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 

Lord of the Pies

Walking into Stockport town centre a little shop with a catchy name caught my eye and I couldn't help but take a quick look inside.

A quick search on the internet for "Lord of the Pies" brought up their two social media links which were full of rave reviews and mentions of their numerous award winning pies. An ideal stop for a lunch time meat then!

The little shop with its clean white and grey appearance outside is a quaint little cafe inside with a small number of timber tables and benches for eating in, or all food is available to take away. The wall to the right has an impressive collection of awards hung on the wall, but does the food live up to these awards?

Lord of the Pies

Interior

Awards

To the back is a small kitchen which looked to be being kept very busy on a Friday-pieday!
The counter displays freshly bagged uncooked pies ready to take away, while to the side there's a hot oven with only a small number of ready to eat pies in it. As they offer cooked pies all day long it proves that the pies aren't all left pre-cooked under a heat lamp all day and that they're continually cooking fresh pies through the day. So the pie you buy probably won't have been out of the oven long.

Uncooked pies

Cooked pies

They have quite a selection of traditional pie flavours each with their individual touch on the recipes. They don't have a set menu online as I presume they often change the flavours available, however to get some idea, there's a link to their September menu at the end of this memoir.
With the pies comes the offering of various traditional side servings such as mashed potato (traditional, cheesy or mustard), mushy peas, braised red cabbage, or red wine gravy.

As well as meat pies and all the sides, they also offer pork pies, sausage rolls, soup of the days and various sweet desserts.

It took some time to decide due to the delicious choice but I opted for the beef and blue cheese pie and a sausage roll (just to compare following the recent sausage roll review in "Butcher the Blog Part 1" here: Meat Memoirs; Butcher the Blog Part 1

The sausage roll was the first thing unwrapped as it didn't feel as hot as the pie. Opening the paper bag exposed a thin but long, broken crusted sausage roll, with a light pink meat inside.
The pastry was seasoned with herbs and very crunchy, no grease at all in these sausage rolls.

Sausage Roll (£1.50)

Taking a bite the flaking pastry made it impossible to avoid making a mess. The soft pork meat inside was obviously of a high quality with no gristle or obvious fatty chunks making up the meat.

Inside the sausage roll

Then it was onto the pie. A very generous size for what is expected to be a top quality pie based on the certificates and awards. Outside the pie pastry and crust is a perfect golden colour with a sprinkling of crumbs and herbs.

Beef & Blue Cheese Pie (£3.25 - takeout / £3.90 eat in)

Cutting open the pie, the thick gravy inside spills out along with the meat suspended within it. And it's a lot of meat! It's instantly obvious that there's a lot more meat in this pie compare to some famous branded pies.

Inside the Beef & Blue pie

Take a bite and the pastry taste is the first taste on the tongue. The herbs and crumbs almost make it taste like a seasoned pizza crust, yet it's crumbly pastry rather than a soft bread. The smooth gravy inside holds the juicy beef which is full of flavour and very well cooked. Like the sausage roll, there's no gristle or chewy meat to be found within the whole pie. Just juicy, mouth watering meat throughout.
The blacksticks blue cheese within these beef and blue pies isn't instantly obvious, but then every now and again you get a hit of it on the pallet. As I ate the pie I thought it could do with a little more blue cheese flavour, but once I'd finished it my mouth was left with the taste of blue cheese more than anything else. This may or may not be the intention of the recipe used to make these pies but it works as it means the cheese doesn't overpower the other flavours of the pie, in particular the juicy meat and gravy, yet your still offered the taste of the cheese.

Conclusion

Lord of the Pies certainly lives up to it's name! Really well seasoned pastries surrounding high quality meats and gravies. These pies are very moreish! If you're a fan of pies then I'd definitely suggest that you give Lord of the Pies a try. Their awards seem well deserved from this first experience! Now to make pieday-Friday a regular thing to sample more of the menu.

Also a comment regarding the exceptionally friendly customer service received within the shop on Friday. The staff were very welcoming and more than happy for me to take a few photos for the meat memoirs. All adds to the great experience received from this small shop.

Here is the September menu which was available at the time of this memoir being written:
Lord of the Pies Menu (September 2014)


Lord of the Pies on Facebook

@LordofthePiesGB


Meat Rating: 10/10 (the first 10 for the Meat Memoirs. Congratulations Lord of the Pies!)

Money for Meat: Paid in Full