Best Burger in London?

[Charlene Leonard]

On the Collective Food Diary, Vanessa went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen and seemed a little under whelmed by it and poses the question "Is this really the best burger in London?". Whilst the fries are far superior at Eagle Bar Diner, I absolutely love the burgers at GBK and they are definitely the best I have tried but has anyone had better?

[Thomas Secor]

Sopie's Steakhouse (see my comments to the Lucky Seven thread) and Bubba's burgers. They knock the socks off of anything else Ive had in England (but they still dont hold a candle to the burgers served at lunchtime at Peter Lugar's, God I miss those).

[circeplum]

best i've had are at the prospect grill (thick, meaty, topped with frilly caramelised onions) and at black & blue, the tootsies-owned steakhouse in kensington church st. weirdly, they're much better than (pretty good but not awesome) tootsiesl.

[JJS]

Would vote for GBK myself, not a fan of the Prospect Grill's version - too heavy on the onions and the bun is not as good.

[Tonyfinch]

Don't know about the best in London as I don't go out for burhers that often but I had a fine example ay Smollensky's in Wapping recently-really taste,juicy meat.

I also enjoyed the burger at The Prospect Grill but found the rye bread bun a little unusual and slightly dry. Loved those caremelised onions though.

[circeplum]

too heavy on the onions

not possible ...

[Vanessa]

A precision, as I sit here at my desk working my way through a building worker's bacon and egg baguette: I felt that there was a discrepancy at gbk between the high quality beef and everything surrounding it. But then I have never looked at a burger with a critical eye before, i.e. as a serious item of food.

v

[Al_Dente]

Anywhere where the waiter doesn't ask, "how would you like that boiled?"

[wgallois]

It's not in London, and I'm not quite sure if it's still there, but Pepper's Burgers in Oxford cooked mean quarter and halfpounders when I lived there. There was a choice of great relishes, such as blue cheese or garlic mayo, and the chips were also excellent. The guy running it was from the States and his USP (aside from the great burgers) was that he wouldn't give you extra sauce for the chips. There was another burger place, in a shack near the station, where they would sell you extra sauce, though the burgers weren't as good. While one waited for your burger to cook, they always had good shoot-em-up video games in Peppers.

[Jon Tseng]

Hear hear to Peppers

An excellent late-night pit-stop; blue cheese and the ?shark dressing excellent.

I always heard the guy who ran it was a Philosophy graduate (or was that phD) - sort of added to the mystique.

cheerio

J

[AdamLawrence]

Peppers is still pretty good. I haven't had one since last September, when I was stuck in the Radcliffe Infirmary, recovering from an op to remove a tumour from my pituitary gland. The quacks wouldn't let me out the day they had suggested, and I got into a foul temper, so my good lady wife zoomed to Peppers, and returned with a burger with blue cheese dressing, and chips with mayo, which mollified me somewhat.

They are superior quality burgershack products, but I think those of us who lived off them as students probably romanticise them.

The place by the railway station was called Brocks (or was it Brecks?). It bit the dust when the railway station was refurbished some years ago. The yard where it stood is now buried under the new Said Business School.

cheers

Adam

[Tonyfinch]

as I sit here at my desk working my way through a building worker's bacon and egg baguette:

Wot, straight out of his lunchbox?

[Vanessa]

as I sit here at my desk working my way through a building worker's bacon and egg baguette:

Wot, straight out of his lunchbox?

v

[mogsob]

Haven't been to any of those listed above, but the best burger I've had in London was at Lot's Road.

[StephenT]

I don't often eat burgers, but had one that I really enjoyed in the bar area at Christopher's (Covent Garden). Ordered it medium rare and it came sufficiently pink and juicy. It arrived with cheese and bacon (I think) and some very good "shoestring" fries. It singlehandedly made me decide that I should try burgers more often. When I tried to repeat the experience though, the burgers were overcooked and arrived with boring, tasteless fries. I blame the waitress for the burgers being overcooked though, she probably took our order incorrectly. She also thought that none of the five of us wanted cheese when just one of us asked for no cheese and then brought us the wrong wine as well.

[magnolia]

A precision, as I sit here at my desk working my way through a building worker's bacon and egg baguette:  I felt that there was a discrepancy at gbk between the high quality beef and everything surrounding it.  But then I have never looked at a burger with a critical eye before, i.e. as a serious item of food.

v

Surely you can ask your Chef to rustle up his finest example for you?

[Vanessa]

A precision, as I sit here at my desk working my way through a building worker's bacon and egg baguette:  I felt that there was a discrepancy at gbk between the high quality beef and everything surrounding it.  But then I have never looked at a burger with a critical eye before, i.e. as a serious item of food.

v

Surely you can ask your Chef to rustle up his finest example for you?

He doesn't cook for the likes of me

v

[circeplum]

best i've had are at the prospect grill (thick, meaty, topped with frilly caramelised onions)

sorry to wankily quote myself, but went to prospect grill last night and was mightily disappointed in my much anticipated burger. much smaller than i remember, overcooked and the onions, rather than the crispy, tobacco-style ones, were floppy, wimpy-style. also too much sugar had been added to (not) achieve caramelisation.

disappointed.

[mogsob]

Last night I had an excellent cheeseburger at Joe Allen's. It is the first true NY-style (think JG Melon) burger I have had in London. Much like a true NY burger, the meat was excellent and came unadorned by salad etc. It is on the smallish side, much like those at Melon's. It is pricey for what you get (6.50 + 3 quid more for fries), again much like my favorite burger joints in NYC.

We will be back.

[StephenT]

Went to Prospect Grill for lunch today. Had the burger and my experience was similar to circeplum's. The burger seemed a fair size (don't know what it was like before though) and was tasty if not brilliant, but the onions that adorned it were limp, charmless and much too sweet to go well with the burger. The fries were average. Shall have something else if I go there again.

Non-burger-related note on Joe Allen. Went there recently with a large number of people from work. Ordered steak rare. Got it what I'd call medium. Complained. Got another one that must have been cooked for at most a quarter of a millisecond on each side. Chef was probably trying to make a point. Ate it though. Had been warned not to order steak there by someone who'd been there a number of times but foolishly ignored the advice. Shall have something else if I go there again.

Edited February 27, 2003 by StephenT (log)

[Scott]

The hemingway burger & the cork n bottle in leicester square is very good.

GBK leave's me a little cold.

[Simon Majumdar]

The Cork & Bottle is one of those places that I always forget about, but when I do go there it is always pretty good and has a great wine list

I suspect it is just the rather grim location that pushes it to the back of my mind. The other place like that is The Dive Bar on Gerrard St. Not sure what it is like now and I hate that area at night, but I used to go there a lot in the early 90's. Before all the easy listening stuff got fashionable again, it was the only place that would always have Sinatra or Nat king Cole on in the background while you drank bad beer.

OK, back to talking about dead stuff in a bap.

S

[Jon Tseng]

Working late yesterday, actually not a terrible burger from Deliverance (www.deliverance.co.uk) - big, juicy, lots of mayo, in a wholegrain bap rather than a bun (not necessarily a negative)

Only lukewarm but due to delivery rather than chef

crap chips

J