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Tuesday, 31 March 2015

The Bleecker Black from Bleecker St. Burger in Old Spitalfields

Every now and again, a burger stops me dead in my tracks. It's not something I ever expect, but when it happens it gives me immeasurable pleasure.
There are lots of great burgers in London these days, and everyone and their dog has an opinion (did you know there are now more than 15 blogs dedicated to the London burgers, most of which have sprung up in the last 18 months?!) but being the best burger in London is not a superlative I use lightly. The Bleecker Black could be exactly that. The best burger in London.

The make up of this burger is almost embarrassingly simple, but no less magical for it.  Let me explain.

Monday, 16 March 2015

[Review] The Bountiful Cow burger, Eagle Street, London

Tucked away on an unassuming street, set back from the Holborn/Chancery Lane 'strip' sits one of the most tongue-in-cheek pub/restaurants I've been to in London. The Bountiful Cow.

Saturday, 14 March 2015

[Review] Jerkkies Caribbean Restaurant

Those kind people at JUST EAT contacted me the other day and asked if I'd be willing to try out their booking engine and support their Tried & Tasted campaign - so I had a rootle around on the site and found a Caribbean place just around the corner - Jerkkies - that had never hit my radar and gave it a whirl...

For one day only, I decided to exchange my usual beef patty for a caribbean beef patty (hunger and an 'all afternoon meeting' may have had a hand in this), so I went for a one of those, along with a goat curry, plantain, and rice and 'peas'.
The beef patty was full of a sweet and spicy caribbean flavoured steak with a thick sauce, surrounded by a thin, and quite short, pastry coloured with turmeric. It's about 5 mouthfuls of food, but the intense bright flavours of fruit and juicy spice merge with the savoury beef brilliantly. I could probably eat a few of these in one sitting.

The second part of my meal was a goat curry, complete with plantain and kidney bean rice (anyone know why they call it rice and peas?). The dark curried goat meat literally melted on my tongue - with none of the sinew that you can get when using leaner and more active quadroped meat - and the mild curry sauce is packed with turmeric. Tie that in with the sweet mellow plantain and you've got yourself a fantastic lunch.

So trading my usual burger for something a bit different paid off. Don't worry...I won't make a habit of it :)

About the Tried & Tasted Awards

JUST EAT feedback has given Food Lovers across the country the ability to rate their favourite local takeaways. The Tried and Tasted awards gives people from all around the UK who vote for their favourite takeaways via the JUST EAT website the chance to rate their locals who focus on quality and consistency. The consistency award is an uber award that, out of 8,000 restaurants rated every year, recognises a handful of just 20 as the best of the best - receiving the highest ratings and reviews from those cities that had accumulated the most T&T winners overall.



For further details about the Tried and Tasted Awards, read what JUST EAT have to say here: http://www.just-eat.co.uk/blog/most-popular-takeaway-towns-revealed/.

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

[Review] Big Fernand burgers, Percy Street, London

*Update* Big Fernand have now tweaked pricing so burgers are £7-£10, and Fernandines (chips) are £3.

The latest edition to London's burgeoning burger scene, Big Fernand, has just opened in its soft launch phase, which ends on 12 March.
Big Fernand is a VERY French hamburger concept. which makes sense as they hail from Paris where they're already operating five restaurants. In London, their gaff is staffed with a huge number of stereotypically moustachioed, stripey shirted servers and chefs, the majority of whom are actually French - there's a real feel that the whole place has been plucked out of a Paris arrondissement and dropped into Fitzrovia - except they're not taking themselves to seriously.

So, on Day 1, and having never visited the Big Fernand HQ, how do the burgers stack up?

Friday, 6 March 2015

[Competition] Burger Craft opens in Euston at The Exmouth Arms

Burger Craft, originally named Juicy Bastard, launched their forth pop-up kitchen in their brand new flagship Euston pub - The Exmouth Arms - at the start of February following a £150k refurbishment.

It's traditional Victorian pub, a short walk from Euston station on Starcross Street and seats 80. They're serving from their new ‘Burger Craft Does..’ menu which sees 12 classic British dishes reinvented and served in a demi brioche bun - as well as The Juicy Bastard burger which we all know and love.

As well as serving award-winning burgers, The Exmouth Arms will serve a London-focused product range including 15 brands of gin and 50% of their bottled and draught beer coming from London-based breweries.

To celebrate their new pub, they've given Hamburger Me! a meal for 4 to give away. To be in with a chance to win, simply Tweet "I want a #JuicyBastard @hamburgerme @Burger_Craft" or post on my Facebook wall.