Since July, team Bleecker St. Burger have been serving up some of London's cheapest street food burgers from their black and silver truck, popping up all over the capital in places like the Exhibition Road festival, Eat St. and most recently at Kerb nr. King's Cross where I FINALLY managed to catch up with them...
Named after Bleecker St. in NYC, these guys know their shit when it comes to good quality, simple burgers - in fact there are only three burgers on the menu. The Cheeseburger, the Double Cheeseburger, and the Tofu Veggie Burger. Scratch that. There are only two burgers on the menu, and I had them both.
Cheeseburger - £4.50
Double Cheeseburger - £7.90
Mixed Fries - £2.75
Toppings:
Great. The motto Bleecker St. Burger seem to have is 'keep it simple'. Gimme some special sauce, gimme some american cheese, a couple of leaves of iceberg and that's your lot. The american cheese on my first double cheeseburger was better melted than that of my second single cheeseburger, but both were satisfyingly gummy. The special sauce - make shake shack style (think mustard mayo with pickles, paprika, ketchup and cayenne) and very much reminded me of a souped-up Big Mac sauce - was excellent. You know, that kind of nostalgic taste you get when eating proper comfort food. The iceberg, however was purely incidental, though I expect it's there to give some crunch and structure to the soft bunmeatcheesesauce.
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - Cheeseburger")
Excellent. The patties are supplied by The Butchery on Maltby Street, the same burgers used by Workshop in their 9/10 rated burger, they were light-to-medium seasoned, melt-in-the-mouth aged beef patties, cooked a perfect medium-rare to boot. This, my burger-loving friends, is a Meat Win.
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - Cheeseburger bite-through")
Accessories:
For me, the only thing that let the Bleecker St. Burger proposition down was the fries. I opted for mixed fries - a combination of sweet potato and normal potato and they were far from the best street food fries I've had. They were just a a bit soft, a bit soggy. Great fries are difficult, particularly in a street food van. You need consistent heat in the oil, which will cool as you add cold or frozen potato, and the sweet potato is doubly difficult as the starch content is higher, and the % hydration in it varies massively...even Tom Byng from Byron hasn't been able to add it to the menu, not from want of trying, and he has commercial kitchens and everything...
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - The Van")
I loved both my double cheeseburger AND my second, single cheeseburger. It ticks off everything I look for in a burger - good construction, quality ingredients, harmony, nostalgia - and given all that, the Bleecker St. cheeseburger retails at a brilliantly low £4.50, making it possibly the cheapest high-quality burger on the streets of London at the moment. Go expecting simple, hearty fayre and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Bleecker St. Burger are currently serving at Kerb (King's Cross).
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - Double Cheeseburger") |
| Make mine a DOUBLE. |
Price:
Cheeseburger - £4.50Double Cheeseburger - £7.90
Mixed Fries - £2.75
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - Cheeseburgers") |
| One for you and one for me - two cheeseburgers from Bleecker St. Burger at Kerb |
Presentation:
Pretty good. Simply constructed (bunsaucemeatcheesesaladsaucebun), yet substantial, I could barely wait for my burger to be lidded and slid across the counter so I could wrap my salivating mouth around it.Toppings:
Great. The motto Bleecker St. Burger seem to have is 'keep it simple'. Gimme some special sauce, gimme some american cheese, a couple of leaves of iceberg and that's your lot. The american cheese on my first double cheeseburger was better melted than that of my second single cheeseburger, but both were satisfyingly gummy. The special sauce - make shake shack style (think mustard mayo with pickles, paprika, ketchup and cayenne) and very much reminded me of a souped-up Big Mac sauce - was excellent. You know, that kind of nostalgic taste you get when eating proper comfort food. The iceberg, however was purely incidental, though I expect it's there to give some crunch and structure to the soft bunmeatcheesesauce.
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - Cheeseburger")
Meat:
Excellent. The patties are supplied by The Butchery on Maltby Street, the same burgers used by Workshop in their 9/10 rated burger, they were light-to-medium seasoned, melt-in-the-mouth aged beef patties, cooked a perfect medium-rare to boot. This, my burger-loving friends, is a Meat Win.
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - Cheeseburger bite-through")
Bun:
Pretty good. This is a simple, soft white, sesame-seeded bun from breadSTORY. It's fresh, light, and has a hint of sweetness. It's robust, but not heavy and is a good alternative to the Miller's brioche used by many of the capital's restaurants for their burgers.Accessories:
For me, the only thing that let the Bleecker St. Burger proposition down was the fries. I opted for mixed fries - a combination of sweet potato and normal potato and they were far from the best street food fries I've had. They were just a a bit soft, a bit soggy. Great fries are difficult, particularly in a street food van. You need consistent heat in the oil, which will cool as you add cold or frozen potato, and the sweet potato is doubly difficult as the starch content is higher, and the % hydration in it varies massively...even Tom Byng from Byron hasn't been able to add it to the menu, not from want of trying, and he has commercial kitchens and everything...
.jpg "Bleecker Street Burger - The Van")
Overall rating: 9/10
I loved both my double cheeseburger AND my second, single cheeseburger. It ticks off everything I look for in a burger - good construction, quality ingredients, harmony, nostalgia - and given all that, the Bleecker St. cheeseburger retails at a brilliantly low £4.50, making it possibly the cheapest high-quality burger on the streets of London at the moment. Go expecting simple, hearty fayre and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.Bleecker St. Burger are currently serving at Kerb (King's Cross).
Hmmm I have visited them a few times at Eat Street and found the burgers completely over salted and over cooked. I suspect good meat lies at the heart of the burger but it looked as if they part cook then finish. Maybe these were cooked to order?
ReplyDeleteStill loving Tommi's and the mustardy Dirty Burger and when Mother Flipper don't over salt and over cook they are excellent. New discovery Burger Bear looks like it may become a favourite though, he really knowns what he is doing with great meat, perfect seasoning and spot on cooking.
Great blog on eating in London
ReplyDeleteSweet potato fries always sound much much better than they taste! Burger looks great though.
ReplyDeleteReally? Found them mediocre at best. As for the line cook - they were cooking one burger at a time in a pathetic attempt to form a f*cking mile long queue...
ReplyDeleteThe buns are not from Flour City but from breadSTORY (breadboxlondon@gmail.com) instead.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up - I've made the update.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Damian! I agree, these can be a bit soggy.
ReplyDeleteDid you taste the burger at thefinal?surprised they won agianst patty & bun
ReplyDelete