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