Honest Burgers - Special

Special - Beef & black pudding, apple tempura, tarragon & caper mayonnaise £10.50 including rosemary chips

Gourmet/Dirty: Gourmet

It's been a little while coming, and I've finally made it to Honest Burgers. Highly rated by a mate of mine, I'd been meaning to get down to the original restaurant in Brixton Village - but I found myself in the Camden area in the mood for a burger so it seemed the right thing to do. I had every intention of trying their signature burger - the Honest Burger - but, at the risk of running before I could walk, I plumped for the special as it sounded too good to miss. Firstly the highs - the meat is awesome. Sourced from Ginger Pig it is cooked to perfection and the black pudding went together perfectly. The brioche bun is top notch with just the right squishiness but strong enough to hold the burger together. All the burgers here come with chips making them better value than a lot of burger joints - others should take note. Their rosemary salting is top as well. They packed so much flavour I didn't touch any sauces - a rarity. The apple & beetroot coleslaw is also worth a mention, as is the fact you can have any of the burgers in a gluten-free bap - big brownie points from the wheat-free crowd. There's just the one sticking point - I wasn't sure about the apple tempura. Call me traditional but apple goes with pork. And I didn't think it really worked here, but it far from ruined it. Overall a top burger then, with just the apple keeping it from greatness. Looking forward to getting the signature Honest Burger down the burger hole very soon...

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 1/2

Package 2/2

Extra point? No

Overall 8/10

MEATliquor - Dead Hippie

Dead Hippie - 2X mustard fried beef patties, dead hippie sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, minced white onions £7.50

Gourmet/Dirty: Filthy!

MEATliquor - you either love it or hate it. Judging by the fact there are still queues mid-week a lot of people love it. They've come a long way since the days of MEATwagon and now have three fixed outlets. Still serving up the same unashamedly greasy american-style fast food, they were the originial King of London burgers when they threw open their doors in 2011. Since then there have been a whole host of new pretenders to the throne popping up across London. So how does one of their most popular burgers - the Dead Hippie - stack up? Well, pretty damn well. The meat is absolutely awesome. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked and with 2 patties it's what this burger is all about. The bun is squidgy - not too moist, not too dry, not too sweet - just spot on. The fillings all add to the meat and the cheese doesn't overpower it as it can in other cases. Dead Hippie sauce - whatever it is - rounds off the taste and it is class A addictive. Sure, if you don't like your burger greasy then you might prefer something like this. If you do but you don't fancy queueing you can hit MEATmarket for a quickie, or book a table at MEATmission. The Dead Hippie is everything an American style burger should be. If only it was bigger...

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 2/2

Extra point? Yes! Dead Hippie sauce is awesome and £7.50 is cheaper than a lot of other burgers out there.

Overall 10/10

Haché - Steak Bavarian

Steak Bavarian - Roquette, beef tomato, sliced sweet sweet red onion, Haché mayo, topped with smoked Bavarian cheese and caramelised onions. £9.95

Gourmet/Dirty: Gourmet

This was my first visit to Haché burgers and I was impressed! I chose the Steak Bavarian - a really good burger if you like smoked cheese. The meat itself was awesome (one of the best tasting patties I've had) and the other fillings worked well together. I like the fact you can choose either a ciabatta or a brioche bun for any burger. The bun was good, although by the end with the caramelised onions did get sickly. On the whole though this is a top burger. Haché could improve their sides - the coleslaw and wedges I had were fine but pub standard - GBK and Byron are ahead of them for this. The menu selection is huge and there are a lot of flavours going on. I'll be back to try the Steak Canadian (sweet cure bacon and cheddar cheese) as I have a feeling that with the quality of the meat here this could be an even better burger than the Bavarian. It's definitely worth checking out one of Haché's four branches. Oh and you get smarties with your bill.

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 1/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 7/10