London Burger Roundup #5: Goodman, Kua'Aina

Today's London Burger Roundup features burger porn from Goodman and Kua'Aina:

#MTT: How Meat Three Thursday became Meat Two Thursday

That's right, sadly it's true. The legend of Meat Three Thursday became the slightly less impressive legend of Meat Two Thursday.

There are a whole catalogue of reasons why I didn't make it through #MTT with three meaty meals, and it's a story of dashed dreams, broken promises, and thoughts of what could have been. To recap, the plan was to have three, meat-orientated meals, in the city of London on Thursday 31 March.

The venues chosen were:

• Breakfast: Smith of Smithfields (ground floor)
• Lunch: Goodman, City (near Bank)
• Dinner: Hawksmoor Seven Dials (Covent Garden)

And I had a good showing of people joining me for the ride - 8 for brekkie, six for lunch and five for dinner.

So breakfast went to plan at Smith's, and as you'd expect, was fabulous! Lunch went ahead also, with my first visit to Goodman and, sat by the meat aging room, the experience was first class, from the presentation of the meat down to the serving of a 9/10 rated burger. Dinner, sadly, was where the delicate house of cards tumbled to the ground, as I'd left it too late to book Hawksmoor, and all the tables were booked up for almost a week! So, undeterred, I switched at the last minute to another joint that I'd never been too, The Rivington Grill, and they had a table for 5. Sadly my dinner guests all pulled out before lunch, and having finished up at Goodman around 3pm, my 7pm reservation was feeling optimistic, and sure enough, totally stuffed, I decided that I would chalk the day up to training.

MTT will rise again another day, but perhaps with more time between the meat!

9/10 - Goodman, 11 Old Jewry Street, City of London

Location: If ever there was a true city location for a restaurant, it would be hidden away like Goodman, on a street not unlike Jewry Street. The simple, bold brass lettering above the smoked glass doors being the only indication of the meat palace awaiting inside. Simple, bold wooden furniture and an army of waiting staff clothed in butcher's whites strike you immediately - we dined during a subdued Thursday lunchtime hubbub, and our position right next to Goodman's dry meat ageing room deserves an honorable mention!

Price:
£13 all in. (Burger, fries and any toppings of choice)

Presentation:

Quite good. The old 'stick through the bun and burger to keep it all together' classic worked well here, served on a large oval plate and including a separate bowl of chips. Now, I'm not sure whether it was just me, but my first reaction was - is that it? The size of the burger on the plate just seemed tiny, but rest assured that once I held it in my excited hands, it was beautifully heavy. Clearly it was a matter of perspective...

Toppings:

Seeing as Goodman have possibly the best policy in London of not charging extra for any toppings (a great selection of mushroom, cheddar, bacon, fried egg, or fried onions), I decided to go for the bacon and cheese (there's a bit of a history of that, see previous blog posts...). Both were fabulous, along with some romaine lettuce, pickles, red onion and some tomato.

Bread:
Awesome. I'll fully admit that when I saw it, my heart sank. Having had an awful experience with a brioche bun at Corney and Barrow, I saw the bun that came out and my heart sank. As avid readers of this blog will know, there is nothing that destroys a great burger experience like a bun fail, however this was nothing of the sort! This bun was a glazed, brioche style bun but without any of the sweet brioche style, and it wrapped around the burger magnificently. 

Meat:

Incredible. I don't know whether it was sitting next to the meat ageing room, but somehow the meat glowed in the bun (and not in a radioactive way). Annoyingly it was cooked medium (health and safety meant cooking it rare was totally out), but the burger was wonderfully moist. The patty was made up of thickly chopped, aged beef with great flavour. It melted in my mouth and dripped magically onto the plate. I found myself making a satisfied 'nomnomnom' sound as I was eating it, much to the amusement of my dining companions.

Plate Accessories:

Not a whole lot, but it didn't need much. The chips looked a little anemic, but were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Overall rating: 9/10
This was a very good burger, and my first visit to Goodman was a very good one. Shame the burger couldn't be cooked how I like it, still the goodman burger is a serious kick-ass experience and one I'll be recommending!


Worth another honorable mention was the 2008 Lodge Hill Shiraz, a Jim Barry classic (of which I have six in my cellar), a great spicy, inky Shiraz that will age well for at least the next three years - at £7.50 a glass - in my opinion this is great value and worked really well with the burger.