[Review] Steers, Lavender Hill, Clapham Junction

Steers is a well established South African burger fast food joint, which opened in early July 2013 on the site of the old Wimpy on Lavendar Hill near Clapham Junction station. Interestingly it's parent company, Famous Brands, also owns the Wimpy brand too - is this a push for modernisation of a tired, and now pretty much defunct brand?

A free Tuesday night saw this burger blogger head down with a  friend to see how well this South African burger concept translates into London's burger scene.

Steers Burger, Clapham Junction

FATTBurger at The Sun and 13 Cantons, Soho

FATTburger is currently in residency at The Sun and 13 Cantons in Soho, having previously popped up for several months in Dalston, and it's yet another another burger concept to hit the streets of Soho this summer.

Double Fatt Piggy burger

Having had a weekend where I'd popped into Burger Bear, and missed out on Burger Breakout, it was a Monday lunchtime when I popped into Soho to sample the Fattburger wares with trusty #teamburger regular Alex (@eatingsoho). 

The Joe Allen Secret Off-Menu Burger

It's been a while. I mean, I've eaten in Joe Allen before, back waaaaaay before I started this blog, and certainly at a time when the subtleties of burgers were lost on me. But I haven't had the incredibly 'secret' off-menu burger that no-one else knows about and is only passed on in whispers to the most privileged, seasoned Londoner.* It's a regular in Daniel Young's Top 10 list of best burgers in London and it's been one I've been wanting to try for a long, long time.

Joe Allen's secret burger, sticking its tongue out at people who don't know about it.

Burgers at The White Swan - 20 Farringdon Street, City of London, EC4A 4AB

Location: Almost directly opposite the Hoop & Grapes on Farringdon Road sits The White Swan. It's recently changed hands and the new owners have done a great job converting what was a bit of a grubby, old-skool city grot-pub into quite a nice gastro-type feel. In spite of the imposing pitch black exterior paint job, the inside was surprisingly light and airy, with 'proper' solid wood tables laid out ready for lunch.



This visit happened on a Thursday lunchtime, I had the pleasurable company of the blonde, the brunette, and the Scottish lass (and we know what happens when this lot join me, don't we Giant Robot!)


Price:
Handmade West Country beef burger with cheddar and bacon and hand cut chips - £8.95.


The blonde, brunette and I all went for the beef burger, whilst the Scottish lass went for a chicken burger (having never eaten beef...is she really Scottish, you ask?)

7/10 - Giant Robot, 45-47 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5RS

Location: 
Situated in the uber-cool mini-burb of Clerkenwell, just north of Smithfield, resides a Giant Robot. Now, I've often passed this place (incidentally sitting on the site of Match, which to date remains the single best burger I've ever eaten, prior to it closing down), on the periphery of my lunching territory, and normally after I've already eaten, and wondered about the impenetrable menu, filled with sliders, balls and giant sausage. 


So finally I decided to take the plunge and took my dining companions, the blonde and the brunette, to dine.

The first thing the blonde noted upon entering the restaurant was the sign outside that appeared to quote porn legend (and all round hairy-fatman) Ron Jeremy - "Great Balls of Meat & Super Long Cocktails", followed swiftly by the brunette saying she had sampled the giant sausage at Giant Robot late one night while out on the lash...well that set the tone for the meal. 

7/10 - Bishop's Finger, West Smithfield, City of London

Location: On the corner of Long Acre and West Smithfield, sandwiched between Carluccio's and Ferrari's, resides The Bishop's Finger pub - part of the Shepherd Neame stable. We arrived early on a Tuesday lunchtime, and had our pick of the tables outside (a reckless decision during rare period of rain-free weather in the City this summer). The pub offers a range of real ales, which I will have to return to sample another day, as sadly this bear had to head back to work after lunch...

From the menu, a laminated affair that appears to be a pub staple, I didn't have very high expectations.


Price:
Straight burger (£7.95), Add Bacon and Cheese (£1), includes chips

Presentation:

Our meals came with the old 'wooden chopping board' classic execution. Even though it was not displayed quite as nicely as the Bistro du Vin burger (and costing a good £5 less), the burger was nevertheless almost as impressive looking. A large, roughly hewn and hand packed burger patty, in a dense, sourdough bun, bowl of skin-on chips, and a little pot of relish, served with a bucket of cutlery and condiments. Things were looking good.

Toppings:
Mature Cheddar and Bacon. Though the latter was somewhat lacking in quantity it was, at least, quite tasty. The cheddar on the other hand was completely tasteless. Add to that the fat in the burger, and the liberal spreading of mayo under the 'lid', it made for quite a greasy experience. The undersalad was solid, and the lambs lettuce worked quite well.

Meat:

Pretty good. Speaking to the landlady, the meat used in the burger patty came fresh from Smithfields market daily, and is hand-moulded into the maxi-sized burger by the chef prior to cooking. It came out charred on the outside, and pink in the middle, with rough ground, course mince, and not even a hint of circular edge! The one problem with the meat was the amount of fat in the mince - as you can see below there was a veritable pool of grease that poured out, and with our slightly wonky outside table, it threatened to cover me with a tsunami of lard - luckily we had plenty of napkins! This however was minor compared to the size, and quality of the patty.

Bun:
Actually pretty good. A sourdough bun, lightly grilled and very fresh was dense and yeilding, while holding the whole meaty munch-fest together.

Plate Accessories:
The accessories on the wooden board were fair, the tomato burger relish (straight out of a booker tub) was passable, but slightly acidic - which actually managed to cut through the grease a bit. The chips were single fried with skins on, and were fine, but needed a good dose of salt to bring the flavour out. All in all the combination worked well with the burger, and while I finished my portion (just!) my dining companion was defeated with just a few chips down...


Overall Rating: 7/10

This gets a grand 7/10 as for pub fayre under £10, it's pretty good. The Bishop's Finger burger has good meat, a great bun, but is sadly let down by the toppings and the slapped on wave of mayo on the bun - a bit of tweaking and this could be some much better. I'd recommend this as a jolly filling, and impressive looking burger - and next time I'll be having a pint of Whitstable Bay with it!

7/10 - Bistro du Vin, St John Street, London

Location: Bistro du Vin is situated on the uber fashionable St John Street (home to St John Restaurant and Vinoteca, amongst others). Adorned with it's green, classically French bistro awning out front, the restaurant has two distinct personalities - the main dining room sits in an 'L' around the open kitchen - the centre of which holds the mother of all ovens, the Josper - decked out in dark wood with leather-covered booths along the walls. The second dining room (dark wood's alter ego) is a more relaxed, lounge-style room off the side of the kitchen, and much less fun!


I was extremely pleased to be dining with some fellow burgerati from Twitter (namely @burgeracblog, @Fredsmith_, @nialldavidson, @eatingsoho, and @jingangyoung) and had heard great things about the BdV burger, so was really keen to get stuck in and give it the Burger Me! once over.  (And thank you Alex for loan of a camera with a flash - it really was quite dark!)


Price:
£14.50 for the BdV Bacon Cheeseburger inc. chips


Presentation:
Awesome. This is how burgers should be presented. Period.

Toppings:
Bacon, Cheese, Onion, Tomato, Lettuce. The burger had a kind of topsy-turvy, 'under-salad' underneath the patty thing going on - no doubt to avoid taking away from the melted cheese on top, and allowing it to weld itself to the bun. Bacon was ok, but the smoked flavour wasn't great, and it got lost somewhat under the cheese. Cheese was good, American-style, classic and gooey - and lots of it!


Meat:
Very good. An aged, coarsely-ground beef patty that was cooked to order (rare, of course).   It was a big, fat patty, so wide I could barely fit my mouth around it, but oh joyous moment as I took my first bite, and the juices poured down my chin and hands onto the wooden burger board. The meat was beautifully drippy and beefy, a joy to masticate!

Bun:
Not up to the job. Sadly, as good as this bun looked, it wasn't. It was a promising start, the bun was big, bold, and had a seared grill mark (reminiscent of a branded cow) on the crown of the bap, but this is where the bun love ended. It was too firm, almost stale, and had been inexpertly cut so the top was far bigger than the bottom. This resulted in almost immediate splittage from the lower bun, and I was grateful for the lettuce leaf holding my meat in, as it ended up as my pseudo-bun for the majority of the munch. A bit later on other burgers were served with a new, seeded bun - possibly confirming that these were left-overs from a previous service, and sadly letting the side down.


Plate Accessories:
Very good. A spicy, thousand island style dressing resided in a mini copper pot, and shoe string fries served in greaseproof paper in a small pewter cup. I felt like a giant which is incredibly satisfying. Fries were fantastic, and burger sauce equally awesome - these, people, are accessories every good burger should have.

Overall rating: 7/10

With all the good things I'd heard, I wanted this burger to be good, and bits of it were very good, however on balance I was underwhelmed with the poorly executed bun, and strange 'under-salad'. Not the experience I was hoping for. To use a theatrical analogy on the elements of this - all the actors were there, but to me, the director was sleeping on the job.

Finally, honourable mention must go to the fabulous Lebanese wine we had - it was an exceptional pairing with our burgers - so a big thank you to our Sommelier.


On an unrelated note, with the aid of a certain butcher we dined with, I may be acquiring half a cow's worth of meat, but that's a story for another day...

7/10 - Firefly, Old Bailey, City of London

Location: Firefly is a cool cocktail bar and restaurant located on Old Bailey, close to Smithfield's Market, and St. Paul's tube station. 

Price:

£9.50 (plus 50p for bacon and 50p for cheese!)

Presentation:

Great. The burger came out pre-bunned (that is now a real word!) and it looked really appetizing! Good amount of mixed salad, nice dollop of coleslaw, and a decent portion of chips.

Toppings:

Comme ci, comme ca. Tomato and little gem lettuce underneath burger, and bacon and cheese on top. Smoked bacon was both delicious and generous, and the cheddar cheese really complemented the flavour nicely. The tomato and lettuce were disappointing, the lettuce being single, little gem leaves which were hard to bite off cleanly and pulled out during eating, and the tomato made the bun soggy and was relatively flavourless.

Bread:

Not good. Plain, low quality bap dusted with flour. Mine was toasted (a little too toasted!) to give it some body, but sadly over the course of the meal it compressed against the burger, and with the tomato ended up as an unappetizing, soggy lump...bread fail.

Meat:

Fairly good. Juicy, flavoursome and nice char-grilled grooves, but just a little over-cooked.

Plate Accessories:

Good. Delicious creamy, peppery coleslaw, tasty and crisp chips with skin on (annoyingly they were small and a little fiddly) but tasted good.

Overall rating: 7/10

So overall this is not a bad burger - let down by the bun fail, and poor choice of lettuce to go in the burger. The cost is just shy of £10, but I added bacon and cheese which pushed it just over the limit. The good news, however, is that if you go on a Tuesday they take 20% off your bill! Firefly is a good option for a reasonable burger.

7/10 - The Ultimate Burger, New Oxford Street, London

Location: This aptly named restaurant is located on New Oxford Street, between Holborn and Tottenham Court Road tube stations. Optimistically named The Ultimate Burger, it's actually not a bad attempt at a burger joint 

Price:

£7.10

Presentation:
Presented with the generally ubiquitous wooden stick through the bun to hold it all together. I ordered the 'blue cheese' which incorporated a stilton-esque sauce, and portobello mushrooms on top of an alleged 'scottish beef' burger. Bun was a sour dough sesame seed job, and there was also some salad-y bits and relish included. Chips and onion rings ordered and came separately.

Toppings:
Pretty good. Blue cheese sauce was a little 'gloopy' but very mature and tasty, and the grilled portobello mushrooms have a wonderful, earthy flavour. The salad was fine, not limp and tasted fairly fresh.

Bread:

A quite nice sour dough bun, not as fresh as it could have been, but held the burger together well (actually quite hard to get my mouth around it!). 

Meat:
Pretty good, although the menu stated scottish beef but I wasn't so sure, the flavour was good, but it wasn't aberdeen angus. The meat was cooked slightly pink which meant it was moist and juicy.

Plate Accessories:
Nothing. Came on its own and chips and onion rings came in a separate bowl. Looked a little lonely, but it was a decent sized burger!

Overall rating: 7/10

A good burger, let down by the freshness of the bun and the spurious 'scottish' beef claims (I'm a marketer, and I want to see provenance!). The Ultimate Burger is a hard name to live up to and in my view it just doesn't have that wow factor, but otherwise a good, solid burger experience.

7/10 - Gourmet Burger Kitchen, St Pauls, City of London

Location: Ahh, ubiquitous GBK, how we love you. An absolute staple restaurant for burger lovers, the Gourment Burger Kitchen situated by St. Paul's Cathedral is the backdrop for a good burger. Visited this New Zealand outpost with Anthony, for an executive lunch and as usual it didn't disappoint.

Price:
£8.45

Presentation:
My Avocado Bacon burger was presented 'bun-on' with a stick through the burger to hold it all together. Served on its own with no plate accompaniments, my burger seemed a little lonely. However a separate plate followed with a bowl of chips and a bowl of onion rings (@ £3 a bowl), which made the table appear less empty.

Toppings:
Obviously putting aside that there was no bacon/cheese option, I plumped for the avacado bacon topping, which included some round lettuce, a slice of beef tomato, a couple of pieces of red onion, chopped (well creamed) avacado, a couple of rashers of smoked streaky bacon and WAY TOO MUCH tomato salsa. The combination was good, and

Bread:
Thumbs up! Although the bun looked a little generic, this was a soft yet firm sesame roll and was surprisingly hardy, allowing two-handed eating with no disintegration.

Meat:
A great aberdeen angus beef patty. Cooked medium-rare (as I'd ordered, and Anthony's was medium as ordered!) the beef was flavoursome and meaty.

Plate Accessories:
None. Although the bowl of chips, the chips were of a very poor, school canteen-like quality, but the onion rings were onion-y, crispy and really good.

Overall rating:
7/10


I haven't rated this down for not having bacon and cheese, however this didn't get top marks as the chips were £3 extra and terrible, and there was too much tomato salsa in the topping to work perfectly - however full marks for the quality of beef, and the choice of bun. A respectable 7/10 for GBK St Paul's.

Honourable mention: As I was lunching with a friend, it would be remiss of me not to mention that his BBQ Burger had a fabulous bbq sauce that was a cut above your usual. If bbq is your thing, this is the burger for you at GBK.