Byron - Mo'shroom

Mo'shroom - 6oz hamburger, Portobello mushroom, Emmenthal, streaky bacon, shredded iceberg, red onion and cep aioli £9.95

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

Byron have a monthly special burger, and since 2010 during November they've supported Movember by making a donation for each of their special burgers ordered. This year that burger is the Mo'shroom with Portobello mushrooms, Emmenthal, bacon and cep aioli (blanched garlic, cep mushrooms and tarragon). The sliced mushrooms are layered over the burger underneath the cheese and add a distinct flavour without the sliminess that can plague mushrooms. The choice of Emmenthal cheese complents the mushroom, but the real winner here is the cep aioli - adding an extra punch of mushroom sauciness to the package. I really enjoyed the flavour of this burger - something a bit different to most options out there. It was only let down by somewhat lacking service on my visit, an overcooked patty that was not as pink as usual (and hence a half point docked), and a burger that was not as warm or stacked as carefully as it could have been. You've got until the end of the month to get your Mo tickled with some mushroom meatiness.

Rating: 

Meat 1.5/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? Yes - credit for helping a good cause

Overall 7.5/10

Founders Arms - Tower 42

Tower 42 - double burger w/ bacon, monterey jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, chips and bbq relish £14

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

Served with chips and a sea of lettuce, this is a hefty burger. I never have particularly high hopes for pub burgers - their menus are generally too varied to excel at one thing in particular, so I guess this burger didn't disappoint too much. The positives are the bun which was a solid GBK/Byron standard - good choice Founders Arms. The fillings weren't bad either - nothing overly exciting but monterey jack is an upgrade from stock cheese and there's a couple of decent rashers of bacon in there. The moot point is the meat - not particularly surprising. There's certainly plenty of it, but as it is cooked well done (mine was also slightly burnt) it's dry and somewhat tasteless. The problem lies in the fact that most pubs use cheap cuts of meat in their burgers which prohibits them from cooking medium rare - and the taste seriously suffers for it. Pubs can't compete with the true burger joints, and yet the prices aren't wildly different. So in summary don't come for the burger, come for the views over the Thames and the Meantime/Camden Hells on tap (kudos to Youngs for adding these to the menial standard beers) and if you're going to have a burger whilst in residence keep those expectations in check.

Rating: 

Meat 0.5/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 1/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 4.5/10

Dirty Burger - Cheeseburger

Cheeseburger - with tomato, lettuce, mustard relish and gherkin £5.50

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty (of course!)

It's hidden down a side road in a small steel shack. There's a choice of 1 burger. No toilets (you can use Chicken Shop/Pizza East's which share the location). And you place your order at the till and collect it on a tray when your number gets called. This is a no-nonsense burger and it doesn't give a sh*t what you think about it. And you know what? It's bang on the money. A superbly seasoned patty: pink on the inside, smothered in cheese on the outside, sits pride of place in a steamed bun together with lettuce, tomatoes, gherkin and a strong mustard relish. It's the Ronseal of the burger world and it hits the spot right down the middle. Made even better by the price - you could have two of these for the cost of some gourmet burgers in London and you'd probably leave twice as satisfied. There's a choice of two sides - crinkle cut fries and onion fries - both are good, but they're small time compared to the big dirty reason for your visit. You can get your hit either in Kentish Town, or more recently down in Vauxhall, and both do breakfast before 11am. Camden Town Pale Ale on draught up north and BrewDog bottles down south to wash this beauty down properly.

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 2/2

Extra point? Yes - it's a bargain!

Overall 10/10

The Advisory - Cheeseburger Special

Cheeseburger w/ chorizo, jalapenos & beetroot  - plus tomato, lettuce and gherkin £7

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

Don't be alarmed, the meat isn't still mooing - it's beetroot, not blood! Burger joints are a bit thin on the ground over on the East side of town. Clearly the burger trend isn't trendy enough. But The Advisory is keeping burger cravings in check in Hackney with a range of burgers, sides and several specials on the board to choose from. This burger is one of the specials and it was pretty damn good. The patty is a nice big slab, cooked to perfection and good and tasty. Beetroot is a win in a burger, and the jalapenos give the burger a decent kick. Everything works well together in the brioche bun, but the meat is still the main event as it should be. I'm keen to try some other offerings next time I'm in the area. On the menu they instruct you to wash your burger down with a beer; not hard to adhere to when the likes of Kernal Brewery's IPA is amongst the offerings. There's cocktails as well if that's your thing. And the name? Well, the premises used to be an Asian Womens Advisory Service of course.

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 8/10

London Burger Bash Round 4

Another month, another burger competition. This time held at Camden Town Brewery, there would be 24 competitors in total flipping burgers for votes over 4 rounds, each held over 2 days, unlike the 12 burgers in one night extravaganza at Borough Market last month. The winner from each round will go into a final to compete for best burger. This was serious business then. And this time I had a ticket.

In the previous 3 rounds, Fred Smith, Patty & Bun and Bleecker St Burger had conquered, knocking out the likes of Byron, Elliot's, Hawksmoor and Mother Flipper. Competition was stiff.

Armed with our full tickets (5 half burgers and 1 full burger all washed down with some top beer from Camden Town Brewery), myself and a fellow burger muncher set off to chow down some meat and cast our vote.

So in reverse order, here's my ranking of the 6 burgers from the evening:

6th Place
Ibérica - Iberica Burger Grande - secreto Iberico pork loin, rosemary manchego cheese, salsa Iberica, demi-brioche bun

Thoughts:

There's no doubting the quality of the meat and other ingredients in this offering, but for me pork burgers just can't stand against beef pattys. The meat is much drier and so doesn't pack as much flavour.

5th Place
Trific - Hamburg Hamburger - aged beef patty, smoked shallot mayo, beetroot pickles, fried quail egg, herring salsa, brioche bun

Thoughts:

So what have ze Germans from Hamburg got for us? I fairly liked the sound of this one (with the exception of the herring salsa); I think beetroot works really well in a burger and who doesn't like a fried egg? It's certainly a packed half burger with the salsa and mayo going on once cut, but there were too many flavours in this offering. Everything competes rather than working together and the quail egg was completely lost inside.

4th Place
Zoilo - Chimichurri Burger - chimichurri-infused patty, caramelised onions, grilled tomatoes, provolone cheese, roasted garlic aioli, house spicy pickle, brioche bun

Thoughts:

A nicely cooked patty here and a lot of flavoursome ingredients in this burger. It's not a bad burger by any stretch, but I found the herby flavour of the chimichurri very strong. All of the ingredients are cooked resulting in quite a mushy burger. It needs a bit of lettuce or something crunchy to add some texture.

3rd Place
Shake Shack - Smokeshack - cheeseburger, British free range Wiltshire cure smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper, shacksauce, potato roll

Thoughts:

The only full burger of the evening (due to the modest size of the patty) and extra points for all the guys on the stand being really friendly (and giving us t-shirts) and for bringing their beer nut ice-cream to the party (yep, we managed to fit it in!). I haven't got round to visiting Shake Shack in Covent Garden yet, but from what I hear the burgers are McDonalds esq but better. This was the feeling with this burger. The patty (in part due to its thinness) can't compete with the other burgers here, but it's still a good few leagues above McDs. The bacon was good quality, the potato roll clothes the fillings well and the chopped cherry pepper is a little bit special. Both of us munched down this burger very happily.

2nd Place
Burger Bear - Black Forest Bear - aged beef patty, black cherry bacon jam, double oak smoked bacon, american cheese, black toasted bamboo charcoal bun

Thoughts:

The most unique looking burger of the night due to the black bamboo charcoal bun. And the most impressive patty of the night as well - initially the size and shape of a tennis ball before being smashed down into a patty on the grill by Tom Reaney (Burger Bear). It doesn't disappoint. A great burger with everything done right and with special touches from the black cherry bacon jam and that black bun. These guys seemed to be having the best time of all the flippers, dancing around their mirrorball to disco beats. If I was being very critical the burger is very sweet and would soon get sickly, but this is a minor complaint.

1st Place
Tongue + Cheek - Piccante Heartbreaker - ox heart & dry aged beef patty, spicy nduja, smoked provola cheese, kewpie mayo, pickled onions, gem lettuce

Thoughts:

My top burger of the night. Great patty with extra meatiness from the ox heart and cooked superbly. Nice touch with the kewpie (egg yolk only) mayo, but the killer ingredient was the nduja sausage giving just the right amount of heat to the burger to make it something really special. Top burger this where the meat is still the lead role but all the supporting ingredients give a stellar performance as well.





And the winner is: No democracy can be based on just one burger blogger's vote - over the 2 days Burger Bear collected the most votes and was a deserving winner of the Golden Patty. He joins the 3 previous champion flippers in the grand final - I hope to be there!

A few shots from the evening:

Lucky Chip vs Breaking Bad - Heisenburger & Jessy Pinkman

I've been meaning to get down to Lucky Chip for a while as I've heard a lot of rave reviews of their burgers. As well as serving up at Netil Market, they've currently got a residency at the Sebright Arms pub just off the Hackney Road. All this week they're doing a special and cooking up Breaking Bad inspired scoff in their lab:

Good as the whole periodic table looks, there were only really two options for me: the Heisenburger and the Jessy Pinkman. Keen to try both of these burgers, but not able to make a second trip whilst this special was on, the choice was clear - go Full Measure and order both.

Heisenburger - Cooked up beef patty, 98% blue cheese, smoked bacon, onion rings, methlamine hot sauce & aioli £9.50

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

This burger is to other burgers what Heisenberg is to Walter White. Oozing hot sauce and blue cheese, it truly is a filthy character. Firstly the meat: the patty is thick, coarse, cooked well (if a touch overdone) and is the main event. This is what a patty is meant to be like. It isn't dwarfed by either the bun or the fillings. The bun is top as well - in this case a glazed seeded bun is used, and it holds together well. So far so good; now for the fillings. Well.....they just pack too much punch. It's a full on assault to the tastebuds - in the blue corner the cheese is one of the most potent blue cheeses I've tasted in a burger, and in the red corner the hot sauce has a fiery snarl. Biting into this burger, you are in the middle of the ring and about to get smacked in the face by both blue and red. There's nothing wrong with the quality of the fillings - both the bacon and onion rings taste good, but having both blue cheese and hot sauce is excessive. There's too much going on in the burger and too much sauce involved - you're going to need a lot of napkins with this one. A shame because the meat and bun deserve a higher overall score.

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 0/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 6/10

Jessy Pinkman - Beef patty, peanut butter, jam, bacon & chilli £8.50

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

Peanut butter and jam. In a burger. I suspected this would either flop or blow my mind......It was the latter. I've already talked about the quality of the patty and the bun in the Heisenburger review, so let's keep it simple here - they rocked. But the peanut butter, jam and bacon are f*cking outstanding. Peanut butter works so well with the beef (and a few places have noticed this and are serving it up - e.g. the Steak Louisiana at Haché), but where this might leave other burgers dry, here the jam keeps everything moist. The bacon adds extra meatiness and the whole package is burger euphoria. This is the kind of burger I want to eat every day. Pinkman - you're an absolute winner. Yeah bitch!

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 2/2

Extra point? Yes - peanut butter, jam and bacon in a burger is a masterstroke! I'm addicted after one hit.

Overall 10/10

GBK - The Taxidriver

The Taxidriver - American cheese, onion ring, Cajun relish, smoked chilli mayo, dill pickle, salad, brioche bun £9.75

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

I had fairly high hopes for the Taxidriver - it's a burger I've had prior to the blog being up and running and I remember thinking it was one of GBK's best. Almost distracted by the Smokin' Joe on the new winter menu, I stuck with the intention of scoffing down the Taxidriver. It's GBK's full on American style burger and probably the dirtiest they do (which in the grand scheme of burgers is still pretty gourmet). The flavours work well and although I've become a bit bored of the brioche bun these days finding it to be too sweet too often, it completely works for this burger. It soaks up the juices from the patty, the onion ring and the american cheese and nearly holds it all together. The onion ring is the star of the show here, adding a tasty crunch to the burger, and the fillings all work well with each other. There's a couple of problems: the onion ring and the tomato slice make the burger stand tall and it's not easy to eat without falling apart. Secondly, and again due to the volume of fillings, the meat gets a little lost in it all. Like an English villager rocking up in NYC for the first time, there is so much else going on that it gets overwhelmed and retreats deep in the middle of the burger. And let's be honest - the fillings should always play second fiddle to the meat. I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with my visit to GBK this time. The Blue Cheese Slaw with chopped jalapenos from the new menu was tasty but I'd hoped for something mind-blowing. Their Rosemary fries (skinny fries with clumps of rosemary salt on top) are knocked out of the park by those served at Honest Burgers. Perhaps I've just been lured by the younger, sexier burger joints in town and GBK has become a little same old. I certainly don't agree with the generic GBK bashing that some people give - their burgers are reliable, the meat is tasty, fillings are good quality and their student/NHS discount and phone app bring the slightly inflated prices back into order. It's just lacking a wow factor, a little like this burger.

Rating: 

Meat 2/3

Bun 2/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 7/10

London Food Fight - Burger v Burger at Borough Market

'Exclusive...One-night-only.....The best of London's burger flippers.....' the website said. It also said 'Sold Out'.....Sh*t. How could this happen? Why had I not heard about this event prior to the day before? Just how much time do you need to devote to Twitter these days to find out about London events before they sell out?

No matter the answers to these questions, I had to find a way in. Perhaps there would be tickets on the door?.....Nope, that would be too easy. Fortunately my colleague (Ms Dim Sum Sums - check out her awesomely thorough blog of all things Dim Sum here) had already clicked through to buy a ticket and managed to complete the purchase. Win. A small one anyway. We duly headed down early on the evening of the event whilst thinking over a way of me sampling at least some of the burgers (or she would be stuck eating all 12 alone). After receiving her wristband, plate and burger ticket:

she set off inside. Five minutes later she reappeared with 3 fine looking sliders for us to munch in front of a very hungry looking queue. In a scene reminscent of the parents passing their kids burgers through the school gates in a protest against Jamie Oliver's school dinners, I tried a further 2 passed out through the railings. I felt like Oliver Twist. But I'd managed to try 5 of the burgers on offer before I had to leave and Ms Dim Sum Sums managed to squeeze in a further 5 before admitting defeat. In the style of the sliders we had, here's a mini review of what we thought of each one we tried:

Elliot's Cafe - very, very aged patty, linseed bun, dill butter, ogleshield, comté, beeffat onions, pickle, ketchup, mayonnaise w/ too much mustard, vinegar, salt & sugar

Thoughts:

Neither of us managed to try this one.

Mother Flipper - Special Sauce Bacon Cheeseburger - shoestring fries, thick cut american cheese, special sauce, candy bacon

Also on offer:
Mother Flipper Cheeseburger - ketchup, mustard, diced onion, homemade pickles
The Mushroom Blue - colston bassett pattie melt, purple basil, red onion jam, pecan praline, sauteed mushrooms, aioli

Thoughts:

Bert - pretty tasty, but the sauce reminded me of McDonald's Big Tasty sauce and it was just too rich. The meat was cooked well but the sauce overpowered it.

Ms Dim Sum Sums - a glorified Big Mac. Wouldn't have it again.

Patty & Bun - The Mr Miyagi - brioche, spicy korean ketchup, aged beef patty, smoked cheese, confit old spot pig, dashi mayo & roasted jalapenos

Thoughts:

Ms Dim Sum Sums - would be perfect had the beef been rarer. Confit pig was really good and a lot of complex flavours going on in this burger that seem to pull together well.

The Thomas Cubitt - rare breed beef, guinness, ketchup, green peppercorn mayo

Thoughts:

Bert - there wasn't anything wrong with this burger, but there equally wasn't anything amazing or memorable. It was pub standard in my book.

Ms Dim Sum Sums - well cooked beef but nothing special.

Grillshack - ?pulled pork, beef patty, brioche bun, radish (they didn't have a sign!)

Thoughts:

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Nicely cooked. Really good. Bronze medal for this one from me.

Honest Burgers - Honest Slider - aged ginger pig patty, smoked bacon, mature cheddar, red onion relish, homemade pickles

Thoughts:

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Really nice beef; shame the bacon was burnt. Slice of gherkin hit the spot.

Bleecker St. Burger - ?beef patty, american cheese, raw onion, sauce

Thoughts:

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Another Big Mac, only really salty. Raw onion really packed a punch. Discarded half of it as this wasn't for me.

Red Dog Saloon - aged chuck steak, hickory smoked pork shoulder, kansas city sauce

Thoughts:

Bert - not bad at all. Red Dog Saloon have redeemed themselves somewhat from when I tried the Devastator burger - this time the pulled pork was warm and it worked. It's still not amongst the fillings I would choose but this slider tasted good. Meaty and dirty.

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Pulled pork had a good sweetness, beef nicely cooked, sauce was tasty. Bun looked squished but was actually surprisingly springy.

Brigade - ?beef patty, pulled oxtail, lettuce, red onion, tomato

Thoughts:
Ms Dim Sum Sums - Poor burger. Beef was overdone. Too sickly and half discarded again. Brioche bun was too tough.

Opera Tavern - Mini Ibérico Pork and Foie Gras Burger - with manchego, aioli, red onion marmalade & guindilla

Thoughts:

Bert - You can see from the photo that the meat was overcooked. The ingredients sound really promising, but this was a huge let-down. The worst of the 5 I tried. All the other burger vendors either offered a proper slider or a half/quarter of a full size burger. For Opera Tavern to make a slider and then cut it in half is a trifle stingy.

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Worst burger of the night. Also the smallest burger of the night. Meat didn't taste of anything.

Village East - Longhorn Beef & Bone Marrow Burger - truffled liver parfait, smoked cheddar, tomato relish, onion marmalade, mayo, gherkin

Thoughts:

Neither of us managed to try this one - sounds and looks good though.

Wenlock & Essex - The Trio Burger - ?beef patty, cheese, beetroot, coleslaw

Thoughts:

Bert - The winner of the 5 I tried. The Wenlock & Essex hadn't been on my radar before now but if thier usual offerings are anything like this then I look forward to a visit soon. I agree with Ms Dim Sum Sums that there wasn't a wow factor, and it's certainly not as dirty as a lot of the burgers I love, but it simply tasted damn good.

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Perfectly cooked beef. Acidity of the beetroot worked well with the sweetness of the bun; overall flavours are really well balanced. Pretty much a perfect burger, just lacked the wow factor of Patty & Bun. I wish I hadn't shared this one with Bert.



Final thoughts:

Bert - Not getting a ticket to this event was a disaster. But still managing to try 5 burgers (albeit in a somewhat shabby, begging manner) was great. The event looked brilliant from the outside, and despite the £36 ticket price initially seeming steep you certainly got a lot of burger for your money. My stomach is somewhat relieved I didn't get a ticket and try all 12 burgers; from what I saw this easily amounted to a good 4 normal sized burgers. Plus a beer. Here's hoping there will be another like this in the future. My burger ranking was: Wenlock & Essex, Red Dog Saloon, Mother Flipper, The Thomas Cubitt, and lastly Opera Tavern. A few places weren't on my radar before, and if they were big enough to compete here then they're big enough for a visit for a full size burger in the future. Mother Flipper won the most votes on the evening - I think they should have only had one burger on offer though. The Mushroom Blue sounds awesome though, perhaps this is what won it for them. I also think that kudos should be given to the vendors that made a proper slider with a mini patty & bun, rather than dishing out portions of full sized burgers.

Ms Dim Sum Sums - Fun night. The band was good. My beer tasted like burger, but I don't blame the brewer! I voted for Patty & Bun to win because they wowed me with their complex flavours (despite their slightly overcooked patty the uniqueness of the burger won me over), but the Wenlock & Essex came a close second with a near perfect burger.

Thanks to Carl Henderson for a few pictures which we didn't manage to get ourselves.

Lord Nelson - The Mandela Burger

The Mandela Burger - 7oz Springbok Burger (Gamston Farm @ Boro' Mkt) topped w/ Boerewors Sausage, Fried Onions, Hot & Spicy South African Chutney + Chips, Coleslaw, Salad £11

Burger type: Pub/Gourmet/Inbetween/Dirty

'The Best Burgers in London' the sign outside the Lord Nelson pub in Southwark boldy proclaims. Perhaps a bit of a stretch that one, but if it said 'Biggest Burger Menu of London Pubs' I'd be surprised if it wasn't true - I counted around 25 burger options on my visit. I haven't been reviewing pub burgers on here so far (but may appear eventually) as this would open the floodgates to a whole load of posts, and I suspect a lot of mediocre burgers. However, the reason for this trip had been to try their well publicised and perhaps slightly controversial Horse Burger (meat sourced from Gamston Farm at Borough Market); alas Black Beauty was not available so I opted for the Mandela which is built around a Springbok burger (also sourced from Gamston Farm). The burger is well thought out - the Boerewors sausage adds a smoky meatiness and the chutney adds tang and moisture. It's served lid off to show off the fillings and it looks quite good (at least to the carniverous). I liked the flavour of the Springbok burger - there's no doubting the quality of the meat, but it was overcooked and therefore dry. Whilst the sausage and the chutney helped to make up for this, the bun was reasonable but again a bit too dry. A lighter and moister bun would help here. The sides make up in quantity what they lack a little in quality - I approve of the skin-on rustic chips but they were hit-and-miss; as a fellow burger fan pointed out whilst happily munching on his Elvis Burger (beef and peanut butter), it's a definite plus that they come with the burger and you don't have to muck around ordering extras just to fill the plate (and your stomach). It was a decent enough burger and the score perhaps seems a little low, but if the meat was cooked medium rare and the bun was improved this could be a 7 or 8 / 10 burger. For a small, and predominantly student pub (you can get a pint of drinkable lager for the very non-London price of £2.50 on production of a student card), the Lord Nelson is serving up a lot of innovative pub quality burgers and should be commended for that. If you fancy trying an exotic game or a Horse Burger then gallop down Southwark way.

Rating: 

Meat 1/3

Bun 1/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 5/10

Duke's Brew & Que - Duke's Burger

Duke's Burger - 100% ground Beef burger (medium rare) with pickles, lettuce, tomato, red onion, KC BBQ sauce, mayo, mustard with Duke’s Fries on the side £12.95 (Jack cheese and bacon added for £2 extra)

Gourmet/Dirty: Inbetween

This bbq pit and previous brewhouse of Beavertown Brewery (they've since moved to a larger brewery space) is just off the Kingsland Road near Haggerston station. In a toss up between the much-lauded ribs and the burger, I thought of you, reader, and opted for the latter. I added Monterey Jack cheese and bacon to the fillings that come as standard in the burger which is served with slaw and fries. I've heard that the guys here put a lot of work into perfecting the patty and that work has paid off - the result is great tasting meat cooked well. The bun tastes and looks good but is just a little on the fragile side to score top marks and led to a bit of spillage. The fillings and the overall taste were very good, if a little heavy on the mustard which might not be for more sensitive palates. I think the addition of bacon and Jack cheese was worth it, but nudging 15 smackers it makes for a pricey burger. Duke's is a great place and the Beavertown beers are top notch (Apricot Pale Ale and Gamma Ray are both highly quaffable); you won't be disappointed if you opt for the Duke's Burger over the ribs, but just make sure you book in advance or get there early to nab a table outside (there are heaters!) otherwise you'll experience more queue than que....

Rating: 

Meat 3/3

Bun 1/2

Fillings 2/2

Package 1/2

Extra point? No

Overall 7/10