[Review] Giant Robot Burger, Clerkenwell Road

"Oh God, there's a GIANT ROBOT on Clerkenwell Road."

"Ha ha, Steve, very funny."

This, unfortunately, was the precursor to my second visit to Giant Robot. Part of the stable of restaurants that incorporate RedHook and Rotary Bar and Diner, Giant Robot is located on Clerkenwell Road just behind Farringdon Station.

Giant Robot Rotary Burger

Price:

The Rotary Burger, taken from sister restaurant Rotary Bar and Diner, including fries - £11.40.
Add bacon for £0.99.

Rotary Burger from Giant Robot

Presentation

Has anyone else noticed the growth in the metal tray to serve a burger? It used to be wooden board with knife inserted sadistically through the centre of the burger, but now it's all about the brushed aluminium metal tray.

The burger itself has impact, it ain't pretty, but it begs to have teeth sunk into it. Its bacon and cheese guts splaying untidily from beneath the dark brown glazed brioche bun. There's a seriously generous portion of fries in a bowl on the side, and a spear of dill pickle on the side (a la Byron who started the trend pre-2011).

Giant Robot Rotary Burger with fries.

Toppings

Great bacon. Thick, salty rashers of streaky bacon were excellent. Cheese (unmelted) was, however, lost to the power of the bacon. Chopped pickled onions a la Patty & Bun and Street kitchen round this off, but they need more bite to cut through the sweet and rich aged beef flavours, and the burger sauce also quickly became sickly sweet.

A fist full of bacon and pickled onion hanging out the Giant Robot Rotary Burger

Meat

The aged rare breed beef was excellent BUT sadly was cooked well beyond med-rare resulting in a distinct lack of mouth melting joy a rarer cooked aged beef patty can bring.

Giant Robot burger cut-through

Bun

This was pretty good.  A sesame seeded full brioche with light toasting. However after a couple of bites, and merged with the sickly house sauce, the whole thing was just TOO rich. On the plus side, there were no issues with bun strength as it remained in tact to the last bite.

Giant Robot burger cut-through. Alt-angle, no flash.

Accesories

The Rotary burger comes with a generous portion of crispy french fries. They're unsalted which actually made me quite happy (add salt to taste) and they're pretty decent. Pickle spear was fine, a standard dill jobbie.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

I had a chat with our waitress about the burger after we'd finished it and even she said the burger didn't quite hit the mark, but couldn't put her finger on what the problem was. The elements are all there - great brioche, aged beef patty, awesome bacon - but there's a cloying richness to the whole thing that makes finishing it a chore rather than a pleasure. Fix that and you've got a pretty decent burger.

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