[Review] Eat the Farm streetfood burgers

Relatively new on the street food scene, Eat the Farm are showing their pedigree by popping up alongside Street Kitchen in Broadgate Circle next to Liverpool street station. Selling out of a converted VW van, with a bun toaster in the cab and surfboards for menus, these guys can be found every Thursday in Broadgate Circle (next to Liverpool Street station).

Price:

Dirty Cow - £7.50 + bacon £1

Presentation:

Served up in a pressure-formed cardboard burger box with an Eat the Farm sticker emblazoned on top, this immediately reminds me of the Patty & Bun of old when they were slinging burgers from The Doodle Bar in Battersea. Interestingly Street Kitchen (where Joe from Patty & Bun cut his street food burger teeth) have both an airstream trailer and a sandwich joint just a stone's throw from where Eat the Farm are currently selling their wares. Serendipity?

Inside the burger box is a beautifully proportioned bacon cheeseburger that fits its box like a glove, with its shiny brioche bun resplendent in the cold, winter sunshine. Pretty good start.

Toppings:

The Dirty Cow burger is topped with Kentish Blue cheese. Now normally that means a massive hit of overpowering stilton, but in this case the mild Kentish Blue makes this topping choice a good thing. The generous slab of gooey cheese is slapped on top of the beef patty - softened but not hanging in festoons down the side - is mellow and offers the perfect counterpoint to the added bacon (a snip at just £1). The bacon is thick, crisp and cured, and is piled high on top of the cheese, and topped with thick chunks of red onion chutney - all done in a roughly chopped 'farmhouse' style.

As I mentioned, the flavour of the cheese in this burger is subtle for blue cheese, and it acts more as the glue to hold the big flavours together. For which it works brilliantly. The salty, semi-sweet hit of meaty, streaky bacon smacks you around the chops (in a good way), and in turn the salt cuts through through the semi-sweet chutney. "So where's the acidity?" I hear you ask - well that is well balanced through the "dirty" sauce which has it in buckets.  Finally, thick chunks of iceberg lettuce are laid across the bottom bun adding more crunch to the burger.

Meat:

The 1/3 lb (140g) patty is from farms in Kent, and it packs a pretty meaty, fatty punch. It's cooked on a flat top grill, and you can see that satisfying caramelised crust on the meat.

I have one gripe, however, and it's that this patty is on the medium/well done side - thankfully the fat content keeps the burger moist.

Bun:

The Dirty Cow bun is a brioche bun. The glazing has cracked slightly, but I'll put this down to the cold weather as it's beautifully, pillowy soft and has been 

Accessories:

None. The focus here is on burgers, and they don't let incidentals like fries or onion rings distract them...

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Altogether I'm pretty happy with this burger. Yes there are some elements that could be tweaked - some heavier seasoning on the patty, and a lighter cooking to pink - but it's a sizeable feast for a lunchtime and has some pretty punch flavour to boot.