Monday 10 October 2011

Lucky Chip, Burgers at Netil Market, Westgate Street, London Fields

There is very little I can say about Lucky Chip that you probably don't already know. They have, after all, just had a feature written about them in none other than EasyJet's in-flight magazine. When a place ascends to the altitude of in-flight entertainment, this humble burger blogger thought it was about time, four months after Lucky Chip arrived at Netil Market, to finally schlep across London to see what all the fuss is about?

Location:
As mentioned, Lucky Chip is in Netil Market. Actually, Lucky Chip is sat in a small car park off Westgate Street, just by London Fields, in Netil Market.


I rocked up to the car park on a Friday night, following a journey from the city that included the Central Line to Bethnal Green and then the 106 bus to London Fields, with 'the brunette' at the very civilized hour of 7pm. From the outset the style, like the location, is off-piste. 
Lucky Chip is a brand spanking new shiny burger trailer, complete with flat griddles, deep fat fryers, a big fridge, and a Ben and a Comar. Tables are laid out around the edge of the the car park - some under cover, others out in the open - and adorned with candles, French's mustard and ketchup. 


Outdoor market-style covered structures offer some protection from the elements along the wall of the car park, and an array of old-fashioned memorabilia, from an old German departures sign (pictured below) to a classic 1950s cathode ray television and speakers on top of the burger trailer, offering a throwback to a time before Steve Jobs made technology stylish.

Lucky Chip's menu is simple. It covers the classic burger, fries and onion ring options, whilst adding some funky (and tasty) twists to some of the the staples. Truffle oil sprinkled on your chips free of charge anyone? Beetroot flavour onion rings - sure why not, they're in season...

There is also the 'specials' menu. A mixture of filmstar-themed burgers. The Eastwood (a veggie option with portobello mushroom, eggplant and pecorino), The Selleck (pineapple, beetroot onion ring, oak smoked bacon), The Sheen (beer soaked onions, philly cheese, applewood smoked bacon), and the very special burger of the week The Danny Trejo, a stunning bacon chilli cheeseburger combination with chipotle mayo, tequila salsa, jalapenos and sour cream.

Price:
Bacon Cheeseburger: £6.50 
The Danny Trejo: £8
Onion Rings: £3.50
Fries: £2.50

So I went ahead and had a Bacon Cheese to start and then had to give the Danny Trejo a go too. This review is based on the £6.50 Bacon Cheeseburger.

Presentation:
Stunning. Like the #Meateasy burger from the Meatwagon, on steroids.
Lucky Chip Bacon Cheeseburger. I've never seen something so beautiful.
The brunette looking pretty chuffed with her burger.
Toppings:
Outstanding. The bacon cheeseburger is topped with a thick breakfast style tongue of back bacon, and a mountain of melted cheddar cheese (melted under cloche). The bacon is satisfyingly solid and meaty and the gloopy melted cheddar has a teeth-champingly moreish taste to it, medium mature and mixing perfectly with the aged beef patty. The stars of the show sit on a bed of chopped iceberg lettuce, several deliciously crisp, crunchy pickles, and a generous splodge of ketchup and French's mustard mayonnaise.

Individually, each element is of top quality, together they form a divine 'ambrosia of the gods' burger that make the most elaborate adjectives clumsy.


Meat: 
MEAT WIN! This is the perfect patty. Coarse ground, hand formed, griddle char-seared, heavily seasoned as it cooks so the bonds in the meat don't have time to break down before being seared, and perfectly cooked med-rare. Lucky chip have just changed their butcher from The Ginger Pig to a source in Devizes, as the meat is aged to a slightly longer 32 days, which in Ben's opinion edges the flavour of the previous patties they were using. This is a ruddy amazing MEAT WIN!


Bun:
Superb. A glazed, steamed brioche bun that at the very least equals, if not outshines, the Meatwagon bun. The whole thing elegantly wraps around the ample patty and corrals the toppings holding everything together to the very last bite. The bun is soft, yet dense and scores and 11/10 for squashability!


Accessories:
Beautiful. The fries were soft, yet crisp, crunchy yet fluffy. The beetroot onion rings, inspired, sweet, crunchy and moreish. In fact another dining colleague was so enamoured with his onion ring he spent a good deal of time gazing into its golden crispy eyes.
Dave takes some time out to admire an beetroot onion ring. It must be love.
Overall: 10/10
This is a bloody amazing burger. The best I've ever had. Ever. And I've eaten a lot of burgers. A bacon cheeseburger is for life, and not just for Christmas.

There are a number of other burgers on Lucky Chip's menu, a bevvy of specials with tweaks to condiments and ingredients, so here's a tribute to some of the other stars of the show:


The Selleck:

The Selleck. A pineapple-y kinda guy (but no illegally short shorts in sight!)
The Danny Trejo:
Danny Trejo is one of the most famous Mexican actors for several generations, but you'll know him as 'that Mexican guy' in 'From Dusk 'til Dawn', 'XXX', Desperado...the list goes on. His burger tribute draws on his Mexican roots, rather than that of his moustache (thankfully).



This burger is a stunning combination of tequila salsa, chipotle mayonnaise, smoked bacon, chilli cheese, jalapenos, sour cream and Lucky Chip's signature 32-day aged beef patty. All on a sesame-seeded brioche bun.

Half a 'Danny Trejo' burger
Quite simply put, this is a stunning burger. 


So if you've managed to read to the end of this without being half way to Netil Market, I salute you, you're a stronger person than me.

Don't wait, just go. It is bloody brilliant. GO! This burger is very deserving of it's place in my 'Top 5 Best Burgers in London' list.

Oh, and it's only open:
  • Wednesday & Thursday - 6.30pm till about 9.30pm
  • Friday - 6.30pm till about 10pm 
  • Saturday - 12.30pm till about 10pm
  • Sunday - 12.30pm till they run out (normally late afternoon or early evening) 

Lucky Chip on Urbanspoon

15 comments:

  1. Fecking hell, I want one. But that's a long way to go. I'm going to have to drag myself though...

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  2. Hey Kavey, it is worth the schlep!

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  3. I'm so pleased you enjoyed it Nick, just gutted that I didn't enjoy mine. In general the toppings were applied far too liberally, the patty was the saltiest one I have ever tasted and to top it off cooked past the medium mark. The sides were good, the beetroot onions rings are something else, but there was one batch that had a cinnamon tasting cake like batter? Did you get one of those?

    Perhaps I should stick to the basic bacon cheeseburger if I go back in the future, as it seems to be far more consistent from what I have heard.

    Hayley

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  4. Wow. Great review. Thank you.

    One small correction. Opening times are as follows:

    Wednesday & Thursday - 6.30pm till about 9.30pm
    Friday - 6.30pm till about 10pm
    Saturday - 12.30pm till about 10pm
    Sunday - 12.30pm till we run out (normally late afternoon or early evening)

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  5. That cheese on the bacon cheeseburger, it looks more like American than cheddar. If it is cheddar, I'd like to know where they found one that melts like processed stuff.

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  6. Hayley - liberal toppings and salt are a shame, I went back to basics on the burger reviewed and that bacon cheeseburger was superb!

    Comar - duly corrected :)

    Marcus - I'll ask the question and let you know.

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  7. I went I went I went, finally.
    And it was all you said it would be.
    I'm blogging it now.
    :)
    Happy Kavey.

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  8. I finally tried a lucky chip burger at the sebright arms pub this weekend and it was very dissapointing! the burger patty was half raw (not rare) and turned to mush by the last few bites. such a shame as the bun and toppings were so good! maybe I need to try one from the van instead as your meat pattie looks a lot better than the one i had! great blog btw! :)

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  9. Anonymous03 July, 2012

    dont go on a saturday afternoon if weather is nice .. waited 40mins (during which they told me my order was on grill ... it wasnt i heard them call it out 10 mins later) .. whilst waiting for a burger i never got cos i couldnt be bothered to wait 50+mins (this is supposed to be takeway not a restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!)my bike was stolen in broad daylight from outside the school where it was chained up .. thks for f**** nothing lucky chip

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  10. Anonymous05 July, 2012

    check the times !
    It is no longer open during weekdays.
    I went to the Sebright instead.
    Meh.
    Nothing special at all - the meat was dry. Too much chilli in the filling overpowered the burger. Cheese was a half melted processed slice affair.
    6/10 on this occasion.

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  11. Very disappointed! I went down tonight (Thursday) got there about 8ish and the place was very firmly thoroughly shut no sign of life. Shame it was a shlep even on a motorbike.

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  12. This is great this place is round the corner from me aswell. Must go!!!

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  13. Superbad18 May, 2013

    Hi there,


    On the strength of this amazing review we headed down to Netil market today and were REALLY let down by this one. As somebody else commented the meat was RAW (on the coldish side) not rare, which sketched us out a little. Apart from that the staff didn't seem to much care about the customers and topping-wise the Danny Trejo was not as mindblowing as your review (which have led us to many great eats in the past) would have suggested.


    We won't give up though and will try the Sebright arms or the Grafton... Maybe it was just bad luck.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Burger fan19 May, 2013

    Went yesterday to Netil Market after reading your review - extremely disappointed as it topped your list of London's top 10. As the others said the meat was raw (and I like don't mind rare meat), but most importantly the flavour just wasn't there at all - couldn't really catch any discernible flavour, it was like there was no seasoning. A mediocre experience which was a big let down in the greater scheme of things.

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  15. Ripsnorter01 August, 2014

    31st July 2014 at the Sebright Arms... The prices have gone up to the point of not good value. The Kevin Bacon burger was very tasty but £7.95's worth, if I remember correctly. The fries, now £3.00 for a small portion, were anything but crispy, crunchy and more-ish, never rising above 'meh'. All this was served by a group of young barmaids who, working collectively, still failed to give a single smile or any real kind of human interaction beyond the bare minimum. Sorry, but this now rates as cashing in.

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