Gourmet Burger Kitchen (Trafford Centre)

So it's about time these memoirs mentioned meat between bread, and so here it is. The first burger to feature in the memoirs comes from the Gourmet Burger Kitchen restaurant in the Trafford Centre food court. 

The Trafford Centre was probably one of the first real out of town shopping centres which included all the usual high street shops alongside entertainment complexes such as a cinema, while also managing to boast a huge selection of restaurants and food outlets. 

For those that have never been, the food court is entered either from the car park via the Trafford Centres favourite marble effect staircase, or via a number of "streets" of various themes leading from the shopping area. These themed streets all lead to a large room which houses one end of a ship making the main focal point. The ground floor comprises of lots of seating area around a large central pool like water feature. Look up from here and you can see the "stars" on the ceiling. 

Much like the retail shops, you can find the usual dominating high street food outlets on the ground floor, and restaurant chains around the first floor. The choice is huge! There are over 50 food and drink companies to choose from. Whatever you like there's something for you.

The first trip for the memoirs within the Trafford Centre was to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. 

Situated on the first floor directly facing the ship feature in the food court, the newly refurbished Gourmet Burger Kitchen is one I've been keen to try for a while. There is the option to sit "outside" the restaurant (but this feels more like you're sat within the path of people making their way around the Trafford Centre), or inside (where it feels much more separated from the rest of the Trafford Centre sat inside the restaurants). 

The newly refurbished interior is a light, bright experience with a mixture of clean white tiles mixed and rustic timber panels. At first there doesn't look to be much seating inside the restaurant but there is additional seating on a balcony area above. 

"From the first bite to the last"

Inside the restaurant

Upon arrival we were warmly welcomed by the manager on duty who offered us a seat inside while we waited for a table to be cleared. This was hardly worth sitting down as the table was ready so quickly after. Once seated he served out the menus and explained the process of how things work here. Food is ordered at the bar and additional sauces and napkins collected from a table near by. This seems to be becoming more common in restaurants. It varies on the establishment as to whether it works or not, although an establishment like this doesn't really suit it. It has the feel of a proper restaurant where you'd expect the standard level of service. 

Collect your own sauce

The manager before leaving us to browse the menus also highlighted to us their newly overhauled mobile application. Download this and use it when you order food for your next visit you earn a free item from the menu. Come again and you increase the value of this item etc etc. A very clever promotional trick as we'd all soon downloaded the application. With the first download you earn a free dipping sauce before having spent a penny which all helps. 

The menu samples options from a simple plain burger, to burgers with some toppings which, if done well, could be excellent. Including truffle mayo, onion jam and smoked chilli mayo. It's also possible to change a beef patty for a buffalo patty (although Buffalo was sold out on this visit). 
There are also chicken burgers which can be either grilled or breaded and fried. 

The Menu

During the evenings they offer a promotional offer of one of their "classic" burgers, small fries and a drink for £9.95. This also includes chicken burgers which is a nice touch for those that prefer their chicken to their beef. 
The starters and desserts menus aren't very extensive but we ordered some halloumi bites to start and an extra portion of sweet potato fries with baconaise to side our burgers. 

While ordering at the bar I asked for a simple tap water with my meal and was pleasantly surprised that they offer filtered water free of charge which is a nice touch. 
It's a little disappointing having to pay extra for side portions of sauce if you want, yet hot and spicy sauces and ketchup are free. 
One aspect that is very impressive, is the option to ask how you'd like your patty cooked, much like ordering a steak. It's great to see a restaurant finally offering the customer the option. 

It wasn't long after ordering that our starters arrived. A reasonably sized starter of halloumi bites which we found adequate for sharing between two of us. These bites come with a chilli dipping sauce which had a medium kick to it. The cheese was lovely and soft, perfectly grilled. 

A short wait later, the burgers arrived. I'd ordered a "Taxidriver" burger (American cheese, Onion Ring, Cajun Relish, Smoked chilli mayo, Dill pickle all on a brioche bun) but asked to swop the Cajun relish for onion jam. The burger wasn't overwhelmingly large when it arrived but the patty looked a good size. The brioche bun looked fresh with a nice golden brown while the salad towered this burger up. The cheese looked a bit cheap and dry though. 

The Taxidriver - £9.75

The patty was cooked exactly how it'd been ordered, medium rare. It was cooked but with a slight twinkle of pink to the centre. 

The Taxidriver - £9.75

The brioche bun hadn't been grilled or anything prior to forming part of the burger. This combined with the salad on being very cold made the burger taste cold. Although ideally salad should be cold, when there is this much of it compared to the hot patty, it overpowers the warmth of the meat giving the burger an overall cold taste. The onion jam just seemed more like fried onions than a jam, again disapointing. 

The other burger we ordered was a classic chicken burger (Grilled or breaded fried chicken, house mayo, relish & salad on a seeded bun) as part of the evening deal, so this came with a drink and a small portion of skinny or thick cut fries. We'd opted for the skinny fries preferring crunch over fluff. 
The chicken in the burger was well cooked, heading slightly towards a little dry, but overall it was a nice bit of chicken. The burger was a little plain though without much standing out when eating all the ingredients together. 

The side orders of fries were reasonably sized. The skinny plain fries are very skinny! Almost shoe string fries! They're lightly salted and taste great. They are also served with seasoned Hei Hei salt on the side if you wish to add more flavour to them. This salt went very well with both the skinny fries and the sweet potato fries. The sweet potato fries are considerably more expensive compared to the traditional fries (£3.95 per portion) and probably no larger in portion size when compared side by side and, although sweet potato fries are the preferred taste to some people, the price difference is a little steep. 

Regular Sweet Potato Fries (£3.95) & Small Skinny Fries (£1.65)

The sweet potato fries are served with a baconaise (bacon mayonnaise) dipping sauce which is unfortunately overpowered by the mayonnaise. It was good to see that it contained pieces of actual bacon though. Just a shame the bacon taste didn't come through very strongly. 

Conclusion

The Gourmet Burger Kitchen is obviously a very successful chain of  burger serving restaurants, with establishments up and down the UK. It's clear to see the appeal in the day and age where burgers seem to be the main attraction to a menu, when a menu looks this delicious and reads like it offers higher quality toppings etc. Then they make the burgers look great too. It's just a shame that the taste buds are left a little underwhelmed after being excited by the imagination inspired by the menu. 

They do get some things right though, their fries are delicious, and the skinny fries are a must for anyone who prefers the thinner cuts. The option for how you'd like your patty cooked is also an excellent idea which isn't something you get to choose often. 
It's a shame the Buffalo was sold out as it would have been nice to try an alternative meat in the patty but this can't be helped. 

Overall it's clear to see how, in such a location and with the market for burgers these days, the Gourmet Burger Kitchen succeeds. The good quality patties and enticing offers could be very attractive. But compared with some of the burgers near by, even in the immediate vicinity, the burgers from Gourmet Burger Kitchen just didn't seem exciting enough on the tongue. 

I'd have no problems returning to try Gourmet Burger Kitchen again (may be at a different location), especially to sample one of their Buffalo patties, but given the choice available within the Trafford Centre alone there's more exciting meat to be had. 

http://www.gbk.co.uk/

@GMK

Meat Rating: 4/10

Money for meat: Paid in Full

Keep your eye on the memoirs in the future for more restaurants featured from the Trafford Centre!