Their increasing success isn't down to expensive or extensive advertising either. They use social media to voice themselves online and apart from that, just let the food speak for itself. The food is obviously worth shouting about as word of mouth seems to be the main method of advertising for Almost Famous, and it's keeping their restaurants full!
Their original Manchester Northern Quarter restaurant unfortunately suffered a kitchen fire (it has since reopened if you can find it) which lead them to opening up a restaurant in the ever popular Great Northern warehouse near Deansgate. This was their first restaurant I tried almost a year ago and since then they've been my go-to restaurant for burgers.
Outside, again, there's hardly any advertising indicating what this restaurant is. The Almost Famous name isn't visible anywhere outside. Just a neon burger with wings hangs above the front door.
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| Front Door |
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| Burgers Get You Ripped |
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| Peer here for "cheap thrills" |
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| Magical Unicorn Meat for sale |
When you walk in the process can be a little confusing at first but there's usually a member of staff just inside the door asking how many you'd like to seat and giving you an estimated waiting time. It's always busy whatever time I've been, particularly in an evening, but today's visit for the memoirs was an early Sunday afternoon visit for a burger lunch and so it was fairly quiet and we were offered a table straight away. When it's busier, the staff take a mobile phone number from you so you can wander off or spend time in the bar and they text you when your table is available. It's a great system I always thought, seen as they don't take bookings for tables, and the wait never seems to take as long as they estimate.
Inside the room is fairly darkly lit with graffiti style drawings on the walls around the place in a "Disney-on-acid" style, giving it a different look to other clean looking restaurants. At higher level there's rules similar to those of fight club, edited to refer more to Almost Famous, and polaroid snaps of beautiful people eating dirty food.
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| Bar Area |
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| Disney on Acid |
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| Disney on Acid |
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| 1st Rule of Almost Famous Club.... |
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| "Ninth and final rule; If this is your first time at Almost Famous club, you have to eat bacon" |
We took our seats though and had a look over the relatively small menu. The menu offers a selection of 8 burgers to choose from ranging from the traditional plain cheeseburger (The Famous Burger), to burgers containing outrageous ingredients such as baconaise (bacon mayonaise) or beef Monster Munch crisps. Every now and again they bring up a special burger on the menu to order.
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| Menu |
The fries are a separate order and from the menu it's obvious they aren't your normal fries, with mixes of regular fries and sweet potato topped with bacon bits and baconaise, or waffle fries topped with pulled pork and BBQ sauce (Redneck sauce).
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| Option of Fries |
The ordering process isn't too obvious but is written on the side of the menu. You order at the bar when you're ready and food will be brought to your table. If you want cutlery, extra sauce or kitchen roll (which you'll probably need to clean your fingers) you have to go pick them up yourself from one of the little tables dotted around filled with these.
My better half opted for the newest burger on their menu, the John Bender burger (£10). This includes a double cheeseburger, spiced sausage patty, crispy smoked bacon, JD waffle fries, a poached egg, baconaise and chipotle ketchup. For the side she opted for a portion of "Pig and Waffle" fries which are waffle fries topped with pulled pork, Redneck BBQ sauce, blue cheese sauce, chopped chillis and onions.
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| John Bender (£10) |
The meat in all the burgers is great quality ground steak. The cheap cheese slices on this burger are a bit disappointing but the flavour of them combines to create the taste sensation of this burger. The thick bacon rashers and the crispy waffle fries are soothed down by the perfectly cooked runny-yolk poached egg on top. The egg really makes this burger smooth to eat.
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| Pig & Waffle Fries |
For my order I thought I'd try the special for a change, which was shown on a separate little menu. Entitled "The Famous Breakfast Club" (£10) it was constructed from; a double cheeseburger with pepper jack cheese, slow cooked bourbon brined pulled pork, honey beerios (Cheerios in beer), Bacon Rain (bacon pieces), chipotle ketchup and hollandaise mustard mayonnaise. For my side of fries I opted for my favorite "Bacon Bacon" fries (£4) which are a mix of seasoned regular and sweet potato fries topped with bacon rain (bacon pieces) and baconaise (Bacon mayonnaise).
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| The Famous Breakfast Club |
The cheese on this burger was much more delicious than American type slices on the John Bender. Instead the pepper jack cheese was melted to a soft lava texture that softened the delicious thick meat patties.
The patties are cooked to perfection. Just slightly pink, and made of top quality minced steak. The fresh brioche buns are soft and fluffy but they almost go unnoticed with all the flavor between the bun.
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| The Famous Breakfast Club |
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| Bacon Bacon fries |
It should be a crime to settle for the plain burgers and fries at Almost Famous as their inventions need to be experienced by all.
Conclusion
Almost Famous isn't your typical restaurant. I say that with two meanings. Firstly the burgers and food is like nothing anywhere else. The creations they come up with and flavors they put between bread and atop beef patties sometimes don't sound that inviting, but trust in their inventions and you will never be left disappointed.
The second difference is that you don't get the service like a traditional restaurant. You order for yourself at the bar, you collect your own cutlery, napkins and sauces. The only service is that they bring your food to your table and they clean up after you. This is the common complaint I've read elsewhere, this and the staff attitude. I've always found the staff to be very helpful and friendly but found the bar staff a bit short with me on this particular visit. The waiter who brought our food over was very helpful though and made up for his colleagues service. And if you're willing to overlook the lack of traditional service the food will more than make up for it.
You can't book a table, although this is becoming common in city centre restaurants, but it means there can often be a wait, especially during peak times, but it's worth waiting for. The text alert system they run during busy times works very well and allows you to reply and cancel your table should you change your mind while you're waiting.
The burgers are the most flavorful, amazing creations put between bread (that I've found to date). It's easy to see why the word is being spread without any advertising. The beef patties are always cooked to the same slightly pink perfection, and always top quality meat. The burgers are topped with ingredients never considered by other places and it works very well.
The sides are a similar mouth tingling sensation topped with more ingenious topping ideas which work wonders to satisfy the hunger pangs.
Almost Famous own sauces all have a unique flavor which should be sampled while you're there. The hot sauce is just hot enough without being ridiculous, the BBQ sauce is smokey and thick sticky delight, and the Pho-king sauce is sweet sauce with a chilli kick to it.
Almost Famous own sauces all have a unique flavor which should be sampled while you're there. The hot sauce is just hot enough without being ridiculous, the BBQ sauce is smokey and thick sticky delight, and the Pho-king sauce is sweet sauce with a chilli kick to it.
If you're in need of something to wash all this gluttony down with then their cocktail menu isn't to be skipped either. This, like their food, includes similar ingenious inventions (for example, an Old Fashioned topped with toffee popcorn?). I didn't have any on this particular visit, but will hopefully review these next time I visit (which I doubt will be much of a wait).
Meat Rating: 10/10
Money for Meat: Paid in Full
