Patty & Bun

The third stop on the meat tour around London was to Patty & Bun for an evening meal. This restaurant is often regarded as serving some of the best burger in London so we couldn't miss this off while in the city. 

They have two restaurants within the city but we opted for the one near to Oxford Road on James Street (the other is located near Bishop Gate). This is a street full of little restaurants and is very busy in an evening for people eating out and socialising. It seems that Patty and Bun are one of the few which doesn't offer outside seating as almost all the other restaurants on the street have seating to the front of the shop. 

The small, open front restaurant stands out on the street thanks to the red paintwork. Arriving, your welcomed by a member of staff at the front door who asks how many you're with and then asks you to wait outside while your table is prepared. Being a weekend evening it was quite busy for our visit and we had to wait 20 minutes or so. 

Normally this isn't a problem, but with only a small bench for a number of people waiting outside at such a busy time it means you're left standing in the street waiting. There is a menu to look over but this would probably be little consolation should the weather be anything like traditional English weather. There is a small overhang to the front of the restaurant but it wouldn't be able to shelter everyone waiting (unless you were all suddenly very comfortable with each other).

Front of the restaurant

Menu

Once we were offered our table the waiter showed us to a table toward the rear of the restaurant. Inside the restaurant is quite small and dimly lit and it becomes clear why you're made to wait on the street, there's just no room for waiting customers inside. There are a set of tables along either side of the restaurant and a small bar tot the back. The kitchen and toilets are located down the stairs to the rear of the restaurant. The decoration is quite simple with chip board lining the walls, and sketches on cardboard hung from the walls higher up. 

Open fronted

Inside the restaurant

Decoration

Each step of a burger?

Having been sat at our table we were offered a paper menu to look over and reconsider our choices. The burgers vary with a wide range of flavours of different sauces and relishes. They also offer chicken and lamb burgers in case beef isn't your bag. Having heard great things about their "Smokey Robinson Burger" this was my choice, combined with sides of fries and "Winger Winger chicken dinner" BBQ chicken wings. It wasn't long before the waiter was back to take our order and deliver our drinks we'd ordered on entering. 

Paper Menu

They also offer a daily special but due to the time of day they had sold out of this option on our arrival. 

Places are then set with a brown paper place mat to save on any plate washing and the centre of the table has cutlery and additional sauces to save you having to get your own. I'm a fan of this as it's more like a restaurant. They've managed to eliminate most of the washing up but keep the need for service staff, as the trend nowadays seems to be for customers to get their own cutlery etc.

Centre pieces

The wait isn't too long before the food is delivered, despite how busy this little restaurant is. 

The sides come in a polystyrene cup and the burger is wrapped and sealed with a signature P&B sticker indicating which burger is wrapped inside. 

Smokey Robinson Burger & Fries

The burger is huge! I was feeling hungry and was tempted to ask if they did any double burgers before ordering but the beef patty in these burgers is so thick a single is adequate enough. 

As you unwrap the burger the cheese tries to hold the burger to the wrapping. Thick, stringy, melted cheese which has to be pulled away from the wrapping. It's great to see proper cheese on a burger, not the usual thin cheese slices. 

Unwrapping

Beneath the patty, the bun is coated in thick ketchup and P&B mayo, along with the lettuce. Then on top of the patty they have a big dollop of caramelised onions and the thick cheese. 

Smokey Robinson Burger (£8.50)

Inside the thick beef patty is a slightly pink in the centre and seems to be high quality minced beef. Under all the onions it's difficult to see the bacon but it's in there! The caramelised onions really flavour the meat and Patty and Buns mayo is a really great sauce. Really sweet flavour. This is easily the best burger I'd found in London so far! 

Burger Section

It's also possibly the messiest burger in London. 

Burger Mess

The fries are crispy with skin on, and quite heavily salted (£2.75). They taste great though. They don't taste like they're cooked in regular cooking oil, there's something different about these fries. They're then seasoned with some rosemary for a bit of extra flavouring.

The wings are also served in a polystyrene cups like the fries, but there's a decent number within the cup (roughly 6 wings). They're doused in a thick BBQ sauce which is very messy to eat. The sauce is has a tangy tomato flavour to it followed by a very sweet sugary flavour. The wings are cooked so well that when I put one down and picked it up again by the bone it left the chicken on the table. Couldn't be cooked better. 

Winger Winger Chicken Dinner (£5.50)

Conclusion

Patty and Bun was the best burger I ate on my search around London. The beef patty was good quality and cooked to perfection. The sides were spot on too! And P&B sauces are fantastic! They've done a great job on the recipes for these sauces. 

The only thing that lets it down is the restaurant size. It's not too bad once you're inside but having to queue outside I imagine puts a lot of people off, especially in poor weather. It's worth the wait though for those willing to wait around outside! I'd be willing to wait in the rain next time as this will be my place to visit next time I'm in London! 

@pattyandbunjoe

Meat Rating: 9/10

Money for Meat: Paid in Full

Covent Garden Meat Market

Second stop in my travels around London was to Covent Gardens Meat Market. This London burger outlet is hidden behind painted read and black windows on the first floor of the Jubilee Market Hall in Covent Garden. 

It's a little difficult to find at first, and you'll be mistaken for walking past the small door in the building leading up to the Meat Market. Wandering around inside Jubilee Market Hall doesn't look like the place you'll find burgers being served among the little stalls of clothes and souvenirs. Looking upwards you see the red and black windows and you realise you're looking in the wrong place so try to find the staircase to head upstairs. 

Meat Market

At the top of the stairs your eyes are drawn everywhere at once thanks to all the brightly lit slogans and arrows overhead and the neon colours fridge magnets everywhere. It's a stark contrast to the market on the ground floor. The room is a long thin room with the kitchen down one side opposite the seating area. Walking along to the far end you find the ordering point with a menu to the right to look over. 

Quotes and Signs

All simple enough and due to being fairly hidden it's quiet inside so no waiting around. 

Meat Market Menu (Part 1)

Meat Market Menu (part 2)

The menu offers a varied selection of burgers, all of which are doubles, a couple of hot dogs to choose from and a choice of flavoured chicken wings and fries for sides. 
The colourful graffiti style cocktail menu on a chalkboard beneath and standard drinks menu to the side. 

Cocktail Menu

Drinks Menu

There's also a small note on the menu stating that all the burgers are cooked so slightly pink inside. The best way to cook them right?

Burger Cooking

Once you make your choice there's a bright red arrow above your head pointing to your order point. The server takes your name and gives you a plastic cup if you pay for a soft drink for you to use the self service drinks machine covered in bright fridge magnets. 

Drinks Machine

Find ourself a seat and wait for your name to be called out over the tannoy system letting you know that your food is ready to collect from the other end of the kitchen area. 

Order collected

My order was for the dead hippie burger having heard good things about the Meat Markets dead hippie sauce (their home made burger sauce). The Dead Hippie burger boasts 2 beef patties, cheese, minced onion onion, pickles, lettuce & dead hippie sauce.  

The wrapped burger stood tall against the side order of fries and unwrapping the burger revealed thick beef patties between a thick white bread bun. 

Dead Hippie Burger

Dead Hippie Burger

The beef patties inside are soft and juicy with good quality meat used to make the burgers. It's worth noting I didn't specify how I'd like my burger cooked so expected a pink centre to the middle of the beef. It was slightly pink, but only just. It was leaning more towards being a well done burger. The hippie sauce was a highlight of this burger. Most burger sauce tries to re-enact a popular high street burger sauce but the Meat Market just makes their own, and it tastes great. A peppery taste to it really goes well with the beef burgers. 

The cheese slices are melted to a thin liquid coating to the patties and the lettuce and pickles help reinforce the bottom of the bread bun as the sauce tries to make it fall apart.

Dead Hippie Burger

For a side I'd opted for cheese fries and was amazed at the size of the portion of fries. A foil case usually used for a greasy take away filled with fries which were barely viable under the heavy dosing of grilled cheese and sprinkling of onions. 

Cheese Fries

The fries were disappointing compared to the burger. There's just too much cheese on these and the fries are nothing more than cheap take-away style frozen fries. A real let down. Serving good burgers like this they should be backing them up with better sides.

Conclusion

The Meat Market is a trendy restaurant in a popular tourist and shopping area of London. It's a little hard to find but worth looking for if you're on the hunt for a decent burger to fuel your shopping spree. It's not too up market and offers great quality burgers at reasonable prices compared to others in the area. It doesn't seem like the sort of place aiming at business men in suits for customers, more towards a younger audience or people taking a break from shopping. The burgers are of a mountainous size with all being doubled for a similar price to a single burger in some of the near by burger restaurants. 

The process from entering to eating is simple enough and works well with everything clearly sign posted. 

The sides are the biggest let down for the Meat Market. It's a shame too, as their other food seems to be on the ball and destined to succeed even in this hidden location. 

@MEATmarketUK

Meat Rating: 6/10

Money for Meat: Paid in Full

Shake Shack

A weekend in London provided the opportunity for the meat memoirs to search out and sample the best burgers the capital has to offer. 

First stop was Shake Shack in Covent Garden (https://www.shakeshack.com/location/london-covent-garden/). 

Shake Shack

Shake Shack is a popular and large American chain of restaurants which opened their first UK store in Covent Garden last summer. As the name suggests their speciality is burgers and milkshakes with a huge menu of various shakes, concretes (frozen custard), and ice creams. Along side these they also offer regular drinks, hot dogs and even snacks for your dog if you're bringing your pooch along too.

Since opening Shake Shack UK has had mixed reviews so it's time for the meat memoirs to weigh in. 

Shake Shack

Even after a year of being open there's a lot of hype around this store as it is the only one in the UK. Arriving mid-Friday afternoon hoping to avoid any lunch time rush there was still a queue out of the door. Joining the queue I was handed a menu to read from so you're ready to order when you reach the till. 

The menu is fairly simple in terms of food. Burger or hot dog, with optional fries or cheese fries on the side. All burgers are available as double or singles with options to add additional cheese or bacon if desired.  

All the burger options seem very similar and don't seem to offer much selection. There's a 

• Plain cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato (£4.75 single / £7.75 double)
• Shack Burger, a cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato with Shacksauce (£5.00 single / £8.00 double)
• SmokeShack, cheeseburger with smoked bacon and chopped pepper topped with Shacksauce (£7.00 single / £10.00 double)
• Shroomburger (v), fried mushroom filled with cheese and topped with lettuce, tomato and Shacksauce (£5.25) 
• Shack Stack, a combination of a cheeseburger and a shroom burger (£8.00)

Menu

There's a bit more variation in the hot dogs but the meat memoirs are here to try the burgers.

Selecting a drink wasn't too easy with a huge selection of milkshakes and frozen custards to choose from. With shakes being part of their name it was hoped that their milkshakes would be the speciality so I selected a strawberry milkshake. 

The queue moved quite quickly into the very small, exposed brickwork shop. The menu fills the wall behind you but it's not very easy to stand back and take in within such a small shop. It makes sense why they give you a menu while you wait. 

Kitchen Area

Wall Menu

Wall Menu

Placed my order for a SmokeShack and an optional cheesy fries, and the strawberry milkshake to wash it down. Handed over the money and in return you receive a device which flashes and vibrates when your meal is ready, as you usually get in some restaurants to inform you that your table is ready. 

After this the process of finding a seat and collecting the food was a little complicated. With a couple of people or a group it might be easier as there isn't a lot of seating for the Shake Shack due to its location, so when a table becomes free one of you could grab the table and the other get the food. On my own I couldn't do both. So wasn't sure what to do. In the end I opted for a table when one finally became free then once my buzzer sounded to inform me that my food was ready a member of staff kindly offered to get my food for me. Food is collected from a window in the side of the kitchen which is clearly labelled. 

There seemed to be a lot of people waiting for a table, it's not very clear that there's seating to both sides of the shop and within the shop next door which is available to customers. 

Seating to the front of the store

Once I received my food I was a little underwhelmed by the sizes of the portions. The burger didn't look very big, and the milkshake came in quite a small cup. 

Order

Fries first as they looked tempting. The liquid cheese on top looked great and the crinkle cut fries were unexpected. The cheese is soft runny american style cheese, and the heavily salted fries have a great crunch to them. 

Cheese Fries (£3.75)

After all the salt on those, a slurp of shake was needed. The milkshake is so thick the straw is almost useless. Putting "shakes" in their name you expect the milkshake to be outstanding but the flavour wasn't really strong enough and it tasted more like ice-cream than anything else. Rather disappointing for £5.00.

Strawberry Milkshake (£5.00)

Finally, onto the burger. 

The small size was obvious before even unwrapping the burger. Open the paper to find the thin meat patty within a cheap style bun, and topped with a cheap cheese slice, much like you'd get at McDonalds. The chopped peppers and Shakesauce (Shake Shacks own burger sauce) added a bit of extra flavour but nothing else really stood out. The taste of the bacon was none existent. 

Smoke Shack burger (£7.00)

Conclusion

Overall Shake Shack was very disappointing. If their popularity is ongoing due to word of mouth I don't know how its gone on so long serving small portions like this for these prices. The meat is decent enough quality but the patty sizes are no bigger than many other fast food outlets. The milkshakes are more like ice-cream which adds to the disappointment, especially for the small sizes of the cups. The cheesy fries were the best part of the meal.

For the price there's much better food to be had in London. I'd read a lot of reviews about poor customer service prior to visiting Shake Shack. I have to say the staff on my visit were very friendly and helpful so I have no criticisms there. Shack Shack are obviously busy though and there's obviously a market for these American chains within the UK. Having tried it once though I can't say I'll be back for more next time I'm in London. 

@shakeshackUK

Meat rating; 3/10

Money for meat; Paid in Full