For the love of Gravy: Getting Messy at Dip & Flip

Back in the days when I lived in the wilds of Essex (aka Southend), I used to watch Man v Food a lot - this was largely because my housemate was pretty much addicted to it, but it also held a sort of morbid fascination for me. Why would you eat so much? I know it's tasty, but surely stuffing yourself to the point where you feel sick would just spoil the meal! I'm going to gloss over the fact that I've done a few of these challenges in my time though, as that is the story for another day and I'm rambling. One of my favourite things about the show was watching Adam Richman visit the best of the local eateries and try their food. It made me very hungry and ever since I have wanted to go to the US and visit some of these places.

In one show, they went to Brooklyn, where there was a sandwich bar which served beef sandwiches dipped in gravy. The whole sandwich, including bread. Dipped in gravy. Gravy everywhere. Oh my god it sounded good. That alone made me want to visit the US but I've never really had the chance since.

Fast forward a few years and I'm looking through a list on Time Out of the best burgers when something jumps out at me - a picture of a burger, dripping with gravy, alongside a little dish of gravy. My mind went straight back to that episode of MvF and I resolved to visit as soon as possible.

Sadly though, Dip and Flip - the purveyors of this gravy-soaked treat - only have locations in South London and I never go there as it's a pain in the arse to get to. So it's stayed on my 'most wanted' list for months, and then suddenly I was going to a gin festival just up the road... opportunity knocked, so I didn't let this chance pass and headed up to Brixton early to get my burger fix.

The main thing I was worried about was expectation. Expectation can colour your opinion, either you are overly critical of its faults because you were expecting too much or you can be too forgiving as you were so excited to finally try it. So I tried as best as I could to banish my preconceptions and judge it on the same criteria as I have judged all my burger jaunts so far.

It was half past three on a warm Saturday afternoon and the restaurant wasn't busy, which made me happy as it means a more relaxing experience. I was shown to a table in a quiet corner of the restaurant and once handed the menu it was easy to make a choice... Dip & Flip are not just a burger restaurant - indeed, there were more options for sandwiches than burgers. This did actually make my choice hard as pretty much everything sounded awesome but I stayed true to my burger mission and ordered the Dip & Flip burger with beef alongside a portion of fries which looked like they came with everything in the world on them. The anticipation grew...

It didn't take too long for the food to arrive, although by then I had fully consumed my beer (it was hot, and for some bizarre reason I had decided to wear a hoodie. Why do I do these things?!) Any thoughts of thirst were banished, though, when I saw that inviting pool of gravy and a burger which was oozing cheese and gravy. This looked messy, but smelled absolutely amazing. I took the first bite without dipping the burger so I could taste it without it being swamped in beef juice and it was superb, the patty well seasoned yet almost melting in the mouth, with a slight creaminess from the cheese and then there was the extra slices of beef on top, which were tender and juicy. This burger was basically meat squared. The next bite came with a dip in its little dish of gravy and this is probably what jumped it up to the top of the rankings, that gravy had amazing flavour, intensely beefy. They hadn't skimped on it either and there was more than enough to ensure each bite of the burger was preceded by another dunk. I forgot all about the side of fries and machined through the burger first (a rarity for me!) which just shows how good it was. (The fries, incidentally, were spot on: fluffy, with lashings of cheese, bacon chillis and that wonderful gravy. The perfect accompaniment although I felt somewhat fat after eating them!)

I don't think I can enthuse enough about this burger - and I don't want to go too over the top but this is by a whisker the best burger I've had. Without the gravy it'd be top-two material but that rich pot raises it above and beyond and to the top. Try this burger. Go to Brixton especially if you have to. It's worth it!

Dip & Flip Burger: 9.50
The Details:

Dip & Flip
64-68 Atlantic Road

London
SW9 8PY

www.http://dipandflip.co.uk/

Burger reviewed: Dip & Flip Burger, £9.95

HVNP Burger Rankings (July 15th) :

1. Dip & Flip | Dip & Flip Burger | 9.50

2. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
3. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00

4. BRGR.Co | Hanger Steak Stilton Brgr | 8.75
5. Honest Burger | Bacon Tribute | 8.50

6. Dirty Burger | Dirty Bacon | 8.25

7. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

=8. Byron | Chilli | 7.25

=8. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

=8. GBK | The Don | 7.25

11. Burger & Lobster | Cheeseburger | 6.50

12. Shake Shack | ShackMeister | 4.00

Minimum Vowels, Maximum Burger: BRGR.CO's Hanger Steak Burger

Sometimes, I struggle to think of a title for my burger review posts on here; there are some posts where the name of the burger or establishment just lends itself to a snappy title, others - like BRGR - are harder. In the end I just played on the name, which sounds like some daft internet address. I mean, BRGR.co? Did they use that because someone else already has the name 'Burger.co' or was it just because they couldn't be bothered to use vowels in the main name? Anyway, enough musing over crap like that and more talking about burgers.

The menu was quite novel in that it had a few burgers - plain, cheese, chilli, cheese and bacon and stilton - which you could have in three different patty choices. This gave happy pangs of rememberance to the legendary Amsterdam outlet Burger Bar, against whom all my burgers are rated. In the case of BRGR you could choose blade steak, hanger steak or rump steak, with a corresponding increase in price for each. I'm not a huge fan of rump steak burgers so I went for a hanger steak stilton burger and because I was feeling a bit fat that day, paired it with some cheese and chilli fries.


The fries, interestingly, came first. As I've always seen fries as a side dish not a starter I was surprised by this but I'm glad they did as the burger was somewhat tardier in its arrival. I had almost finished my fries when it appeared on the table next to me, so good timing in the end I guess. The chilli cheese fries were certainly very nice, with freshly made chilli and a plentiful blanket of cheese.

The main even was the burger though, and after the disastrous effort from Shake Shack a couple of weeks before, my faith was restored. Although the first bite was sweet - I think there was an abundance of relish at one edge - the rest was excellent. The patty was juicy and meaty, well seasoned and presented in a toasted bun which isn't something I regularly see on the London burger scene yet is most welcome. The stilton had not been used in such a quantity that it dominated the taste buds, instead it gave a hint of salty yet strong cheesiness which was well offset by the sweet, tangy caramilised onion relish. That toasted bun, along with the salad, contributed a nice crunch to the proceedings as well. Overall it was really well balanced, and is probably the nicest stilton-adorned burger I've eaten.

My only real fuss was the salad - it came on the side and this is a bit of a bugbear for me, if you want your burger served with salad, put it in the damn bun and don't leave it for me to construct... if I don't want an item of salad I'll tell you not to include it! This however, is me nit-picking and I don't want this one to end on a sour note as, if you can see the big rating mark just below this paragraph, this is one of the top burgers in town. BRGR aren't one of the main names you will come across in the London burger scene, but they're well worth going out of your way for.

BRGR Hanger Steak Stilton Brgr: 8.75
The Details:

BRGR.CO
187 Wardour Street
London
W1F 8ZB

www.brgr.co

Burger reviewed: Hanger Steak Stilton Brgr, £10

HVNP Burger Rankings (June 5th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00

3. BRGR.Co | Hanger Steak Stilton Brgr | 8.75
4. Honest Burger | Bacon Tribute | 8.50

5. Dirty Burger | Dirty Bacon | 8.25

6. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

=7. Byron | Chilli | 7.25

=7. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

=7. GBK | The Don | 7.25

10. Burger & Lobster | Cheeseburger | 6.50

11. Shake Shack | ShackMeister | 4.00

Shake it Up Baby: Shake Shack Flatters to Decieve

Sometimes, you just need a burger. I encountered one of these moments while I was negotiating the crowded and depressing expanse otherwise known as Westfield Stratford City. Westfield is a place of lost souls and if I spend more than a few minutes within its yawning bowels I get all out of sorts so a burger was required to set me straight before I headed home. Westfield isn't great for burger joints, there being just two: GBK and recent American chain arrival Shake Shack. Although I have not exactly heard heaps of praise for Shake Shack before, some blogs rate them so I elected to see for myself whether they can fry up a good patty.

The venue itself was quite big, but strangely empty considering it was half past twelve on a Saturday afternoon, there being a smattering of people waiting on the large expanse of bench seating to the left of the counter. The menu wasn't overloaded with choices but sometimes that's a good thing if they can do the simple things right. I don't trust Americans with bacon so I went for the ShackMeister, which was a cheeseburger with "shack sauce" and crispy beer-cooked shallots.

I was sent to the seating area to wait, and they gave me one of those curious things that vibrates when your order is ready - that was surely a bit of overkill considering there were about nine people in the restaurant and half of them were already eating! Nevertheless it gave me a chance to google some reviews of them online and before I knew it the little plastic thing was buzzing and the burger arrived.

For the second time in two days I was suprised by a burger's size, but unlike the previous day's Dirty Burger, this one did not make up for it in thickness, I thought the patty to be rather sadly small. The bun wasn't particularly special either, just a normal sesame seed affair, and rather dry to boot. I don't mind a seeded bun (in fact I quite like them - they certainly makes a change from the proliferation of brioche buns we get these days) but you need a decent burger to be contained within it... and this wasn't. I might have suspected that it would not be great when the chap behind the counter didn't ask me how I would like it cooked but it was the most well-cooked burger I've had from a dedicated burger joint. No juiciness and melt-in-the-mouth texture here, just fairly dry and a little tough, and coupled with the under-par and dry bun it didn't exactly make my mouth sing with pleasure. The cheese was plasticky, like those supermarket cheese slices often seen at barbecues,and the shallots were a bit stringy and I certainly couldn't taste any of the beer that they had allegedly been cooked in. The 'shack sauce' was either used so sparingly it was hardly there or it was just plain tasteless. Either way I was totally unimpressed and it was more of a waste of money than the £20 effort from Burger and Lobster. At least that one was nice.

I've eaten a lot of burgers in my time and despite my criticism above this was nowhere near the worst, the problem I have is that when you spend over six pounds on a burger alone it should be pretty damn good, and not just barely a step above a McDonald's cheeseburger. If you gave me the option of a Big Mac, a Whopper or a ShackMeister then I would choose one of the two big chain burgers and that pretty much says it all. Maybe Shake Shack are better at milkshakes....





Shake Shack ShackMeister: 4
The Details:

Shake Shack
124-125 The Street
Westfield Stratford City
London
E20 1EN



Burger reviewed: ShackMeister, £6.50

HVNP Burger Rankings (May 14th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00
3. Honest Burger | Bacon Tribute 8.50

4. Dirty Burger | Dirty Bacon 8.25

5. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

=6. Byron | Chilli 7.25

=6. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

=6. GBK | The Don | 7.25

9. Burger & Lobster | Cheeseburger 6.50
10. Shake Shack | ShackMeister 4.00

Some Pub I Used to Know: The Castle

It's a conundrum. Looking back through previous posts, HvNP almost looks like a review blog and that was never my original intention so I've decided to talk about some other stuff to break things up a bit. One of my passions, as everyone who knows me will attest to, is pubs.

I've been thinking a lot about places I used to go when I was a young whipper-snapper growing up in South-West Essex and it occurred to me that a lot of the pubs seemed to have disappeared - part of the general malaise in the pub industry at the moment. Maybe that's a post all in itself but for now, here is a misty-eyed recollection of the Castle, a proper pub now sadly lost to a terrible night club.

I grew up in a small, sleepy commuter town just to the north-east of Romford. Brentwood was once named (by Richard Littlejohn, if you remember him) as the most boring place in the country and at the time I could quite believe him - there were no decent shops, no cinema or recreation facilities, no proper sports clubs and nowhere nice to eat. There were, however, plenty of pubs - If I walked to town, there was the Hutton Junction down by Shenfield station, up to the Eagle and Child and Green Dragon at Tabor's Corner, to the pubs of the high street - the Good Intent (now a Cafe Uno), White Horse (now a KFC), White Hart (now the Sugar Hut and a future post), Hobgoblin (now a Prezzo), Litten Tree (now called the Merchant), the Swan and the Charles Napier (now an access road). Round the back streets we also had the Gardiner's Arms and the Victoria Arms. A wealth of choice then, but although many a Saturday night was spent in the White Hart, my pub of choice was one I have not mentioned yet. It was opposite Sainsbury's, it had five pool tables and it had a landlord that would rather tell you to fuck off than serve you.
It was called The Castle.

The Castle used to be a biker pub but by the time I became a regular it had fallen into decline somewhat. I started drinking there because it was over the road from my work, and I have vague memories of going there before the pool tables came when they had a stage and regular live entertainment was held - I saw Al Murray play the pub landlord there before he became huge (was that 1998 or something?). When the pub began to go into decline they cleared the tables out of the large back area and replaced them with five pool tables, two on the old stage and three in the area in front of them. There were a couple of tables in the front of the pub by the windows and a beer "garden" out the back which was totally paved over and was where the ne'er do wells went to smoke weed. It was tatty, old and the toilets smelled horrible but it was mine. Mick - the landlord - was rude and swore at us all the time but we didn't care. The regulars were rough and ready and butted in on your pool games claiming winner stays on but we didn't care (much). The beer lines never seemed to be particularly clean but we didn't care. The jukebox hadn't been updated for ages but we didn't care. It was ours, a smoky cave which could have come right out of the 1980s just plonked on the side of one the main arteries through town. We didn't go there because it had nice beer, we went there for the atmosphere, the banter with the locals and the landlord, to have a good time and a game of pool, to get away from the realities of the world outside. 

By 2005 we had moved on, now drinking mostly in Romford. Mick had gone, replaced by a long line of landlords who desperately tried to get the pub above its reputation, to stimulate business, to make a go of it. But they couldn't, and although I still visited fairly regularly the pub got emptier and emptier.

Then they took it away, in March 2007, on the same day they ran Freak (the rock night in Romford we had attended on-and-off since the late 90s) for the last time. On the last ever day of opening there were only a handful of people in the pub. I took an 8-ball from the back table, and at 10 we traipsed off having paid our respects and headed to Freak to pay our respects there as well, leaving behind only memories - many happy, drunken memories.

It's a club now, called Eclipse, and even that is failing. I've never been in there, and I don't really want to either, but every time I drive past it (and that's a lot) I think back, and have a smirk at something from an era I can genuinely call "the good old days"

What's in a Name? Living up to the Moniker of Dirty Burger

Well, it's been awhile. After changing job, things got a little busy and while I have had things to talk about, I just haven't got around to posting anything new on here, and the longer I left it, the more I pushed HvNP to the back of my mind. But with the onset of June and summer, I think it's time to jump back on the blog wagon and to kick things back off, I've got my favourite kind of post: a burger review.

It was one of those nights where I had gone out randomly for a "few" beers, and anticipating a bit of a drink up, a burger was needed. Being in Shoreditch, the only choice was the intriguingly named Dirty Burger, a pop-up gone permanent just up the road from BrewDog. The venue wasn't exactly big and my immediate comparison would be to Patty & Bun at Liverpool Street, although in Dirty Burger the decor was wood-trimmed like a log shack and there was a large central table that was absent in P&B, the latter having seating only at the edges. Nevertheless, there was room to sit so I ordered a Dirty Bacon and sat down to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Now, I'm used to waiting at burger joints in London, the burger joints I frequent are not really fast food despite the image burgers have garnered. But we waited for over twenty minutes for our food despite there not being many people around and several people arrived after us getting their food before. I think they forgot about our order but the mumbling apology didn't endear the place to me I must say.

Nevertheless, I always aim to concentrate on the qualities of the burger rather than the overall experience so I won't dwell too much on the tardiness of the service. Eventually the burgers did turn up and we tucked in with gusto.
My first impression was that it was a bit small - I can't remember how many ounces in weight the burger was supposed to be but I was rueing not taking the 'extra patty' option. The patty was well seasoned and tender, having that melt in the mouth quality that I rate so highly in a burger. It was also quite juicy, which many people might baulk at yet I find quite satisfying - and also apt considering the name of the venue. The sauce was interesting - a bit like burger sauce but with a lot less mayo - and was an effective accompaniment, highlighting the qualities of the meat without riding roughshod over it. A quick word, too, for the bacon, which was nice and meaty. Burger bacon should not be of the thin and crispy variety in my opinion (Yes, yes I know I say that all the time; and I'm going to continue saying it until people listen!). Overall, it was a very tasty burger and DB let the meat be the star rather than buckle under the temptation to overload it with extra flavours. Keep it simple, and it works. It's not a world beater, but it's bloody nice. 

Dirty Burger Dirty Bacon: 8.25

The Details:

Dirty Burger
13 Bethnal Green Road
London
E1 6LA

www.eatdirtyburger.com

Burger reviewed: Dirty Bacon, £8

HVNP Burger Rankings (May 13th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00
3. Honest Burger | Bacon Tribute 8.50

4. Dirty Burger | Dirty Bacon 8.25

5. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

=6. Byron | Chilli 7.25

=6. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

=6. GBK | The Don | 7.25

8. Burger & Lobster | Cheeseburger 6.50

One or t'Other: Burger & Lobster

There's no mucking about at Burger and Lobster (from now on, by the way, I'm going to call them B&L). You don't get a menu. There are no dizzying options on a specials board. You get a choice of burger or lobster (plus fries and salad), and you will pay £20 for it, whichever you choose. The restaurant has always piqued my interest so as I was in Clerkenwell and at a loss, I dropped in for some pre-pub tucker.

Of course, £20 for a burger and chips is pretty damn steep wherever you buy it. The best burger I've reviewed so far (Bleecker Street's Black) was £10 and the regular fries £2.50 with Byron, Honest and Patty & Bun generally clocking in at the same or less for most menu combinations, so twenty quid is a bit of a hefty markup and one tends to think that they are using the burger side to prop up the lobster - a friend reliably informed me that £20 for a whole lobster and the trimmings is pretty decent value anywhere, let alone central London. 

Nevertheless, burgers are my irrational food passion and I don't really care for lobster so the choice (such that it was) proved easy. B&L scored an early point by having an interesting beer for me to drink and despite being quite busy the food didn't take long to arrive.

The first thing I noticed was naturally the huge stake through the middle. This always makes me a bit nervous as it usually means that the contents of the burger will attempt to make a swift exit from the bun as soon as you take a bite, however I could understand its use as it was pretty tall creation. The burger looked nice and thick though, the cheese was oozing invitingly out of the side and the bun was an interesting multi-seed affair in contrast to the usual brioche offering typical of most burger joints. 

Taste-wise, it was pretty good. The burger was amazingly soft and tender and just about held itself together. Perhaps it was ever so slightly under seasoned but I can forgive that as the overall taste was good. The cheese was inoffensive and ended up more as a texture than a taste - if I hadn't have seen it dripping down the side I wouldn't have been able to tell there was cheese in it but I can live with that - it was a good burger and refreshing to have the burger as the sole star rather than having to compete on taste with other accompaniments. So far, so good.

The further I got, though, the harder it became. The multi-seed bun wasn't really to my taste and it had been a bit too vigorously grilled, leaving a bitter, charred toast aftertaste. It also disintegrated pretty quickly and eating the burger became a bit of a challenge, especially once I took the stake out of the centre halfway through. There was also too much salad in it, the height of the patty was almost matched by the heap of tomato, lettuce and cucumber - indeed, my last bite was just bun and salad.

I always hate putting the 'Cons' section of the review at the end as it seems like I am just fussing about it, however the salad thing and the delicacy of the bun did detract significantly from the burger's good points. The other reason for the relatively low score though is the price - £20 is ridiculous for what is effectively just a cheeseburger and chips, especially considering the price of the competition's wares.

Incidentally, I've spoken to friends who have been here before and they raved about the lobster offering. So if you like lobster, come on down - but if your vice is burgers, it's not far to Byron, Honest or Patty & Bun. Go there instead.

Burger & Lobster Cheeseburger: 6.5

The Details:

Burger and Lobster
40 St. John's Street
Smithfield
London
EC1M 4AY

www.burgerandlobster.com

Burger reviewed: Cheeseburger, £20 (inc. fries and salad)

HVNP Burger Rankings (Jan 17th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00
3. Honest Burger | Bacon Tribute 8.50

4. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

=5. Byron | Chilli 7.25

=5. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

=5. GBK | The Don | 7.25

7. Burger & Lobster | Cheeseburger 6.50

This is Just A Tribute: Honest Burgers' Bacon Tribute

Bacon. Is there another meat out there that inspires such avid devotion? Not a week goes past without me seeing at least one picture or post praising its virtues. The famous Youtube food channel Epic meal Time made bacon strips (and their sweet-shop equivalent, "gay" bacon strips) a viral phenomenon. So when I breezed through the door of the much-hyped Honest Burgers in Kings Cross and saw that their current special was called the Bacon Tribute, there was only one thing I was going to buy.

I wasn't intending to go to Honest, instead having planned to visit Burgershack's residency at the Royal Oak near Edgware Road, however lack of time, a desire not to be too far away from a decent pub and Honest Burgers' fine reputation saw me change plans halfway down the Pentonville Road and I soon found myself sitting down and impatiently awaiting the arrival of my Bacon Tribute Burger.

When my burger arrived, it looked every bit as good as the publicity photo. The patty was plump, the cheese melty and a thick slice of bacon lay on top of the burger. 
The first bite confirmed that the hype around Honest is well deserved. The patty was nicely seasoned and soft without being so soft that it disintegrated as I ate, and was tasty enough to survive the bacon attack from the bacon mayo and that slab on top. The pickle gave a sweet and sour note as it all went down. It was difficult to resist the temptation to consume the whole burger without putting it down (and not just because the bun had disintegrated), and in my book that's the mark of a good burger. A special note for the bacon - as I have mentioned in other reviews, I find crispy or overdone bacon off-putting and I was slightly nervous when I ordered it in case that bit of bacon on top was inedible but I needn't have worried, it was meaty, fairly thick and tasted of bacon, not charring. The burger also came with a little pot of thick gravy, which tasted like a meaty BBQ sauce and was excellent - it gave an extra dimension to the last few bites of the burger (I tried it without at first so as not to overwhelm it) and was an excellent accompaniment for the chips. 

My only slight niggles with the burger was that the cheese got a bit lost amongst the bacon and beef, they could have done with using a slightly stronger flavoured one or perhaps just a bit more cheese. The other thing was that the bun was a bit average - it tasted fine but was nothing special. But I'm being picky here.
A final note about the fries - they're included in the price and while that's not always ideal for people like me on a diet, it means no costly extras if you fancy some potato goodness - and my lord are they good, rosemary salted and perfectly cooked. The best fries I've had from a burger joint so far and worth the trip to Honest on their own.

I was expecting a lot from Honest and I'm glad to say that they delivered. This review is a bit late due to me changing jobs and being generally busy so they might have changed special by now but if you're thinking about dropping in, don't hesitate. It'll be an excellent choice.

Honest Burger Bacon Tribute: 8.5

The Details:

Honest Burger
251-255 Pentonville Road
London
N1 9NG

www.honestburgers.co.uk

Burger reviewed: Bacon Tribute, £12.50 (inc. fries)

HVNP Burger Rankings (Jan 9th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00
3. Honest Burger | Bacon Tribute 8.50

4. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

5. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

5. GBK | The Don | 7.25

A Visit to the Burger Pioneers: Gourmet Burger Kitchen's Don

Cast your minds back to the year 2001. The world didn't grind to halt from the millennium virus, the internet was still accessed from a device which beeped and hissed at you and mobile phones didn't even have colour screens, let alone cameras or mp3 ringtones. For the burger lovers amongst us, Burger King, McDonalds and Wimpy were the only real options. They were dark times indeed.

Then, in view of the looming towers of Battersea power station, a revolution started. A small unassuming restaurant called Gourmet Burger Kitchen opened, providing better quality burgers made from higher quality ingredients and cooked to order. The restaurant proved popular, branches began to spring up all over the shop and before long they gained imitators like Ultimate Burger and Handmade Burger Company. GBK finally got a proper rival in the 2010's, as fellow London startup Byron undertook a major expansion.
GBK changed the London - and UK - burger scene forever and it is them we have to thank next time we sit down for a tasty treat from Honest, Bleecker Street, Patty & Bun or MeatLiquor. 

GBK's reviews online are a mixed bag, certainly the burger blogging set in London reserve special hatred for them and decry them at any opportunity . Personally I do not have a problem with GBK, their burgers have always been consistently good, they're cooked well, taste nice and the flavour combinations - while sometimes quite bizarre - always work really well. I was therefore pleased to accept my brother's offer of a free burger in exchange for a lift back from the retail hell of Lakeside.

GBK's menu has changed substantially over the years - in its early days there were about ten different burger combinations just for the beef side of things, and several more for chicken, lamb and vegetable. This was just confusing so I was glad to see them rationalise their menu a few years ago and narrow it down to some tried and tested classics plus a monthly special. This is very much in line with the way Byron - the other major gourmet burger chain - organise their menu. The only thing I would say lets GBK's menu down is the beer selection, it is mostly big brewery crap lager or widely available pale ale like BrewDog. It didn't really matter to me today as I was driving anyway, but it'd be nice to see a bit more adventurousness on this part. 

I selected the Don from the menu, it's an uber-cheeseburger of sorts, being made with Gorgonzola and "American cheese" (god knows what that is, I expect it is some sort of hybrid between cheddar and monterery jack) with baconnasise (more on that later), rocket, caramelised onion relish (they call this "onion jam" but let's not beat around the bush here), pickled onion and regular mayo in it. I was feeling like a fat bugger that day so I also ordered a side of sweet potato fries.

The first thing I noticed upon the arrival of my meaty meal was the size of the bun. Most of the burgers I have had recently have fitted neatly inside their bun with little overhang but this one hand plenty of extra space around it. Not a problem per se, but sometimes you do get left with that little bit of meatless bread left behind which is just plain annoying. 
The first bite was good. The burger was well cooked - nicely pink inside as a burger should be - and had a good meaty taste to it. The american cheese part was a bit non-descript but maybe it was overwhelmed a bit by the gorgonzola, which lent that distinctive slightly salty yet strong taste to the burger without drowning out everything else. GBK were restrained in their use of the onion jam which was a relief - too much of that and it could have ruined it - and the rocket and pickled onions gave a satisfying crunch to the burger's texture. It was a satisfying burger and I enjoyed it.
That, however, is not to say it did not have its faults. The bun disintegrated the further on with it I got, the cheese, while nice, wasn't "melty" enough for my liking and instead of covering the top of the patty and dribbling down the sides like a blanket, it just perched on top. The rocket was all stuffed at one end of the bun and not spread out evenly which meant the end of the burger tasted somewhat leafy and peppery (I ended up taking half of it out). The main fault for me, though, was the baconnaise. Baconnaise is what it says on the tin - mayo with bacon stirred through it - and they also serve it with sweet potato fries so I know full well what it should taste like. I couldn't taste it at all, they had used so little that it got swamped by everything else. Using baconnaise is a good idea - not everyone likes their bacon crispy and bacon mayo should impart bacon flavour without the need to put whole rashers in - but you need to use enough to have an impact on the flavour and sadly there just wasn't enough of it in the bun. Shame.

On another note, the sweet potato fries were superb and they gave me a generous helping of baconnaise to dip them in. It's also nice to see them offer free regular mayonnaise, most burger joints would take pleasure in charging you for it.

The Don was a good burger, streets ahead of what you get from the 'big two' burger chains and compared well against the offerings from Byron. While I accept that the melty cheese thing is my preference, a sturdier bun, better topping distribution and less stinginess with the baconnaise would have elevated this burger into the 'eight-point-something' range, instead it scores a solid 7.25.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen Don: 7.25

The Details:

Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Various locations around the UK

www.gbk.co.uk

Burger reviewed: The Don, £9.85

HVNP Burger Rankings (Jan 8th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00
3. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

4. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

4. GBK | The Don | 7.25

Back in Black: The Bleecker Street Black Burger

Without actually looking on the internet to find out, I must admit that I'm not actually sure what a bleecker is. Some street in New York, perhaps? Maybe it's a state of mind. Or something sports related - the US often give us strange sporting terms. What I do know that it lends its peculiar moniker to a very well regarded burger producer whose name regularly crops up at the business end of 'top ten' burger lists. As such they have been high up on my 'must try' list for some time, so when I was passing Liverpool Street the other day I felt that I simply had to stop by.

Spitalfields, thankfully, isn't far from the main drag, being located a short distance up a side road. The market was closing by the time I got there so the only real activity was from stallholders packing away their wares. Bleecker Street is on one of the side 'arms' of the market, with some handy tables in front and a chinese noodle dispensary to one side, their shop front resplendent in chrome silver and black. There was one main thing I wanted to try from here, and that was their 'Black' burger, a double cheeseburger with black pudding. Being hungrier than the proverbial wolf, I parted with fourteen notes for the burger and a portion of 'Angry Fries' and leaned back on the counter, idly watching the chef as he fried up my order. 

The burger was produced quickly enough considering they cooked a batch of fries especially for me, and interestingly came cut in half. I attacked the burger first, it was a monolith of meat and cheese - no fripperies such as salad were included here - and was presented in a sesame bun. The meat was on the red side of medium rare but that's no problem with me, and the smell was divine. So far, so good....

The proof of a burger isn't in the look or smell though, it's in the eating. And boy, this one didn't disappoint. The meat was beautifully tender and soft with a hint of pepper, the cheese oozing in to each bite with a slight creaminess and the black pudding weighing in with its rather distinctive taste. I was slightly apprehensive when ordering this as it would have been easy to overload the burger and make the black pudding dominant but instead it was a supporting act, complementing that wonderful burger patty. This was a tour de force in burgerology (that's certainly a made up word) and even after finishing the burger I was hankering for another despite feeling full up!

A quick word of praise, too, for the angry fries, a generous portion of crisp fries coated in both hot and blue cheese sauces, the sauces worked really well together and my only comment would be that I could have done with more sauce!

Bleecker Street have locations in Spitalfields, Canary Wharf and the South Bank. Go and find one, and if you like black pudding*, make it a black. It'll be the best burger you've had for a long time. 

Bleecker Street Black: 9.25

*If you don't like black pudding, on the strength of the burger alone have a cheeseburger!


The Details:

Bleecker Street
Old Spitalfields Market
Unit B SP4
London
E1 6EA

https://bleeckerburger.co.uk/

Burger reviewed: Bleecker Black, £10

HVNP Burger Rankings (Jan 4th) :

1. Bleecker Street | Black | 9.25
2. Patty & Bun | Ari Gold | 9.00
3. Lucky Chip | Royale with Cheese | 7.5

4. Byron | Father Cheesemas | 7.25

All That Glitters Might be Gold: Patty & Bun's Ari Gold Burger

I've been eating quality burgers in London since well before I started this blog so Patty & Bun (you have to use an ampersand, don't you know!) are no stranger to me. I first encountered them just after they first opened - I needed some fast food that wasn't McDonalds and spied them opposite Liverpool Street station, their windows misty with warmth, tables packed out and a queue up to the door. I didn't get a burger that time, preferring not to queue, but returned a few months later and found out just why it was so busy. In the loose jumble of my mind, Patty & Bun are the London Burger Kings. 

So on a rainy later December afternoon, I found myself outside their door once again. Mired in the post Christmas slump, everyone seemed to be elsewhere so getting a table was easy. Not being ravenously hungry I made do with just a cheeseburger - their headline burger, the Ari Gold - and sat down, eagerly anticipating the burgery goodness.

One thing I am always taken aback by when I order a burger is the size, I guess being brought up on Burger King Whoppers, with their fairly-thin-but-wide patty, will always leave its mark. The meat patty was nice and thick though and it had that wonderful, drippy melted cheese that I so love dribbling gently down the side. There was some salad to give it a bit of texture but not too much. It looked the part, but so have the last two burgers I have eaten and while they were nice enough, they both had faults which would make me think twice about ordering them again. Thankfully, though, it didn't disappoint. The patty was pretty much spot on, I like mine to be slightly rarer than it was served (and I ordered medium rare) but the burger was soft enough and well seasoned enough for me not to mind too much. The sauce was slightly sweet but not strong enough to overwhelm the lovely beef used in the burger. There was a background smoky aftertaste (I presume that was from the mayo) that lifted it nicely and left me salivating for another bite. Quite simply, this burger is excellent, I finished it in no time and part of me wondered why I hadn't stumped up extra for the extra patty as I wanted more. 

There's only three P&B outlets in London but I suggest you find one, and allow the Ari Gold to be your introduction to their world. You won't regret it.

Patty & Bun Ari Gold: 9

The Details:

Patty & Bun
22-23 Liverpool Street
London
EC2M 7PD

www.pattyandbun.co.uk

Burger reviewed: Ari Gold, £7.50