Big Max’s. So Big Max’s it was; all the way to the top, featuring two smash patties, American cheese, lettuce, diced onion and their “proper” Big Max’s sauce. Plus bacon, natch.

I also had a Hakuna Matata to drink; a mocktail featuring mango juice, lychee juice, Monin mango syrup, watermelon syrup and lime juice… they might as well have called it the Type 2 diabetes. More to follow.

The meat of it 

Let’s take a look.

On first inspection, stray onion notwithstanding, this is a fine looking plate of food. There’s a pleasant sheen on the toasted brioche bun, an excellent melt on the cheese, what seems to be a decent char on the patties… and you can see bright, fresh salad peeking out the sides. The fries look crisp and hot; and whilst the bacon appears somewhat flaccid, there’s nevertheless a lot to hope for.

In cross section, there’s good (airy, warm bun with good structural integrity, excellent melt on the cheese, confirmed fresh salad), bad (bacon is under-grilled for my liking, sauce is a little watery) and straight up weird (how did the centre of a smashburger stay pink? these things are meant to be smashed to a meat-lace on the grill and crisped to savoury, almost crunchy perfection). I’m wary.

First taste… the flavour balance is actually OK. The bun adds sweetness and structure that contrasts elegantly with the salty cheese, which in turn gives some decent, unguent umami to boost the bacon. The meat is good quality but slightly rubbery in texture and perhaps a little under-seasoned. There’s a nice crunch from the onions, adding my much sought after textural contrast. The sauce is watery but adds moisture and a light, inoffensive sweetness to counterbalance the savoury bite… it’s OK. More bites reaffirm that, somehow – despite its limitations – the burger is decent. I have notes, but it’s pleasant and I’d recommend it.

My notes:

  • More seasoning on the meat, bros. Flavour is your friend,
  • Thicken up and season that sauce a bit more; vinegar; some diced pickle, add some sharpness to balance the sweet too
  • Crisp that patty! Smash it harder!
  • Render the fat in the bacon. And switch to streaky. It’s not a salad.

Otherwise – pretty good! Would go again.

On the fries… they were excellent quality. They came a little under seasoned but that was easily remedied. And could perhaps have done with ever so slightly longer in the fryer.

The Hakuna Matata? Sugary delight. Order a side of insulin.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  5/5  
Build – 4/5 
Burger – 4/5 
Taste –  4/5  
Sides – 4/5 -bump for the onion fries   
Value – 4/5 – £18 for burger and fries, £7 for the cocktail, and – amazingly – a 25% discount voucher courtesy of Steve’s winning charm added value to the experience. But v reasonable for this part of London.  

Burger rating – 4/5 – good – but room to improve. 

The deets 

34 King Street, just round from Cov’t Garden tube. I really wish I remember what was there about 20 years ago… Can recommend. Details, booking etc – all here.

Supra Burger, Salusbury Road, Queen’s Park

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Saucy smashburger perfection

Burger source

I was meeting some friends in the area and they mentioned Supra Burger, a pop-up installation in the local high-end French style healthy rotisserie chicken restaurant. I could try to tell you more about how such a juxtaposition came to pass but I think it’s more joyous to let Supra tell you about themselves in their own words, because honestly – this is possibly my favourite ‘about’ content for any restaurant, company, charity or government – ever. Some selections:

Supra is a pop-up burger joint created in collaboration with Cocotte Queens Park, offering a unique dining experience that merges quality with community spirit.

We believe that quality is synonymous with honesty: we exclusively use fresh, superior grade products, sourced responsibly and locally.

We want you to discover a whole new world every time you visit Supra. We always strive for improvement, both as a team and in the products we offer. We persistently pursue superior goods, innovative sustainable materials, and uphold absolute transparency in all aspects of our operations. Our aspiration is for you to embark on a new journey with every visit to Supra..

Burgers act as a unifying link amongst us all. Each burger mirrors our community’s spirit, ensuring no one is left out.

That’s not a boilerplate; that’s bloody poetry. I love it so much; and I share the philosophy. Burgers ARE a unifying link amongst us all. And the friends we share them with? That smells like community spirit. Or maybe that’s the hot sauce, let’s see.

The order

I always try to get a bacon cheeseburger – or closest equivalent – when I order. This place, however, had an eponymous Supra Burger – exactly the same as their bacon cheeseburger but with additional pickle and supra sauce (alongside double smash patty, melted American cheese, and a toasted brioche). So I did the only sensible human thing: I asked them to add bacon to a Supra burger. It was served with french fries and we shared a portion of tenders.

Sauce seems to be a fairly central feature of the menu; so we had four (indulgent, but… when in Supra) – we ordered (off menu) the burnt chilli, as well as the ‘spicy’, the n’duja and the garlic mayo. More on all of the above shortly.

The meat of it

Let’s take a look.

This is immediately promising. Toasted brioche, crisp streaky bacon, healthy slices of pickle, brilliant char on the meat, fantastic melt on the cheese, tidy plating. Let’s continue.

In cross-section, the near perfection continues. The bottom bun is a little compressed, but it’s holding up. The top bun is light and airy with a good crumb. The burger meat is tender bur robust against the knife. The Supra sauce, a vibrant orange, spills out, promising… well, something.

First taste… you can actually taste a delightful char to the burger – it’s crisp on the outside, and tender on the inside. Just like Dime bars (let’s see if my audience gets this reference). The bacon is crisp as it promised; the cheese binds and adds savoury umph to every mouthful – but isn’t overwhelming. The sauce adds moisture, sweetness and an unctuous mouthfeel. The pickle adds bright freshness, sweet and sour sparkles around the edges of everything else. Meat, cheese, sauce, bacon, bread, pickle – all provide separate inputs into a glorious gestalt that honestly just tastes of joy. This is one of the best smash burgers I’ve ever had, and I would have it again RIGHT NOW if I wasn’t so full. It was a thrill. I had to search for any notes – and if I had to give one, it’s that I prefer a thinner sliced, fresher pickle – like those quick-brine ones you can do in the summer at home with cucumbers, in a sweet-salty base. But it wasn’t enough to deduct a point (spoilers).

On the sides…

The tenders were… a bit meh, tbh. Juicy, well fried, but lacking a little on the seasoning front and needed to be sauced for flavour. Which is just as well as we had plenty of sauces!

The fries were pretty much a paragon of a modern french fry – crisp, well seasoned (salt and pepper) and pairing well with the sauces.

On the sauce front – I didn’t get photos of them all – pictured is ‘burnt chilli’ (sweet with a edge that definitely tasted of chilli), a ‘spicy’ sauce that had a deeper red lustre to it and chunks of peppers – tasty, savoury, lightly spicy but more conventional. The garlic mayo was good – strong garlic flavour, more crème fraiche in texture than mayo. The n’duja sauce tasted a bit like the burnt chilli, but with chunks of n’duja in it – so not bad in any way, really. I’m not sure this was £10 worth of sauce, but we definitely enjoyed the variety. A must for the tenders, and a nice complement to the fries.

I had a mixed fruit juice to drink (sorry, again no pic, what was I thinking!) – tasted mostly of apple, but was very nice for all that it had carrot and orange in it too.

Monkey finger rating

Bun –  4.5/5 – not often you get both a soft give and a toasted crunch in one bite
Build – 5/5 – perfect construction
Burger – 5/5 – flawless
Taste –  5/5 – the parts were great and the whole was even greater
Sides – 4/5 – small deduction for lackluster tenders 

Value – 5/5 – £33 for burger, share of tenders, fries, drinks and service (which was super) felt very reasonable in this post-Covid, post-inflation era of eating out.

Burger rating – 5/5 – this is up there with the best of them.

The deets

You’ll find it in Cocotte, just across the road from the Salusbury pub, a few minutes walk North from Queen’s Park Station. It’s a joy. Go now. Tell your friends. And let this burger feed your community spirit. Mike and Leia – a joy to partake in this community moment with you.

The Gourmet Burger Club, The Strand, London

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Well put together halal (?) smashburger

Burger source 

I must admit, I’ve been curious as to how the Gourmet Burger Club has avoided intellectual property suits from whoever owns Gourmet Burger Kitchen today… but the concept – and the delivery – is very different. The London location is super central – right on the Strand – but it wasn’t born here, starting in Banstead… then Cobham before reaching London. The founder explains their origin story on the website and it’s rather charming:

” In 2020, when people had run out of spirit and were bound to their homes, I was sitting by my window thinking how I could help in restoring the spirit and bringing a smile on people’s faces during these dark times. So, I went into my kitchen and started to experiment with flavours and ingredients. This is where Gourmet Burger Club was born.”

It goes on a bit after that. But lovely nonetheless. Anyway: it was a convenient place to meet a friend who works nearby, and easy to get back to Waterloo after, and we thought we’d give it a go.

The restaurant is well appointed, clean, and a quiet pool of calm in the busy of the Strand. It is substantially upmarket from fast food, but at posh-diner vibes vs a full on restaurant. Still, no complaints – we booked, were greeted and seated quickly, and served in short order. On to the food…

The order 

I had the Lockdown 2.0, feat: a double smash patty, melted cheese, turkey bacon (hence my assuming it’s halal, because why else? I didn’t check for the Halal markings or ask unfortunate), fried onion, lettuce, mustard & BBQ Sauce. Side of curly fries (YES! Top of my fries hierarchy, don’t @ me), and 7-up Free to drink (delighted to find this on the menu, as someone that loves sweet drinks but doesn’t need sugar in his life).

The meat of it 

I like the presentation. Toasted buns, melty cheese, even distribution of bacon, salad in the right place in the burger… and the fries look well-seasoned and cooked, if the obligatory metal basket wasn’t as full as I would have hoped for. Let’s see if it holds up in cross section…

This is basically most of what I’m looking for in a double smash burger. The presentation is pretty much perfect – all toppings perfectly layered. The bun holds up to the greasiness of the burger (you can see a shimmer of it on the plate), whilst retaining the softness you’d want in each bite. The turkey bacon, controversially (?), sits between the patties. I’m not sure if this is genius or there’s a reason people don’t normally do this, but I appreciate the innovation nonetheless.

First bite… brilliant umami, excellent mouthfeel. The meat is uncomplicated – none of the dry-age funk you get with fancy meats – but the blend is excellent, the seasoning is on point, the melty cheese compliments beautifully. The extra flavour from the turkey bacon works well (though it’s not fooling anyone that knows the taste of actual bacon, it is a good substitute). Another bite and you get into the BBQ sauce – which is very well balanced and successfully tamps down the savouriness elsewhere, as do pockets of sweet fried onions, cut super fine and merging in with the BBQ sauce beautifully.

I search for notes and I find them – the BBQ sauce is a bit too meanly portioned, so the balance of the burger is slightly off – not enough sweet to edge off the salt. The onions should be more generously portioned too, to further help temper the savoury taste. I found myself dunking the burger in some ketchup on my plate to manage the balance. And I would perhaps have liked the burger fried in a little bit of mustard, to give it a bit more… bite, though that is just be the In & Out fan in me. But these are minor – on the whole, this is an excellent smashburger.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  4.5/5  – little to complain about!
Build – 4.5/5 – More sauce! Weird bacon positioning!
Burger – 4/5 – less salt! 
Taste –  4/5  – more sauce/onions
Sides – 4/5 – more fried! more fries!
Value – 4/5 – £18 for burger and side, ish.   

Burger rating – 4/5 – would have this again, or try one of the variants. My friend had the spicy club, which he found very good also! 

The deets 

Find all three locations of the Gourmet Burger Club here, or order via Deliveroo if you’re in range.

Mother Flipper, Seven Dials, Covent Garden

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Excellent meat, middling to good toppings

Burger source 

Mother Flipper is on so many best burger lists, for so many good reasons it was exciting to check it out. The Seven Dials website (where the street food burger has a permanent residency) describes it thusly:

Brace yourself for thick, juicy patties, handcrafted from a blend of 28-day aged cuts, grilled to perfection, and topped with flavours of your choice. Slap that patty on a decadent brioche bun, then stack it high with lettuce, pickles, and onions. In the kingdom of London burgers, many declare that Mother Flipper wear the crown.

Let’s GO.

The order 

I had the ‘Candied Bacon Flipper’, feat their aged beef patty, candy bacon, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, red onion, pickle and american cheese. We shared a fries, at £4.95 for a health portion, as well as a ranch and spicy mayo sauce pot for dunkin’.

#YOLO?

I’m too old to know if I used that right. Tell me in the comments.

The meat of it 

Right, it’s decent presentation. Pretty stack, lovely glossy brioche, crisp looking fries, generous sauce pots… It’s on.

Time for a cross section:

It was quite dark in the (very busy) seven dials, so flash was required… but wow, look what it showed. Brilliant, coarse ground beef, cooked medium. Perfect melt on the cheese. The candied bacon (check out their Insta/Facebook pages to see how they make it, drizzling it in syrup and leaving it to caramelise) generously portioned on top. The salad looks a little on the anaemic side, other than some healthy chunks of red onion, but it’s a lesser fault.

First taste.

The bun is cold. I don’t know why this offends me so much, and to be fair this might be down to the fact that – due to the crazy-busy-ness of Seven Dials market of a Tuesday evening (who ARE all these people?), we were sat about 150 yards from Mother Flipper when our buzzer went off indicating food readiness – so my plodding schlep there and back might have cooled it down, but nonetheless. It was disappointing. But – crazy amounts of flavour, alongside the back-of-your nose, back of your throat hit from the dry-aged beef. The meat is delicious, heavily seasoned, well coated in the melty cheese, and well supported by the (intemperate) bun.

Second bite, and third, and the candied bacon and brioche, alongside the (meagre) ketchup portion provide a counterpoint to the salt bomb that this burger is, but not quite enough of one – chef went just a tad heavy with the salt shaker. The pickles and sauce are decent but could be more generously portioned – and I’d have liked more salad and onion too, just to balance the ratio of sweet, fresh, crisp, vs unguent, savoury umami. Just a tad off balance as it was made onight.

As to the fries… and the SAUCE.

These are lightly seasoned (would have liked some salt on the side to top them up, ironically), crisp, fresh fries. They had a good potato flavour and were brilliant dunked in the lightly spiced mayo (think mayo + a glug of sriracha) and the creamy ranch. The ranch was good but… needed fried chicken, really, it wasn’t the best compliment to the fries on its own.

Overall, a really good experience. Imperfect, but just a few minor notes and this could have been close to [chef’s kiss].

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  4/5  – did I mention it was cold?
Build – 5/5 – more salad. More sauce!
Burger – 4/5 – less salt! 
Taste –  4/5  
Sides – 4/5 – more salt!   
Value – 4/5 – £17 for burger and side, ish. Which is about the going rate.  

Burger rating – 4/5 – would definitely be keen to go again. 

The deets 

Find Mother Flipper at Seven Dials near Covent Garden, or in Brockley. More details here.

Bunsen’s, Botanic Avenue, Belfast

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All the good things, none of the bad

Burger source 

I’m in Belfast with some fabulous colleagues, to see some other fabulous colleagues, and so I do the only thing humanly possible to do when you come off a horrifically crowded flight – Google burger restaurants near your hotel so you can catch an early supper and some zzzs before a busy day ahead. Bunsen’s scored well in a variety of reviews, and the concierge at the hotel immediately confirmed that it was “class.” Checking out the website, everything about the method and ideology behind the burger concept is a thing of beauty – minimal complexity, maximum quality, thoughtfulness behind each element, from the choice of bun through to the choice of pickle and beyond.

The order 

The menu is reminiscent of In & Out, the options are so limited – and that is, as it is at In & Out, an absolute virtue. Beefburger, cheeseburger, add bacon, mess with the toppings (if you dare), double up, and have your choice of shoestring, hand cut or sweet potato fries. It’s printed beautifully on a business card, and I’m told that a local has been collecting the cards and using Bunsen’s price rises as a mechanism for tracking inflation, which puts a rather bougie spin on the Big Mac Index. Think about that, The Economist! Here it is, in all it’s elegant graphic design glory. Passes any vibe check.

I went for the cheese & bacon burger (single) with all their recommend toppings (bottomings) and the shoestring (read: slightly skinny) French fries, with a Sprite Zero on the side – but they had a great selection of wines and beers on offer too. As the meat’s ground on site, you get asked how you’d like it done – medium, natch.

The meat of it 

Let’s have a look.

To take each picture in turn. It’s a simple, no-nonsense plating – the wax wrapper promises an oozy cheese and it doesn’t disappoint, as you can see as the soft bun and 5-6oz patty fold out of it. It looks soft, it looks inviting. The cross section (we asked for a knife) shows off the pink centre, the generous, crisp bacon portion, the cheese melt, and the merging of the salad with the ketchup/mayo/mustard combo that is their “punch that brings flavour to the table.”

First bite… and it is absolutely ON. This is a proper LFG moment, you want to hit the table and say ‘go on my son,’ it’s so good (and I never do either of those things). The patty is perfectly seasoned, crunch through the sear and a soft, juicy centre. The American cheese provides unguent, umami flavour with every bite, accentuated by the occasional crunch of crispy, streaky bacon, generously portioned and evenly distributed. The sauce does (as promised on the website) add punch, reminding me once more of In & Out, this time its trademark, mustard heavy Animal Style – mustard adding a gentle warmth, ketchup adding sweetness, mayo adding moisture. The bun is a paragon – soft yet – just – sturdy enough to hold up to the juices emanating from the luscious beef. The website says they have perfected their own blend of meats (this is 75% lean / 25% fat I suspect, not very demure – in fact wildly luxuriant), and the occasional bite of the crisp, sweet Jewish deli pickles adds sparkle to what is already an absolute diva of a burger.

One of the best I’ve had in a long time. Belfast, you legend.

The fries – well seasoned, crisp, hot, fresh — these have potato flavour despite being shoestring cut, and dunk well in ketchup or mayo. Reassuringly, the condiments are provided in bottles (none of those tiny artsy pots nonsense). The portion is ludicrously generous; think Five Guys level of excess fries.

Service was outstanding; we got the backstory of the restaurant (brothers wanting to create quality burger dining in Ireland), a sense of the economics of it (apparently their busier site in Belfast does a few million a year, excellent and brisk trade), the food philosophy (simple, quality, fresh food, well crafted), and a real sense of passion. Thanks Alan, you upgraded an already amazing dining experience with your quality chat and we appreciate you. And you’re right, Allen is clearly a last name.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  5/5
Build – 5/5 – bun, sauce, salads, burger, cheese, bacon, pickles IIRC. Nowt to fault.
Burger – 5/5
Taste –  5/5  
Sides – 5/5 – perfect, uncomplicated fries
Value – 5/5 – £19 a head for burger, fries and drink each, and one of us had a double and another had a milkshake, represents pretty good value by modern standards .  

Burger rating – 5/5 – regular readers know I can normally find a single note to give even the best burgers I eat. I had nothing for this. I’d like it exactly the same next time. Maybe Alan saw that in me and that’s why he said ‘see youse tomorrow,’ as we left. I’m really tempted. 

The deets 

If you’re visiting Ireland, North or South, make a trip to Bunsen’s. It’s just great. Find your nearest here.

Grind, Broadgate Circle, Liverpool Street

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A posh McD’s double cheeseburger

Burger source 

I’ve popped into the Grind in both London Bridge and Liverpool Street a couple of times now; they are both vibey places with great drinks, good service and what looked like good food. When I met with a former colleague there to catch up on life and work and beyond, it seemed like a shame to not see if the burger lived up to the other positive attributes of the venue.

The order 

The Grind cheeseburger is served with dijonnaise, crispy shallots, pickle and skin-on fries. Let’s check it out.

The meat of it 

To the picture, maestro!

Two simultaneous first thoughts 1/ decent presentation and 2/ did they overtoast the bun? Followed by my admiration of the cheese melt, a bubbly feeling of pleasant surprise that the burger featured a double smash patty, and the glimpses of fresh pickle around the edges. Let’s see the cross section now.

Well, it’s well built – the lower bun holds up, the melt carries all the way through, the dijonaisse is evident but not overwhelming, the pickle and cheese are well dsitributed… but the bun is definitely over-toasted. It cuts with a crunch and looks dry, and also slightly crushed on service – the bun isn’t soft enough to spring back to shape after handling. The patties also look somewhat overdone, though it is hard to tell with smash patties. Let’s see.

First taste… there’s a healthy crust on the patties, but the meat isn’t too chewy – it gives way under just the right amount of pressure, filling your mouth with a rich, savoury explosion. It’s maybe just a smidge overdone. However, it’s well seasoned and the American cheese is very reminiscent of the McDonald’s varietals, in a good way – melty, savoury, binding the flavours together. The bread has a bit of crunch and chew – it is dried out from its run-in with the toaster and slightly disappointing. Second bite, and I found the djonnaise; it brings a little texture but no heat, with a light, creamy underside providing additional umami. The pickles struggled to cut through against the salt of cheese, beef and dijonnaise, but they did bring a light, bright crisp sweetness if you were looking for it – though definite room for improvement here too. A few more bites and I’m dipping it in ketchup – something is needed to cut through the salt explosion. The balance is just slightly off – salt, salt, salt, salt and crunch – and that’s your burger.

The fries – are exceptional. Skin on, medium cut but crispy, filled with soft, fluffy potato, perfectly crispy and well paired with the pots of mayo and ketchup. Not much else to report.

All in, with a couple of drinks, it came to about £27 including service a head. Pretty reasonable for the location (right behind Liverpool Street station) and the quality, given what inflation seems to have done to burgers in the main.

On the whole, I recommend this – I’d probably add ketchup and mayonnaise into the burger myself next time, to balance the salt, and ask them to just toast the bun on one side to soften the bun.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  2.5/5
Build – 4/5 
Burger – 4/5 
Taste –  3.5/5  
Sides – 5/5 – close to perfect   
Value – 4/5 – £17 for burger and side, which is apparently decent now.  

Burger rating – 3.5/5 – less burnt bun, better managed sweet/salty contrast, improved cook on the beef, and higher quality, sweeter, fresher pickles would earn this the remaining points.

The deets 

There are a few Grinds around, in the city and in the E/SE of London. Find your nearest here.

Red Dog Saloon, Berwick St, Soho

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Hefty, chewy, tasty burger option

Burger source 

Red Dog Saloon purports to be all about ‘Austin, Tx’ BBQ, but the menu features Buffalo Wings (Buffalo, New York), Philadelphia Cheesesteak (famously from Philadelphia), Po Boys (Louisiana), Nashville Hot Wings (guess?), St Louis Pork Rib (at a loss as to where this one is from)… so, well… maybe all the food that’s from elsewhere in the USA is terrible? Regardless, I went for a burger, of which there are a grotesque multitude, with toppings as varied as fried egg, cheese whiz, habanero peppers, mozzarella sticks and onion rings. All the burgers come in multiples of 5oz patties, going single, double, XL (presumably a triple?) and double XL (perhaps a quad, or 20oz of beef).

I’m a fan of simpler choices, here…

The order 

…so went for the standard cheeseburger, featuring fresh cut onion, American cheese, homemade dill pickle, baby gem, and their eponymous red dog sauce. I added bacon, because, as the young people in 2010 said, YOLO.

We shared a side of fries (it was lunchtime, after all).

The meat of it 

Let’s take a look.

I almost immediately regretted going for a double, as their singles would have been plenty. But it is a beautiful stack, resplendent with melty cheese, well charred patties, a glistening brioche and a healthy dose of fresh bright lettuce.

In cross section…

The heft of this burger is obscene. The meat is cooked well done, which is a shame, but on the plus side, it is coarse ground and loose packed. The bacon is thick cut and generously portioned, the red dog sauce is in evidence but not overwhelming, and there’s the occasional hint of pickle camouflaged in the lettuce.

First taste… you are slammed with flavour; the red dog sauces reminded me of In & Out’s animal style toppings, adding moisture, light spice and smoothing out the salty tang of melty cheese, well seasoned beef and chewy, moreish bacon. The patty is tough – overcooked and chewy – but good quality meat, albeit uncomplicated. None of the pungency of dry-aging, no 11 herbs and spices – simple, well seasoned, yum. The salad was a crisp and necessarily bland compliment, helping balance the umami, and the pickles – well, I could have done with more pickles given the quantity of meat. Again, my mistake for not just getting a single. Not bad at all, in all.

The fries…

Despite their pale-ness, these were crisp and well seasoned, with a good fluffy exterior. Solid, but unexceptional, and a pleasant complement. I’m glad we shared these as the burger was just mahoosive (I believe that’s the technical term) and these could probably have been left as surplus to requirements had we not been feeling greedy.

Soft drinks as sides (this was a lunch meet, after all), so nothing exciting to report there.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  4.5/5  
Build – 4/5 
Burger – 3.5/5 
Taste –  3.5/5  
Sides – 4/5 – solid   
Value – 4/5 – £26 for double burger, shared fries and soft drink each in Soho, £52 in total. Not outrageous  

Burger rating – 4/5 – whilst individual components left bits to be desired, the whole was enjoyable. Would go again, order a single, ask them to be more generous with the pickles, and attempt to order it medium… 

The deets 

There’s a few around. Find a convenient one at the Red Dog Saloon website. 

Fallow, Haymarket, London

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Tasty but flawed – and expensive

Burger source 

Fallow‘s conceit is that is a place where “culinary creativity meets hospitality experience and passion.” That’s certainly how the menu is constructed, with inspired combinations of food and flavour on practically every plate, and the service was pretty excellent. Meat is a key attribute if not a defining feature of the menu, and the two “dairy cow” meat burgers on offer (one with rarebit cheese and shortrib, one with bacon, cheese & shallot alone)  stared temptingly at me. Why dairy cow meat? I didn’t ask, and the internet is awash with confusing answers. Some say a milder, less pronounced flavour, others say its inferior, others say there are some breeds where it tastes better. This one? Wait and see.

The order 

We shared (dairy) beef short rib to start (£13 buys you two), and then all had the dairy cow burger (feat, aged dairy cow, bacon, shallot, cheese, brioche bun, £19), and Koffman fries (£7). As you can see, the prices are not for the faint hearted.

The meat of it 

Let’s take a look.

Well, it’s rather fetching. The brioche bun seems to have crisped off the baking sheet, the lettuce looks fresh and inviting, the cheese (American?) seems to have the most glorious melt and ‘fallow’ is branded into the top bun.

In cross section…

Some good, some concerning things become apparent. First – the meat – coarse ground, tender to the point of melting at room temperature, pink with what seems to be a good crust. The cheese melt maintains confidence; the bacon doesn’t seem enormously evident and the shallots… are confusing.

Let’s peek under the bun.

I normally wouldn’t bother with this view but when eating the first half of the burger, I couldn’t taste any bacon. And this explains it – a small rectangle of bacon is all that’s in evidence here, and you can see the uneven distribution of the shallots too. Minus points for assembly and toppings, I think.

As to taste – this is, after all, the important thing…. the first bite is luxuriantly tender, the culinary equivalent of a goose down pillow, giving way to the lightest pressure with the barest of resistance. The cheese – definitely some variant of processed American – provides unguent umami, flavour and binding texture all in one. The bun provides starchy counterbalance but the bottom half is sodden and imploding in the juices from this very fatty patty. It’s not bad, but a second bite (with less cheese and no bacon) draws attention to the slight underseasoning and the lack of a crunch in the crust. Perhaps a feature of the dairy cow meat, there’s no textural contrast in the burger – it’s all soft – and the flavour, despite the dry ageing, is mild – without the funk you might expect from dry-aged cattle that’s been reared for its meat. The crunch, unexpectedly, comes from the shallots, which seem mildly pickled and provide a sour-sweetness and light crunch – not unpleasant, but I’d have preferred a more traditional gherkin/burger pickle, ideally something “home made” in a sweet brine. And when I eventually find the bacon – it’s a good compliment, a mild bacon that pairs well with the extremely salty cheese. The whole is well balanced – a good thing given the absence of any burger sauce, relish or other sauce I could detect, this could easily have tipped over into dead-sea levels of oversalted. But the bacon lacks any crunch – either sodden by the pickles and burger juices, or just too thick cut to crunch like American streaky bacon can (at its – debatable I’m sure – best).

It’s good, in all. Not great, and unsure if it is worth £19 plus 15% service (yep).

As to the sides/starters…

The glazed dairy cow baby back ribs look sumptuous, and just as well at £6.50 a rib. It’s hard to know what to expect but the tender, melt-off the bone meat speaks to a perfected cooking process. The flavour is all salt – its like it’s been marinaded then stewed in marmite; the flavour is not subtle at all. A single rib was plenty to start – any more and you might have had to ask for BBQ sauce…

Google tells me that the ‘Koffman’ in ‘Koffman fries’ refers to the potatoes used for chipping, and I wish I’d spent more time considering the potato texture and flavour now because honestly you’re kind of blown away by the seasoning. A mix of smoked paprika, salt, and maybe garlic or onion powder – I’m guessing from memory – these fries are crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, and more generously portioned than it might looks. The savoury blast is immense, which seems a running theme of this menu, and I was glad of ketchup and mayo dunking pots to take the edge off. Good, all told.

To drink, I had the somewhat confounding rhubarb and custard spritz (£15) – feat No.3 gin, rhubarb, yogurt and vanilla. You’d be forgiven for expecting something at least somewhat creamy, but no, it was this (right):

The ping tinged drink is served short, in a glass flecked with rhubarb powder, which is irritating and keeps needing to be wiped off sticky fingers. It has a sweet/sour flavour that’s entirely pleasant, and a light carbonation that lifts the drink and establishes its place in a Summer drinks pantheon. It’s refreshing and light and very tasty. A couple of my friends had the frozen margarita – £14, served from a slushy machine – which was apparently very good also.

All told – a very pleasant experience of a Summer’s evening on the edge of Theatreland. It was definitely expensive – £60 a head all told – but I think if you’re less of a philistine than we are and after some of the more creative cuisine on offer, then it might have been a better all round experience. The hard sought reservation for burgers? Probably overkill. Though a couple of my friends ranked it amongst the best we’ve had on one of these evening excursions… I’m left feeling nostalgic for the Lord Wargrave pub.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  4/5  – soggy bottom
Build – 2.5/5 – uneven toppings, meagre bacon, middling shallots
Burger – 4/5 – slightly underseasoned, undercrusted
Taste –  4/5  – the whole was better than the sum of its parts
Sides – 4.5/5 – Herr Koffman, I salute you
Value – 3/5 – maybe not great value for burgers. 

Burger rating – 4/5 – it was good, but I’m honestly not in a hurry to have it again 

The deets 

Find it a little more than halfway down Haymarket towards the Mall; pop into the Haymarket Hotel bar for a digestif as we did and it’s a lovely way to spend a summer evening with friends. But I’d probably have something other than the burger, despite its positive attributes.

Hidden Langkawi, Pantai Tengah, Langkawi

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Savoury pepper-bomb, not for the faint of heart

Burger source 

I didn’t intend to have three burgers in a row, but I got slightly egged into it by the cousins I was holidaying with and it did, indeed, look awesome when I saw it on someone else’s plate so… 

The order 

Well, I did decide to embrace some variety so – alongside the burger, which was:

I mean who can argue with any of that, really? The eponymous beef burger featured double 3.5oz patties, crispy turkey ham, American cheese, cheese sauce and skin-on fries.

I split the burger with my cousin-in-law… and we also had…

That’s right, no less than the house favourite, the snowy popcorn chicken pizza, replete with pizza sauce, mozzarella, garlic, cabbage, popcorn chicken and spicy sauce. Not going to review this in any detail, but I’ll give you a sense of it, I promise.

The meat of it 

The fries look astounding. The burger, unnecessarily staked with a serrated steak knife, has a coating of the cheese sauce, the melty slice of American cheese protecting the salad, in turn protecting the lower bun. The turkey ham, controversially, sits between the patties. The layering is comically random, but… Let’s see the cross section.

The burger is well done – not in a good way. Some significant resistance to cutting through it. The bun is soft but holds its structural integrity.

First bite… brilliant , good seasoning on the patty, a wall of umami from the cheese/burger sauce… initial thought is YES, this is good. This is rapidly followed by a WALL of black pepper, which I think probably made up 5% of the mass of the burger. Ludicrously peppery – so much so that the kids (who had ordered a ‘plain’ version of the burger, because, y’know, kids) couldn’t eat it. Pepper notwithstanding, the burger was too well done, the sweet of the salad wasn’t sufficient for the savoury kick in the head, the balance of the whole thing was off. The initial positive reaction to the umami, to the texture, fell apart a bit on persistent eating and I’m really glad I only had half a burger to get through. The turkey ham – wasn’t crisp. But added even more salt.

The strongest redeeming feature? The superb skin on fries. Crisp on the outside, squidgy in the middle, perfectly seasoned – just a joy. Wonderful dipped in the (slightly sweet) local mayo or the ketchup.

pizza

This was such a shame. The concept is STRONG – crispy, spicy popcorn chicken bites, with a hint of sweetness. Crunchy – but not chewy – cabbage worked surprisingly well as a compliment. But a hopelessly soggy base, a massively overgenerous helping of mozzarella, left to something of a mess. Half the pizza went uneaten (though we did polish off all the popcorn chicken).

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  3/5  
Build – 2/5 
Burger – 25/5 
Taste –  2.5/5  
Sides – 4/5 – really excellent fries   
Value – 4/5 – RM38 is reasonable, in the area and in general for this amount of food.  

Burger rating – 2.5/5 – the pepper means I cannot recommend this. They need to rebalance the seasoning, modify the cook so it’s not so crunchy, and think about pickles or a sweeter burger sauce to event it all out. 

The deets 

Just up the beach from the Parkroyal on Pantai Tengah, the sunsets at this restaraunt really are the main event. Absolutely beautiful.

sunset at pantai tengah

Manna, Arcade Tottenham Court Road, London

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Small but perfectly formed halal burger

Burger source 

Trying to find somewhere convenient, available and new to review for this blog isn’t trivial. But Manna reviewed well elsewhere and sounded delightful, bringing inspiration from “diner culture and regional fast food joints in the States.” The website promises that: “every dish on the menu is designed to be the best and most luscious verision of itself.”

Well, let’s see.

The order 

I had the smash burger – smashed patty, American cheese, mustard, ketchup, mayo, pickles, diced onions. Simple – but hard to fault. I then proceeded to get confused about the menu and tried the shawarma fries that were not from Manna but from Shatta and Toum, another resident restaurant in Arcade, so I won’t review that here – I did try one of my dining companion’s waffle fries, which are a Manna creation so I’ll talk to those instead.

The meat of it 

Let’s look again at the burger.

Scale is hard to gauge here, but it is small. Really small. Palm of my hand small. But you can see promising signs – the hard sear you hope for in a patty smash. A delightful melt on the cheese. A soft shine on the bun, the glisten of the grease escaping onto the wrapper, and small rivulets of the mustard/ketchup/mayo sauce, seeking a path to freedom.

In cross section, you see some good and some bad things. The bun is so soft, it’s compressed to be wafer thin. The patty is coarse ground and delightfully pink. The cheese is oozing. There’s a good spread of pickle in there, and the onion and sauces. It’s promising. The main bad thing, other than the compressed bun… once again, it’s small. There’s no heft, its displacement is low.

First taste… the crunch of the hard sear, the healthy seasoning, the soft, sweet bun gives way. Delightful, unctuous, salty, gooey beefiness comes in each mouthful. The bun – holds integrity, despite its compression, and in relative to the sliver-like patty – well, it is actually well proportioned. The bright, fresh pickle and crisp onion adds brightness and further sweet crunch. The swirl of mayo, mustard and ketchup essentially puts an In-and-Out-reminiscent ‘animal style’ onto your taste buds. The combination is near perfect. I’m left wanting more.

After a £10 tiny burger, a £5 portion of waffle fries delivers everything you want waffle fries to deliver. Well seasoned, crisp on the outside, soft, hot and fresh interior. So much surface area holds so much flavour and crunch, with pliant, well cooked potato on the inside. Full points.

To drink – I had a mojito. Not always my drink of choice but they used Santiago de Cuba run – a favourite – and it was properly reminiscent of a trip to Cuba in the early 2000s with my friends, drinking the herba-bueno garnished local Cuban mojitos – though at £11.50, substantially more expensive than the $2 cocktails in Havana.

Monkey finger rating  

Bun –  4/5  
Build – 5/5 
Burger – 4.5/5 – docking half a point for it being too small 
Taste –  5/5  
Sides – 4.5/5 – value punishment, £5 for waffle fries was a lot, despite their wondrousness   
Value – 4/5 – £15 for burger and side, ish.  

Burger rating – 4.5/5 – highly recommended. 

The deets 

There’s a couple of Arcades – one just outside Tottenham Court Road tube, on New Oxford St, the other in Battersea. More info at the website, here.