Honest Burger

The final stop on my London trip in the search for some of Londons best burgers lead me to Honest Burger. 

http://www.honestburgers.co.uk/

Honest Burgers have become famous in London for their success, coming from a small marquee to a chain of restaurants throughout London. They started out sourcing fresh meat down from a farm in Yorkshire and turning that into fresh meat patties to serve with simple rosemary seasoned fries they began to expand. They now have a total of 7 restaurants at the time of writing this memoir, all across London (Brixton - their original restaurant, Soho, Camden, Portobello, Kings Cross, Oxford Circus and Tooting). With this much success and growth the meat memoirs had to see if these burgers were some of the best in London. 

Having to catch a train from Kings Cross the Kings Cross restaurant was my choice for a lunch time burger. 

Arriving early lunch time I wasn't sure if there'd be a long wait or not but the restaurant was surprisingly quiet. 

The staff behind the bar quickly welcomed me and ushered me to a rustic timber table. The whole room is dry rustic timber with a white tile bar. There's an open kitchen and additional seating in the basement too but the ground floor is light and spacious with great views for people watchers thanks to the large windows around the restaurant. 

Interior

Light Rustic Interior

The staff didn't seem to give me much time to look over the menu before asking if I was ready to order. When I asked for a few more minutes. I was given no more than that before I was asked again. Feeling rushed I quickly made my choice from the flow chart style menu. 

The flow chart look of the menu is very simple to use. Chicken titles linked to the chicken dishes. The majority are beef dishes but there's a vegetarian title linking the dishes for vegetarians. 

Menu

Unlike every other burger restaurant sampled this weekend, and most others these days, honest burgers are served with salted rosemary fries rather than you having to buy fries as an additional side dish. 

They have a small selection of additional side dishes including coleslaw, chicken wings, onion rings and additional sauces to choose from. 

The menu reads as their name suggests. Honest. Simple. Burgers. With just 5 beef burgers to choose from I opted for the Tribute burger (£10.00). 

Beef patty, bacon, American cheese, burger sauce, French's mustard, pickles, onions, and lettuce. Sounded like a classic combination to me. 

The bottom of the menu notes that all burgers are cooked medium / pink unless other wise requested. When ordering the waitress made sure I was happy with this, which I confirmed I was after all the other "pink" burgers I'd eaten so far this weekend had been to my liking I thought these would be similar if not the same. 

To compliment the burger I ordered a side of onion rings too having not had any all weekend. 

The burger arrived after what didn't feel like very long but I was engaged in conversation passing the time. 

On a large enamel plate came a generous portion of fries along side a thick beef burger inside a perfectly round, perfectly golden bread bun. The size of the beef patty hid the salad and other toppings on this burger, with just an edge of onion and a dribble of mustard visible. 

Tribute Burger (£10.00) with Rosemary & Salt Fries

Take the top off the burger to reveal 2 slices of very thick bacon! It's great to see proper bacon on a burger and not that microwaved paper thin stuff. With American cheese stated on the menu it was never going to be much more than a cheese slice and that's what you get. 

Topless

The beef patty looked juicier than any of the weekend yet, and biting into it revealed why. 

Having been asked if I'd be happy with my burger cooked pink in the middle I expected a little pink colour to the middle, but this burger I'd describe as blue in the middle. It was bordering on barely warm in the centre. The beef was great quality, the patty almost falling apart like mince still. These were possibly the thickest patties sampled in London. So no complaints there. But the meat in the middle, although tasty, just shouldn't be that pink in a burger in my opinion, I'd have felt a little more comfortable had it been cooked more. 

Pink? More like Blue Centre

The side of skin-on fries were fried to a great crisp and seasoned well, not that the Rosemary seasoning was very obvious. They were well salted though.

The second side of onion rings were 5 large rings of onion in a crispy loose batter that easily fell away from the onion rings. They tasted good but were nothing outstanding. 

Optional Onion Rings (£3.00)

Conclusion

Honest burgers are obviously having a great success throughout London with their simple menu of classic burger flavour combinations. 

The staff in this restaurant seemed rather keen to take my order, and although it's a simple menu, when trying to take in the surroundings etc. I needed a little longer to browse the menu and decide. I couldn't understand their hurried attitude when the restaurant seemed so quiet. 

Honest Burgers use simple ingredients that are obviously fresh and well made. Their beef patties are some of the thickest available in London that I found, and I've never seen such a perfectly rounded and golden brown bread brioche bun. 

They've concentrated on perfecting the ingredients and combining this with simple sides it's working. I imagine it won't be long before they've expanded beyond the capital city into other areas of the UK. If they do, I only hope they don't loose their original intentions along the way. 

May be it was just this particular serving, or this particular restaurant, but to me a burger needs to be cooked more than this. Yes it tastes great. but there are reasons a burger needs to reach a certain temperature in the centre, and I couldn't be sure this burger had reached that temperature. I still ate it and to no ill effects, I just imagine that based on other restaurants idea of a "pink" burger, people won't be expecting something quite this pink. I'd also worry how long before one bad batch of meat gets through. I suppose if they source their meat from a particular farm and that farm can keep up with demands then hopefully the quality is controlled right up to mincing and patty making. 

It wouldn't put me off Honest Burger by a long shot though. Next time I'm in London I'll visit Honest Burger again and would hope to see them expand out of London. Next time I visit though I'll be sure to ask for the burger more towards well done, as may be my preference just didn't stretch to this extent of "pink". 

@honestburgers

Meat Rating: 6/10

Money for Meat: Paid in Full