9/10 - Goodman, 11 Old Jewry Street, City of London

Location: If ever there was a true city location for a restaurant, it would be hidden away like Goodman, on a street not unlike Jewry Street. The simple, bold brass lettering above the smoked glass doors being the only indication of the meat palace awaiting inside. Simple, bold wooden furniture and an army of waiting staff clothed in butcher's whites strike you immediately - we dined during a subdued Thursday lunchtime hubbub, and our position right next to Goodman's dry meat ageing room deserves an honorable mention!

Price:
£13 all in. (Burger, fries and any toppings of choice)

Presentation:

Quite good. The old 'stick through the bun and burger to keep it all together' classic worked well here, served on a large oval plate and including a separate bowl of chips. Now, I'm not sure whether it was just me, but my first reaction was - is that it? The size of the burger on the plate just seemed tiny, but rest assured that once I held it in my excited hands, it was beautifully heavy. Clearly it was a matter of perspective...

Toppings:

Seeing as Goodman have possibly the best policy in London of not charging extra for any toppings (a great selection of mushroom, cheddar, bacon, fried egg, or fried onions), I decided to go for the bacon and cheese (there's a bit of a history of that, see previous blog posts...). Both were fabulous, along with some romaine lettuce, pickles, red onion and some tomato.

Bread:
Awesome. I'll fully admit that when I saw it, my heart sank. Having had an awful experience with a brioche bun at Corney and Barrow, I saw the bun that came out and my heart sank. As avid readers of this blog will know, there is nothing that destroys a great burger experience like a bun fail, however this was nothing of the sort! This bun was a glazed, brioche style bun but without any of the sweet brioche style, and it wrapped around the burger magnificently. 

Meat:

Incredible. I don't know whether it was sitting next to the meat ageing room, but somehow the meat glowed in the bun (and not in a radioactive way). Annoyingly it was cooked medium (health and safety meant cooking it rare was totally out), but the burger was wonderfully moist. The patty was made up of thickly chopped, aged beef with great flavour. It melted in my mouth and dripped magically onto the plate. I found myself making a satisfied 'nomnomnom' sound as I was eating it, much to the amusement of my dining companions.

Plate Accessories:

Not a whole lot, but it didn't need much. The chips looked a little anemic, but were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Overall rating: 9/10
This was a very good burger, and my first visit to Goodman was a very good one. Shame the burger couldn't be cooked how I like it, still the goodman burger is a serious kick-ass experience and one I'll be recommending!


Worth another honorable mention was the 2008 Lodge Hill Shiraz, a Jim Barry classic (of which I have six in my cellar), a great spicy, inky Shiraz that will age well for at least the next three years - at £7.50 a glass - in my opinion this is great value and worked really well with the burger.

Meat Three Thursday (#MTT): A meaty adventure in the City of London

The other day I came up with a proposition that may polarise opinion to the same degree as that famous black and yellow yeast-based spread.

The concept is simple, Meat Three Thursday (#MTT). The aim will be to have three meaty meals in the city of London on Thursday 31 March, an adventure I dreamt up a couple of nights ago (yes, I dream of meat)...

The plan is to visit three London restaurants over the course of one day. One breakfast. One lunch. One dinner. The theme being meat. However in the interests of diversity, you can opt for the vegetarian option if you'd like...but please don't associate yourself with the meat eating party.

The planned meat shrines are as follows:

Breakfast
8.30am
Smith of Smithfields
Meaty full breakfast with Old Spot pork sausages, bacon, black pudding and the rest of the breakfast works.

Lunch
1pm
Goodman (Cheapside)
Indulgent burger lunch with all the trimmings.

Dinner
7pm
Hawksmoor (Seven Dials)
Dinner in THE meat shrine - any meat goes (I'll be having the Kimichi Burger!)

As you are no doubt fully aware, all three are carefully chosen as highly recommend places to eat meat in the city, and the latter two of the three I've never eaten in, which is good enough to get my vote.

Anyway, with my lengthy preamble out of the way, everyone is welcome to join me on this voyage of meaty discovery and I'd be very glad of the company! Feel free to attend one, some, or all of the suggested meals, and maybe I'll see you there...