Patty & Bun Soho

Chicks over beef

Smoked Confit Chicken Wings with BBQ sauce & Spring Onions

Refusing to fall behind the "burger race" against rivals like Honest Burger and Meat Liquor, Patty & Bun have just launched its 4th site in Soho. Unlike the very first Patty & Bun near Bond Street, it is a lot bigger, spreading across two floors with a cocktail bar... and thank goodness, the mad queue is no longer visible. The "evil" roast chicken skin was naughty but packed with wonderful fatty flavours, super crispy with a great combination of sweet Maple and chilli hot sauce, this is junk food at its best.The thunder thighs with chilli butter was also done well, the meat was tender and finely seasoned, Nando doesn't even come close to it. The infamous confit chicken wings once again was fabulous, so good that I ordered two portion. the meat was moist with a wonderful sweet and smoky dressing, easily one of the best street food dishes in London. 

Honest Burger Covent Garden

Going too fast?

The Rib Man burger

Honest Burger has always been my no1 burger joint since when I have tried for the first time back in 2013 when it only had 2 outlets, now 10 plus strong with many more on the ways, the management expects to hit the 20 marks by the end of 2016, Honest Burger really has taken off as a business. Who could have imagined a humble burger van can turn into a multi million pound operation? Byron has done it, Meat Liquor is well on the way and now Honest Burger is right up there too.

Meat Mission

Meaty King

Meat is good...

I am a big fan of Meat Mission, the burgers are definitely a step better than your average burger chains, not to mention they have an impressive drinks collection, from draft beers to a strong list of cocktails. Out of the three "Meat" joints in London, I just found Meat Mission is a notch above its old brothers Meat Liquor and Meat Market. The food are more consistent and the well spread out edgy dining room make this place more relaxing, and they take booking!!  First time trying the garbage plate which contained a massive tray of chessy chips with onion, gravy and a piece of beef patty. The flavours were a lot more mild than the burgers but it proved to be a pretty decent alternative. 

Bleecker Street Burger

Salty hipster

fries and burger

The "hipster" burger joint Bleecker Street Burger is located inside the Old Spitalfields Market, it gained a rather large following after starting off as a street food vendor, with gigs such as Street Feast and Southbank. This is my first time trying Bleecker Street as a permanent business, but it has to be by far my worst experience from Bleecker Street, the meat was still as good as ever, cooked medium rare with real richness... but the seasoning was out of control, the salt level was far too high and I really struggled to finish my burger. It was a real let down and hopefully it was just a one off as usually the burgers from them are pretty solid.

double cheese burger

Food 1/5

What I paid: 
£13 pp

Average cost without drinks:
£13 pp 

Pavilion Building, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 6EA

https://bleeckerburger.co.uk/

Burger and Lobster

Jumbo big boy

burger and lobster

I am a massive fan of Burger and Lobster, operated by the same people behind the fabulous steak house Goodman, Burger and Lobster keeps it simple by offering whole lobster, lobster roll or burger for £20 with salad and chips. But if you want to go the extra mile, you can also check out its blackboard to see if there are any special lobster "big boys" available that charge you by the weight. 

Byron

Burger champ

Sweet Caroline

Byron shows no sign of slowing down expanding in 2015, now a household name and one of the most successful premium burger chains in London, with more stores planning to open in the rest of the UK. One of the successful formulas behind Byron is its simplicity, doing one thing exceptional well, hence the slogan "Proper Burger". The other is coming up with monthly specials to keep up the marketing and social media buzz, the specials are usually tied in with cultures and seasons to make it exciting and keep the Byron's image fresh. 
Some of the specials I've tasted lately:

Honest Burger

Honestly good

Honest Burger

Honest Burger is growing and growing fast, not so long ago it was just a humble burger joint in Brixton, now 8 chains strong with more to follow in 2015. Honest Burger is known for its juicy premium burgers and the infamous rosemary chips and I am a massive fan of it, I was lucky to be invited to visit its latest opening at Liverpool Street to try out some of its new items on the menu. The Liverpool Street joint also serves breakfast with some interesting items such as the sausage and sage patty muffin with fried egg and black pudding, sounded like a winner for me. 

Meat Liquor

Meaty delight

Meat Liquor Brighton

Meat Liquor has gone from strength to strength over the years as a business, with expansions beyond London and acquiring other businesses such as Wishbone in Brixton and re-branded to Chicken Liquor. Meat Liquor is edgy, fun and trendy, plus factoring in the popular premium burger trend, all of these proven to be the formula that is turning the Meat Liquor brand into one of the biggest independent up market burger operations. 

Patty & Bun

The winger dinner

1 year on, I returned to Patty & Bun due to my limited time and had to settle for something quick in Marylebone. I walked past Patty & Bun and there were no queue so I decided to give it a 3rd chance. I actually had an awful time from my 2nd visit but perhaps it could only improve after 1 year and at a less busy time. I went for the infamous ‘Winger Winger Chicken Dinner' and it was fast food at its finest, the flavour of the sweet smoked BBQ sauce was perfect, just as was the nicely deep fried confit wings. Not too dry and freshened up by some spring onions. 

BBQ wings and thunder thighs

Monthly special

Smoky Robinson

I also had the chance to try out the thunder thighs aka chicken thighs with jalapeno butter sauces, it was mildly spicy with a rather thick texture, the portion was big and it could have been a main on its own. The 'smoky Robinson burger' was a big improvement from one year ago, the mixture of garnishes were flavorsome and had a great balance, however the meat itself was a touch lower in quality compared to Honest Burger. Overall it was by far a much more pleasant experience and the confit wings truly were some of the finest wings in London, I can't get enough of it.

Food 3.5
Service 4
Ambience 3
Value 3

£20 per head with a beer

54 James St, Marylebone
London, UK W1U 1EU

www.pattyandbun.co.uk/

Cafe Football

Football and food??

Cafe Football is a fun concept opened by former footballers from Manchester United. It is basically serving food that you would love to eat but in a creative and more refined manor while watching a game. I walked passed it and decided to give the place a go, largely due to being a big fan of MU and I'd heard the menu concept was put together by Michelin starred chef Michael Wignall from The Latymer, so surely it couldn't be that bad.

Cafe Football

My daily special "offside burger" was basically a beef burger with Mediterranean elements, deep fried mozzarella with olives and chorizo. It was surprisingly pleasant with all the ingredients working really well together, the earthiness and the creaminess of the cheese blended in nicely with the peppery and smoky notes of the chorizo. The single let down I guess was the beef itself as the quality was just not there when it comes to the taste.

Asian ribs

Offside Burger

In the end I found the food at Cafe Football is not a great deal in different in quality if I compared to some of the better chains. But the ideas are there and price wise it is just about right. But I couldn't help but to to think the ingredients could be a little better, take the burger for example, if that concept is taken by places such as Byron or Honest Burger, I can see it can take it to another level due to the superior use of base ingredients.

Food 3
Service 3
Ambience 4
Value 4

£18 per head with a soft drink

146 The Street Westfield Stratford, London, E20 1EN

www.cafe-football.com

Meat Market

Meaty mess

The Meat Liquor brand shows no sign of losing its hip factor, you can still see the outrageous long queue at its flagship joint near Bond Street at peak time but for some reason, even at weekends, Meat Market in Covent Garden is surprisingly quite most of the time these days. Maybe partly due to the US burgers invasion of Shake Shack and Five Guys opening in the area and the lack of physical awareness, as the very place itself is located on the second floor of the Jubliee Market Hall.

Meat Market

fires and wings

monkey figers

The bingo wings and monkey fingers were spicy but not overly challenging on the palate, with a hint of sourness in the mix and I really enjoyed it with the cold blue cheese dip that it was served with. The Meat Market special Black Palace was a real beast with lovely grilled onion and black pepper sauces glazed over the meat without flooding it all over, it was a much needed improvement compared to my previous visit. And easily the best burgers in Covent Garden.

green chilli burger

Black Palace

Having said that, I can confirm the food at Meat Market is more or less the same kind of quality compared to Meat Liquor and Meat Mission. The only difference is that you order just like in any other fast food place with no table service. Without the fuss of queuing, Meat Market is a great alternative to Meat Liquor and it isn't too far away and you can be in and out in less than 30 mins to make it ideal for a quick meal. After all, who needs table service when all you want to do is just dig deep and dirty for some good old fashion tasty burgers.

Food 3.5
Service 3
Ambience 5
Value 5

£16 per head

The Deck, Jubliee Market Hall, 
Tavistock St, London WC2E 8BE

www.themeatmarket.co.uk

Chicken Shop & Dirty Burger

Best of both worlds

I've got to admit, when I first visited the original Chicken Shop and Dirty Burger in Kentish Town, I went a little bit too far and ate at both sites one after the other as I rarely travel to Kentish Town but I really wanted to try both Chicken Shop and Dirty Burger. That evening I could barely walk after downing a Dirty Burger as well as a half chicken plus some sides. So it seems like the owner aka Soho House wanted me to relive the moment and launched both places under one roof in Whitechapel.

best of both worlds

hello chicken...

Honest Burgers Oxford Circus

As awesome as burgers can get

Honest Burgers has continued to expand in 2014 and is now one of the most successful independent burger joints in London, founders Tom and Phil got the formula spot on with its well sourced meat and quality garnish in the burgers, serving it in a humble setting at a very affordable price.

Honest Burgers Oxford Circus

fried sausage and curry

Burger and Lobster

The mighty combo

Burger and lobster really has become one of the most popular restaurant chains in London, now 5 chains strong with another on its way in Fitzrovia. What hasn't changed is its ridiculously crazy waiting time, especially the Soho and Mayfair branches. I actually was sad enough to wait 2 hours once but I work out a way to avoid that by visiting the Farringdon site as it seemed it is the less busy branch. No queue even at 8pm in the evening and still not fully packed so I guess in the future if I ever want to get a Burger and Lobster meal then I know where I should head to.

steaming lobsters

grilling lobsters

burger and lobster!

:p

I went for the combo deal which you get 2 burgers, a whole lobster and 2 desserts to share between 2 people. It was the first time I've ever tried their burgers and it turned out to be rather awesome. The meat was really moist and juicy, full of smoky and meaty aromas. It was a real mouthful and it was just as good as my favourite burger from Honest Burgers, although the cost is almost double. The lobster as expected was great and very consistent if I was to benchmark with my previous visits, Burger and Lobster doesn't offer fireworks but it sure does the job when it comes to delivering great burgers and lobsters.

Food 6
Service 6
Ambience 7
Value 7

£35 with 1 beer

38-42 St John St, London EC1M 4AY

http://www.burgerandlobster.com/

Byron

The B Rex special

Byron knows how to make a proper hamburger and that is nothing new, the fine quality meat it uses as well as the simple and fresh garnish results in some of the finest burgers you can get in London. What I really love is they always come up with some amazing monthly special to keep the burger fans interested, the Triple Cheesemas special I had back in late 2013 was pure heaven and can easily stand toe to toe with my favourite burger joint, honest burger.

This time around I went to my local Byron and ordered the B Rex special as well as trying their courgette fries for the first time. Just like the name suggested, the B Rex was a real beast and perhaps one of the tallest burgers I have encountered. It had a giant onion ring, good number of slice, wonderfully smoked crispy bacon with some fine American cheese. Not much of a fan of Jalapeños peppers normally, but when its served with BBQ sauce and mayonnaise, it reduced the intensive spices level and worked really well with the beef patty. The courgette fries was also surprisingly pleasant, sweet and fresh with a golden crispy clothing, as good as any vegetable tempura you would find in a decent Japanese restaurant in London. Yet another solid burger time at Byron, can't wait to see what they have got in store next for their next special.

Food 5.5
Service 5
Ambience 5
Value 7

£18 per head with a beer

various locations

http://www.byronhamburgers.com

Honest Burger Portobello

Brew burger time

After a good number of burger adventures for two years across London, with a few extra pounds added on my weight, Honest Burger is still the best and the undisputed champion in London when its comes into great British burgers. So what can they do to take it to the next level? Well well well, they came up with the idea with an independent craft brewer, Brew Dog to create a burger called "brew burger". Using craft beer in the cooking process and this just sounded too good not to try!

brew time baby!

Tommi's Burger Joint

Hipster from Iceland 

One of my new year resolutions was not to consume any burgers for at least a few months, well it didn't take long to break my own promise as I visited Tommi's burger joint toward the end of January. I have walked passed Tommi's Burger Joint so many times, but for one reason or another, I never managed to give it a try so it was about time to visit this hip burger joint that originates from Iceland.

Tommi's Burger Joint

menu

Byron

Movember November

Byron, one of the pioneers that kicked off the London gourmet burger trend shows no sign of slowing down with expansion opening across the UK.  I always enjoyed Byron's burgers, their monthly special has always been really appealing and I was so sad when I missed out the Le Smoky special from October. 

Movember time!

Meat Liquor

Triple chilli challenge

My second visit to Meat Liquor, one of the most successful UK burger joints. Meat Liquor is known for its legendary Dead Hippies burgers and the infamous long queue. It is normal for you to have to wait at least an hour to get in to this hip place which looks more like a night club than a burger joint with the neon lights setting and a bouncer at the front. This time around I took my friends to enter their deadly triple chilli challenge.

Meat Mission

Meaty mission

From the same people behind the trendy burger joints in Meat Liquor and Meat Market, Meat Mission in Hoxton is a trendy burger joint in a colourful church setting with a "Shoreditch" touch that attracts the young and fashionable crowds. The real big plus about this place compared to other Meat joints is that they take bookings here so it is pretty rare to see the mad queue you would often witness at Meat Liquor.

Meat Mission