[Review] Boom Burger, Notting Hill's Jamaican burger joint

Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its burger time!

I promise that's my only reference to Cool Runnings in this post. But I had to, you see, as right on Portobello Road, and a short walk from Ladbroke Grove tube station is Jamaican burger joint Boom Burger.

The eponymous Boom Burger from the Jamaican burger joint on Portobello Road

I'd been invited down by Boom Burger to try out the menu, which I was pretty excited about. Walking from the tube, past Flyover, a bar pumping out Jamaican tunes with a clientele who were already leaping around at 6.15 on a Tuesday evening, I had a pang of nostalgia for the colourful, unconventional feel of an area I'd spent a fair bit of time in the early 2000s.

Then directly opposite me on Portobello Road is Boom Burger. It's pretty hard to miss with its red/green/yellow/black livery and a queue out the door.

So, onto the burger.

Price:

Boom Burger - £8
Jerk Wings - £5
Stamp & Go - £5
Plantain Fries - £2
French Fries - £2

Presentation:

Everything comes in plastic baskets, reminiscent of pub fayre in the 90s, but replacing the dull brown with garish colours that fit in to the Jamaican branding theme. The burger arrives with its shiny, toasted brioche lid resting on the top, cheese oozing down the sides of the patty, and jerk bacon jam running over it, like a wave of molten lava. It's none too shabby.

Toppings:

Accessorising the top of the patty are just two ingredients, but what a pair. The cheese is mild in flavour but satisfyingly wraps the patty like a coat. The bacon jam is excellent, the sweetness is tempered by a savoury hit from the bacon, and its been reduced down until almost black in colour - it is, of course, made in house. Other ingredients include a good, and slightly spicy jerk mayonnaise, mild red onion offers crunch and a counterpoint to the soft bun, cheese, patty combo, but the tomato and lettuce don't add much, apart from a vivid colour contrast.

Meat: 

Sourced from super butcher HG Walter, the meat in the Boom Burger patty is a blend of rump and sirloin cut with bone marrow - I would have said it had a low fat content, somewhere around 10% based on how juicy it was - but I was corrected by the chef who simply said it was 'much higher' than that. We'll agree to disagree. The burger WAS fairly lean, but the grind was coarse, the burger was cooked medium and the seasoning and flavour was great - matching particularly well to the bacon jam and jerk mayo flavours.

Bun:

Standard demi-brioche. Most likely from Millers in Wimbledon. Toasted and tasty.

Accessories:

I went a bit ape-shit piggy on sides, wanting to try them all. So opted for Stamp & Go (saltfishcakes), Jerk wings, and half-and-half plantain and french fries.

The winner here hands down, are the plantain fries - big, crispy, chewy strips of jerk floured plantain are pretty much the only thing you'll want to eat for days. And they're only £2. That's phenomenal value.

The Jerk wings are good, marinated in jerk before being deep fat fried. My terrible photography doesn't do these justice and I hoovered these.

Stamp & Go was quite good. The salt fish has a great flavour, but the lumps of fish were overcooked and a bit solid.

Overall rating: 9/10

This is a fun, enjoyable, and unusual burger. It looks good, and the taste is great, but I'd like to taste a bit more of a spice kick in the various elements. All said, it score a very respectable nine out of ten.

Boom Burger can be found at 272 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, W10 5TY.

Find Boom Burgers on my Interactive London Burger Map