hampstead – Burger Source

Overcooked, overbunned, underwhelming

Burger source

Gaucho has a history of serving some of the best Argentine steak in London. Craft, quality ingredients and an upscale experience have long been its stock in trade. Three decades on, is it still going strong? Let’s see whether its delivered burger lives up to my memory of the steak.

The order

Gaucho burger: featuring what is presumably an Argentine beef patty, smoked ketchup, melted cheese, chimichurri, and a portion of skin-on chips.

The meat of it

On first look, I’m hopeful. The perfect melt on the pale cheese (cheddar, I think), the thin-sliced home made pickles, the strong char, the shiny bun, the crisp, well-seasoned looking fries. Let’s look in cross-section.

In cross-section, appearances initially seem promising: a robust bun, a coarse grind to the beef, good layering of veg, pickled onions and lettuce, smoked ketchup, and some mayo or aioli that hasn’t escaped from the burger. The pale cheese is evenly distributed. But something’s not right. The meat isn’t grey, but it isn’t pink either. There’s little grease. It feels dense as I cut through it. How does it hold up to taste?

First bite… there’s a heavy crust to the beef, but it’s too lightly seasoned. There’s a dense chew to the bun, and there’s too much of it. The pickles are bland; none of the bright, sweet crispness I associate with homemade, thin-sliced pickley goodness. The coarse-ground meat has a hint of dry-aged funk about it but is literally dry, needing the aioli to balance it out. The ketchup is on the cloyingly sweet side, while the cheese is so subtle as to be practically invisible, lacking the molten goo of cheaper American cheese. The overall mouthfeel is brittle and arid. Beef breaks off in chunks and crumbles rather than melting away; the cheese adds little, while the veg falls away in clumps, adding crunch but no flavour, brightness or contrast. The char is more reminiscent of an overcooked barbecue burger than a quality sear from an expensive griddle plate. If there was chimichurri in this, it was beyond my palate to detect it.

It’s disappointing. Quality ingredients have been wasted through poor cooking technique, middling seasoning and weak flavour combinations. The team behind this should spend time at Five Guys or another specialist burger outfit to understand that great burgers rely on the components working together, melding into something greater than the sum of their parts. This isn’t that. It’s less.

The fries are a mixed bag. Literally. A generous portion of attractive-looking fries turns out to be an inconsistent mix of undercooked and underseasoned chips. When they’re good, they’re actually quite decent: crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside, seasoned just enough, and pairing well with a dunk in ketchup and mayo. But too many are chewy, suggesting they weren’t par-cooked or fried for long enough. Empty calories and, unusually for me, left unfinished.

Monkey finger rating

Bun – 3/5 – too chewy
Build – 4/5
Burger – 2/5
Taste – 2/5
Sides – 3/5 -bump for the onion fries
Value – 3/5 – £18 incl. delivery, service charge etc., and a 20% Deliveroo discount.

Burger rating – 2/5 – would not go again.

The deets

There are Gauchos all over. Go there for the steak and maybe don’t bother with delivery. This was disappointing.

A messy delight

Burger source

The Everyman Cinema is a chain of privately owned upmarket cinemas that seems to have recognised that with streaming – cinemagoing needed to transform from transactional to experiential. Amazing, plush surroundings, brilliant staff, an attached restaurant in Spielburger, a good cocktail selection and more help justify the hefty ticket prices, table service (in the cinema, too!) and more. Going with my brother – both a fellow cinephile and a professional writer and producer – on one of his trips to the UK, made it a special treat.

The film? Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga. The burger? Wait and see.

The order

Eating with my brother is always a sharing experience. So we shared the 1216 – Spielburger’s messiest burger (we were offered – and accepted – it cooked medium), featuring dry-aged beef, cured bacon, harissa mayo, potato scraps (!) and red leicester cheese, served with fries. We also got some sides – mini chorizo, garlic dough balls and buttermilk fried chicken. To drink, I had a pretty in pink.

The meat of it

Let’s have a look.

It’s good presentation – gratuitous knife through the centre notwithstanding. glossy bun, melty cheese, scraps of potato everywhere… bacon luxuriating beyond the perimeter of the bun, and hints of freshness from the salad and pickle eking their way out.

In cross section…

The lighting, as it so often is for the express purpose of burger photography, was underwhelming. But you can still see – the bun, with its light crumb and glossy sheen, is holding up to a heft of a patty – at least 6oz, perhaps more. The meat is coarse ground, loosely packed, and was cooked medium. The harissa mayo is generous and leaking out, but there’s not too much grease; structural integrity is maintained.

First bite… the patty is slightly underseasoned, but very tender, and very tasty. The dry-aged funk comes through from the meat; the cheese lends an unguent, gooey bind, and the harissa mayo adds an ever-so-gentle heat. If the potato scraps were meant to add crunch, they didn’t; perhaps we left it too long after it was served to notice. The pickle was slight and brought intermittent sweet, sour brightness. The bacon added the needed salt but could have been slightly crispier (again, possibly our fault for taking too long with our side dishes). Despite the brilliant texture of the cheese, I tend to find Red Leicester too indistinct to cut through the flavour… but there was enough going on. The complexity worked, just, though it was bordering on chaotic energy, and I enjoyed my half of a 1216. Though I’d be tempted to go more basic on a return visit…

As to the sides, and the drink…

The buttermilk fried chicken was a little dry, but the dipping sauce (a garlicky yoghurt) balanced it out. The doughballs were dense, and well cooked, but the garlic butter was massively overseasoned. The chorizo – hot, rich, paprika-y – were also oversalted (and messy). But for the kind of food it was, it was hot, rich, tasty and filling.

The pretty in pink cocktail – berry gin, strawberry, coconut milk and lime – was a brilliant balance of sweet and sour (emphasis on the sweet, just to my liking).

All that food, a couple of cocktails, fabulous service – came to just under £60 including service. Not too bad given the cinema tickets themselves were rocking £45…!

Monkey finger rating

Bun – 4/5
Build – 4/5
Burger – 4/5
Taste – 4/5
Sides – 4/5 – perhaps being a little generous given the salt and dry-ness issues, but the fries were excellent

Value – 4/5 – decent for an upmarket place.

Burger rating – 4/5 – in the upper echelons of upmarket burgers; well cooked, great environs, fab service. A few small details and it good get into promotion territory.

The deets

There are Everymans all over. Check out the website for your local – the one in Hampstead is lush.

And the film? Other than some slightly excessively indulgent moments of dialogue – well, monologue really – for Chris Hemsworth, it’s fabulous. A really brilliantly executed prequel, peppered with spectacularly creative and choreographed action and moments of real heartbreak and poignancy, without ever dipping into twee hollywoodness.

Tag: hampstead

Gaucho, Hampstead via Deliveroo, London

Spielburger, Everyman Cinema, Hampstead, London