Friday 30 March 2012

Patty and Bun - Fun at the Doodle Bar

Update November 2012: Patty & Bun have launched a permanent restaurant on James St. behind selfridges, and it's glorious. Read the full Patty & Bun restaurant review.
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Update May 2012: Patty & Bun are now popping up at The Endurance on Berwick Street, Soho.
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Tucked away in a warehouse, just off Battersea Bridge Road is a place called The Doodle Bar. It's a wicked space, populated with beautiful, beautiful people (slightly more adventurous sloaney types who've made it across the river), art installations, a table tennis table, a bar, and a kitchen that on a Friday night is taken over by Street Kitchen (@streetkitchen) (a venture headed up be Mark Jankel, serving cracking lunches to the well-heeled in Broadgate) and Patty & Bun, a concept by the effervescent Joe (@pattyandbunjoe).

The Ari Gold burger from Patty & Bun


I'd started the evening for an early burger at Brixton's Honest Burgers (here's my Honest Burger review), with @joelgershinson (who has a much less verbose review on his blog), but had been hearing encouraging things about the Patty & Bun pop-up so wanted to give it a once over to see what the fuss was about. 
And bloody hell, I was glad I did.

Price:
Ari Gold Cheeseburger: £7.00. Add bacon £0.50.
Triple Cooked Fries: £2.50
The Patty & Bun and Street Kitchen menu at The Doodle Bar, Battersea
Presentation:
After standing at the pass watching a production line of fabulous smelling, sizzling burgers roll out to a queue of delighted punters, and being greeted by Patty & Bun founder, Joe, with a massive assault of enthusiasm and energy, I settled in for the long wait for our burgers. BOOM! six minutes later our number was up and our burgers and fries awaited. Now I am a massive fan of both Lucky Chip, and MeatLiquor, but I'm used to waiting 35 minutes to over an hour for their burgers. For the Street Kitchen guys to deliver this level of streamlined cooking is a doff of the cap to strategic Taylorist management of the cooking production line, i.e. it's bloody quick. 
Some Taylorist Street Kitchen chefs working, last Friday.
Patty and Bun patties on the grill - get that Maillard effect on the go.
Post-cloche cheese, bubbling on the grill
The burgers come packaged in classic takeaway boxes, branded with the P&B logo, a nice touch. 
Patty & Bun packaging with a smear of burger sauce.
The Patty & Bun burger and chips package
The Ari Gold from Patty & Bun, in all its glory.
Toppings:
From the mellow house-pickled onion (toned down since launch on feedback), to the smokey bbq-mayo-cum-burgersauce, to the blanket of cloche-melted cheese and rashers of crispy smoked bacon, the Patty & Bun burger topping symphony is a work of greatness. The overwhelming notes being beefy, creamy, smokey, with a hint of bite and umami. I stuffed this in my mouth with unadulterated pleasure, and the happy smile of the recently lobotomised.
Lid-off - the Ari Gold from Patty & Bun
Meat:
WINNING! This is another fabulous burger patty. It's beef from grass fed angus cattle (supplied by HG Walter in Baron's Court), aged for 28 days, and although Joe wouldn't be drawn on his exact cuts, I'm guessing by the levels of juice and fat it's mainly beefy chuck cut with some short rib/rib cap, and maybe a little something beefier chucked in the mix as well. It's a perfectly seasoned, perfectly medium rare bit of meat, and fully deserves its meat win status!
The Ari Gold bite-through.
Bun:
The bun, simply put, is excellent. A lightly glazed, demi-brioche from (again secrecy pervades) a secret baker in London. It's not Rinkoff or Miller's, but it's bloody good. It's light, springy and takes a SHIT LOAD of juicy punishment from the burger and assorted toppings.

Accessories:
Possibly the best fries I've had. Ever. These chips are a stunning example of StreetKitchen's  attention to detail. They're blanched on steam trays, before being fried at low temp - then they're blitzed in the fryer a second time just before serving. The result: superlative triple cooked chips - crispy, fluffy and covered in rosemary salt (a la Honest Burgers) which makes it very hard not to finish the tub immediately. For £2.50, it's worth visiting The Doodle Bar just for these chips. 
Superlative triple cooked chips from Patty & Bun and Street Kitchen
Overall Ranking: 9/10
This was my second burger of the evening, (I'd come directly from Honest Burgers), and it had me grinning from ear to ear like a lunatic (in fact a couple of sloane rangers seated nearby moved - probably because I was creeping them out). It's a great burger, in a great venue, built, cooked and delivered in super-fast time by a great team and my humble recommendation is to GET YOUR BUTT DOWN THERE ASAP as they've just extended their Friday guest spot for another month.

If there were a couple of things I'd tweak they'd be slightly more 'oomph' to the cheese, slightly less burger sauce (my hair, hands, jeans and shoes would testify to that), but they're minor things and I see this burger evolving as the weeks go on!


Patty & Bun c/o The Doodle Bar
33 Parkgate Road
Battersea
SW11 4NP

4 comments:

  1. This looks great fun! my mouth was watering just reading this blog post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sam Becker30 March, 2012

    Jesus, I never learn, do I?  "Must never read Nick's reviews on an empty stomach."

    Devastating pics as always; looks like I'll need to venture over there sharpish.  Nice one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree with everything you said. I went there last Friday night and it was by far the best burger I've had in London. I'm a big lover of Honest burger too but here the combination of the best brioche bun, smokey mayo and juicy burger topped with those tangy pickled onions, completely hit the spot. Thanks for letting me know they're extending - I'll be back for sure! 

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hotchilli407 April, 2012

    Funny how their chips are exactly like Honests down to the rosemary salt....Get ya own idea!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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