Red Dog Saloon: The Bad, The Bad and The Ugly.

Red Dog Saloon is perched on the corner of Hoxton Square, but its faded faux western facade, and brightly lit interior feels out of place amongst the low lit counter culture bars that surround it.

I was out for a couple of drinks on a Monday night and happened to be around the corner from Red Dog Saloon. I'd heard some mixed reviews of the burgers so it was a great opportunity to give it a Burger Me! once over.

Price:

Bacon cheeseburger £8.50
Blue cheese and bacon cheeseburger £8.50
Fries £2.75
Onion rings £2.75

Presentation:

All the burgers came lid-on, plated with garnishes of coleslaw, a thick finger of pickle, beef tomato, and a leaf of romaine lettuce. This is a burger where ALL the salad is out of the burger, which seems to me a bit of a cop out, or maybe a way to make the plate the burger is served on look less empty.

Toppings:

The bacon cheeseburger was topped with a miserly attempt at a topping. This consisted several pieces of dry and curly streaky bacon plonked on top. The American cheese wasn't much better being barely melted onto the meat. 

Meat:

A 6oz chuck patty apparently cooked medium rare is the core of this burger. It wasn't. In fact it's barely pink in the middle. It is seasoned, but the ground beef feels overworked and slightly sludgy.

Bun:

Godawful. What could have been a dense squidgy bun on first glance turns out to be a dry, untoasted gag-fest. What moisture might have been left feels like it's been leached out by a combination of heat lamp and old age. The only redeeming factor was my pint of Camden Meantime IPA.

Accessories:

Fries were fine, actually not bad at all, but the onion rings were massively disappointing. The breadcrumb exterior is dry, like the bun, and almost cold with a slimy, half cooked thick ring of onion inside. Unappetising. Coupled with a thousand-island style sauce that had been out so long it had formed a firm skin. Almost unpalatable.

Overall rating: 4/10

This burger scores a dismal 4/10 - the sludgy meat, the offensively dry, untoasted bun and unsauced toppings being bad enough crimes in themselves - coupled with a complete lack of interest in making a half decent attempt at palatable food. I visited on a Monday night, around 8.30pm, and the place was packed, so I doubt this review will do much to deter the hordes. 

The most interesting thing about Red Dog Saloon is I've had fans of the blog beg me to add this joint to my list, and others tell me to avoid it like the plague. I've also had their chef in charge of their Twitter account respond to my disappointed comments from the evening letting me know 'something must have gone wrong'. It may well have done, but when a place divides opinion like this (50% of the time it works every time...) there's a consistency issue that needs sorting.

[Competition] Win Tickets to Two Nights Only at The Exmouth Arms

It's almost here.

Two nights only, the burger-focused evenings from James Morgan and Chris Todd [you know, the one I wrote about a few weeks ago] have their tickets going on sale at 19:00 on Thursday 23 August. To be in with a chance of grabbing one, keep your eyes peeled for the link on their twitter account http://twitter.com/twonightsonly and their facebook page, and make sure you don't miss out.

There is, however, another way to get your hands on some. Burger Me! has two tickets to give away to two avid readers of m'blog. To enter the draw to win a ticket, simply sign up for the Burger Me! mailing list.* I'll draw the competition over the Bank Holiday weekend and two lucky winners on the mailing list will win tickets!

To recap, here's what your ticket will get you: 

Dates: 
19 and 20 September from 19:30

Location: 
The Exmouth Arms, 23 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QL

Tickets:
Tickets on sale from 19:00
26 tickets available per night
£40 per ticket


Ticket price includes:
Perfect Storm cocktails by Kraken 
Pale Ale by Camden Brewery


Starters:
Angels on Horseback
Crayfish Thermidor
Wagyu Tartare


The main event:
The Forty Burger (Black Label beef as used in the Minetta Tavern Black Label Burger)
Fries
Fried Oxtail Donuts
Onion Rings
Coleslaw


Dessert:
Chocolate Brownie

*Don't worry! I'll be holding your email address in a secure vault that it won't be able to escape from, except occasionally when I'll send you the details of something really cool - like free tickets to a burger pop-up, or the chance to win stuff from the Burger Me! shop. 

Betjamen Arms and MotherFlipper: London Burger Roundup #7

The latest London Burger roundup, submitted by you. This week we have a cheeseburger from The Betjeman Arms, MotherFlipper, and an unknown joint near Bond St...:

[Advance Preview] Dirty Burger. A Dirty Little Secret from Soho House

Three words: Filthy. Dirty. Burger. 

This is Soho Houses' Dirty Little Secret. It's also what you get from the latest burger concept about to kick off in Kentish Town. I was invited by Louis to join him on launch evening. What you are about to see is pure filth.

Burgers from MotherFlipper and Patty and Bun: London Burger Roundup #6

Today's London Burger Roundup features burger porn from the ubiquitous MotherFlipper, and the recent Patty and Bun pop-up at The Endurance, Soho:

Elliot's Cafe: The burger that blew my socks off

How could I avoid visiting a natural wine burger bar pop-up in Borough Market? Especially one which involved Elliot's Café, a well-respected and much raved-about restaurant located in Borough Market, just down from the Market Porter pub on Stoney Street. This burger pop-up market stall, in conjunction with RAWfair - a celebration of natural wine from growers who want to demonstrate the power of wine without additives - has a simple proposition: Sell the Elliot's burger, with their fries, alongside glasses of great wine. 

My kind of pop up.

Elliot's Burger in Borough Market

FATTBurger at The Sun and 13 Cantons, Soho

FATTburger is currently in residency at The Sun and 13 Cantons in Soho, having previously popped up for several months in Dalston, and it's yet another another burger concept to hit the streets of Soho this summer.

Double Fatt Piggy burger

Having had a weekend where I'd popped into Burger Bear, and missed out on Burger Breakout, it was a Monday lunchtime when I popped into Soho to sample the Fattburger wares with trusty #teamburger regular Alex (@eatingsoho).