[Review] Breddos Burgers, Slider Bar at The Player, Soho

For many, Breddos need no introduction. They exploded onto the London street food scene last year when, seemingly from nowhere, they came second against Luardos in street feast stand off 'Taco Wars'. Since then, they've been making massive inroads into street food in the capital with burgers, chicken and desserts.

The Double Classic burger from Breddos in Slider Bar

My first sampling was their burger at National Burger Day, but they've been quietly pimping their wares in Slider Bar at The Player in Soho for a while now, and before that were neighbours to Lucky Chip in Netil Market - so when they invited me to visit them, it would have been rude NOT to give their burger offering the Burger Me treatment...

Price:

There's lots going on here, so I thought a pic of the menu is best. Prices for the burgers range from £3.50 - £5.50 depending on how pimped you want yours - sides start at £2. A quick note up front, this is EXCELLENT value. 

Presentation:

The classic silver tray with greaseproof paper effect. I'm very much of the opinion 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' and I think my tray of burgers looks pretty damn good.

Breddos burgers clockwise from the top - veggie burger, short rib, crunchy nut chicken, classic, the Breddo.

Toppings:

There's a range of toppings across the various burgers, from the simple classic which incorporates a thick slab of melted american cheese and pickles, to The Breddo, which is inspired by Mexican street food with a twist and incorporates a 10-hour smoked chipotle short rib topping. I'll go into more detail on each of the burgers below, but these have been executed brilliantly.

Meat:

Where to start...all the meat Breddos serve, whether in the burgers, or the tacos, comes from Warren's butchers (for the uninitiated, they're the same butcher that supplies The Ledbury, Pollen St. Social, Little Social) which gives it an excellent heritage.

The beef in the patties is aged and made into 60 gram portions, which are cooked medium-rare. The blend of cuts is a secret, but is majority chuck with some bone marrow thrown in for good measure (you can see the chunks in the patty formation below:

The Classic burger from Breddos at The Player

The Classic Breddos burger - cut-through.

There is, of course, other meat and the pick of the bunch is the chipotle short rib which tops the short rib slider. The pastrami on top of The Breddo burger is also pretty good - sharp, sweet and peppery with the custom made sauce. 

Bun:

All the buns used by Breddos are custom-made by Miller's - the same baker that supplies Bread St. Kitchen, Byron and others. It's demi-brioche and, as a tried and tested burger bun, works brilliantly.

Accessories

Short Rib Cheesy Fries. A-freaking-mazing. The same 10 hour smoked chipotle short rib that tops the burger is used to top the cheesy shoestring fries.

Animal Fries. Short Rib topped cheesy shoestring fries at Breddos / Slider Bar

The Breddos burgers in more detail:

The Classic (and the Double Classic) - 9/10:

It's simple, and effective. Bun, pickles, american cheese, beef, mustard, ketchup, chopped iceburg. I added bacon which threw a couple of thick, streaky, crunchy rashers into the mix. At £4.50 in the heart of Soho, this is frankly a steal. Double up for double the fun.

Breddo Double Classic burger - cut-through

The Short Rib - 10/10:

This one's my stand-out favourite by a mile (which is impressive as all the others were excellent) - The chipotle short rib is an outstanding piece of beef and using it, with salsa, lime and habarnero, to top the well-seared beef patty is frankly awesome.

Breddos short rib habanero burger. 

The Breddo - 9.5/10:

This one's a cracker. It's a mash-up of beef patty topped with american cheese, a thick strip of griddled pastrami, swiss cheese and shoestring fries, finished off with homemade habenero sauce. It's a beautifully balanced burger - the aged beef and melted, creamy cheeses softening the peppery pastrami and habenero, while the fries and chopped iceburg lettuce (and to some extent the sesame seed bun) add crunch and resistance. It's an interesting combination of toppings that work brilliantly.

Breddo to the left of me, short rib to the right...

The Crunchy Nut Chicken - 8/10:

This is the ad that Kellogg's could have made, but haven't. A golden sesame and peanut coated piece of fried chicken on a bed of chipotle mayo, chopped iceburg lettuce and tomato.

Overall:

It's taken me a while to pay a visit, but now I have, there's another GREAT burger joint in Soho for you to visit. You can grab a burger and fries FOR JUST £6.50 and get some great cocktails to go with them. Seriously, what's NOT to love.

Although this is a burger blog, and as such I focus pretty much exclusively on burgers (that's why you're here, right? It's certainly not for my entertainment value) I would like to highlight the very excellent tacos on offer - the jerk pork one particularly, and that same 10 hour chipotle smoked short rib one, too.

Breddos Tacos. All of them!

You can find Breddos in Slider Bar at The Player, 8 Broadwick Street, London W1F 8HN.

View Breddos and a load of other London burgers on my Interactive London Burger Map: