[Burger Supper Club] The Forty Burger from Two Nights Only

A couple of months ago I was given the heads up on a Burger Supper Club from one of my favourite London burger chefs (check out his Wenlock & Essex Burger) that was going to kicking off in September eponymously for two nights only.

I offered some tickets to give away on the blog and given some pre-event info (check it here), but thought I'd give you an overview on how the whole thing went down, and why you should keep an eye out for tickets for the next one that is already being planned!

Hosted in the Exmouth Arms, Exmouth Market, the menu was a cracker, and I urge you to check out the designs for the evening by Limited Edition Design.

The menu and burger composition via www.limitededitiondesign.co.uk. 

Burgers at The Thirsty Bear, Stamford Street

The Thirsty Bear on Stamford Street, just by Waterloo Station, is owned and operated by the Robot Pub Group. It's an iPad-driven pub, and the concept is simple, yet massively effective....

Enjoy a pint of Meantime Pale Ale while you peruse burgers on your inbuilt iPad

Red Dog Saloon and The North Pole: London Burger Roundup #8

This week on the London Burger Roundup, we have some burger love in strange places from you fabulous burger pic submitters, the Red Dog Saloon, and The North Pole, N1:

Wimpy: Burgers for the Blind

I've spent a fair bit of time volunteering as a guide for the visually impaired in the past, and so when I was sent an inspirational piece of marketing that incorporated burgers AND support for the visually impaired, I felt I just had to share it! 

Wimpy have created a great experiential marketing stunt to promote their braille menus in South Africa, by writing a message for 15 people with visual impairments into their burger buns with sesame seeds. A campaign that generated buzz and 800,000 reads from the blind and partially sighted community!

I haven't had one in years, but my memories of Wimpy are all about plated burgers with knives and forks, and 'proper' table service. It's nostalgic, it's comforting, and though I'm sure I'll have a different view of their burgers today, bravo Wimpy for reaching out to the visually impaired!

Workshop Coffee: Don't let the name fool you, the burger is pretty special

Workshop Coffee has recently rebranded from its old incarnation of St. Ali, and sits at 27 Clerkenwell Road, between St. John Square and St. John Street. It's the kind of place I could sit for hours, sipping a cold Camden Brewery beer, watching the beautiful (and sometimes freakishly odd) people of Clerkenwell hustle by...

Workshop Coffee Rare Breed Burger

Sadly I don't have hours, I have lunchtimes, and so I arrived at the business of chowing down on the Workshop burger. A burger that's been under the radar for far too long...

Red Dog Saloon: The Bad, The Bad and The Ugly.

Red Dog Saloon is perched on the corner of Hoxton Square, but its faded faux western facade, and brightly lit interior feels out of place amongst the low lit counter culture bars that surround it.

I was out for a couple of drinks on a Monday night and happened to be around the corner from Red Dog Saloon. I'd heard some mixed reviews of the burgers so it was a great opportunity to give it a Burger Me! once over.

Price:

Bacon cheeseburger £8.50
Blue cheese and bacon cheeseburger £8.50
Fries £2.75
Onion rings £2.75

Presentation:

All the burgers came lid-on, plated with garnishes of coleslaw, a thick finger of pickle, beef tomato, and a leaf of romaine lettuce. This is a burger where ALL the salad is out of the burger, which seems to me a bit of a cop out, or maybe a way to make the plate the burger is served on look less empty.

Toppings:

The bacon cheeseburger was topped with a miserly attempt at a topping. This consisted several pieces of dry and curly streaky bacon plonked on top. The American cheese wasn't much better being barely melted onto the meat. 

Meat:

A 6oz chuck patty apparently cooked medium rare is the core of this burger. It wasn't. In fact it's barely pink in the middle. It is seasoned, but the ground beef feels overworked and slightly sludgy.

Bun:

Godawful. What could have been a dense squidgy bun on first glance turns out to be a dry, untoasted gag-fest. What moisture might have been left feels like it's been leached out by a combination of heat lamp and old age. The only redeeming factor was my pint of Camden Meantime IPA.

Accessories:

Fries were fine, actually not bad at all, but the onion rings were massively disappointing. The breadcrumb exterior is dry, like the bun, and almost cold with a slimy, half cooked thick ring of onion inside. Unappetising. Coupled with a thousand-island style sauce that had been out so long it had formed a firm skin. Almost unpalatable.

Overall rating: 4/10

This burger scores a dismal 4/10 - the sludgy meat, the offensively dry, untoasted bun and unsauced toppings being bad enough crimes in themselves - coupled with a complete lack of interest in making a half decent attempt at palatable food. I visited on a Monday night, around 8.30pm, and the place was packed, so I doubt this review will do much to deter the hordes. 

The most interesting thing about Red Dog Saloon is I've had fans of the blog beg me to add this joint to my list, and others tell me to avoid it like the plague. I've also had their chef in charge of their Twitter account respond to my disappointed comments from the evening letting me know 'something must have gone wrong'. It may well have done, but when a place divides opinion like this (50% of the time it works every time...) there's a consistency issue that needs sorting.

[Competition] Win Tickets to Two Nights Only at The Exmouth Arms

It's almost here.

Two nights only, the burger-focused evenings from James Morgan and Chris Todd [you know, the one I wrote about a few weeks ago] have their tickets going on sale at 19:00 on Thursday 23 August. To be in with a chance of grabbing one, keep your eyes peeled for the link on their twitter account http://twitter.com/twonightsonly and their facebook page, and make sure you don't miss out.

There is, however, another way to get your hands on some. Burger Me! has two tickets to give away to two avid readers of m'blog. To enter the draw to win a ticket, simply sign up for the Burger Me! mailing list.* I'll draw the competition over the Bank Holiday weekend and two lucky winners on the mailing list will win tickets!

To recap, here's what your ticket will get you: 

Dates: 
19 and 20 September from 19:30

Location: 
The Exmouth Arms, 23 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QL

Tickets:
Tickets on sale from 19:00
26 tickets available per night
£40 per ticket


Ticket price includes:
Perfect Storm cocktails by Kraken 
Pale Ale by Camden Brewery


Starters:
Angels on Horseback
Crayfish Thermidor
Wagyu Tartare


The main event:
The Forty Burger (Black Label beef as used in the Minetta Tavern Black Label Burger)
Fries
Fried Oxtail Donuts
Onion Rings
Coleslaw


Dessert:
Chocolate Brownie

*Don't worry! I'll be holding your email address in a secure vault that it won't be able to escape from, except occasionally when I'll send you the details of something really cool - like free tickets to a burger pop-up, or the chance to win stuff from the Burger Me! shop.