[Meat Free January] Grilled Cheese at Lundenwic, 45 Aldwych

Once again we find ourselves in January, 2015 seems to have flown by in a bit of a blur, with fewer new burger openings in London, a spattering of residencies, and of course the burger celebration of the year – National Burger Day.

But January means more austere times.

My meat-free, alcohol-free month has become a bit of a ritual, and a chance to give my body a rest from chowing down on pig and cow layered burgers. For the last couple of years I’ve reviewed the best veggie burgers in London, so this year I’m going to give you the definitive list of grilled cheese sandwiches, because – well, why the hell not.

And so my first visit is to Lundenwic. This is a Nordic-themed café at 45 Aldwych – not the beating heart of foodie London – although it's sandwiched between The Waldorf and The Delauney, so you could argue this is a more refined area, away from the hectic delights of Soho. And Nordic it is, with its sparse, industrial feel: clean lines; beige tiles; grey grouting; and bold block furniture.

[Review] Le Bun - Burgers at Le Zetter

Late to the party, but fashionably so, I've just managed to try out the delights of Le Bun at Le Zetter with some burger loving work colleagues - five days before their residency ends. I'll give you the full brief after the jump, but if you're a fan of Le Bun (or if you've never tried it) you have to get yourself a booking for their next residency.

[Review] Burger & Lobster, Old Bailey, City of London

It's been a while since I last visited Burger & Lobster. In fact my review from back in the days when it was an emerging brand was more than three years ago. The reason I bring this up is I was contacted the other day on the back of the launch of their latest restaurant in Old Bailey (their 9th in London) and asked if I wanted to drop in, check out the new site, and to resample the burger.

Back when I reviewed it, it received a solid 8/10 - so a lifetime later, in London food days, is it still on the mark?

'The Blonde' and I dutifully set off to find out...

[Burger News] Double Up at The Diner on Black Friday

Hey, you know what, it's Black Friday tomorrow. As if you didn't know, right? And in case your inbox hasn't been flooded with deals from every retailer you happen to have accidentally shared your email address with, here's a Black Friday deal that I can get on board with.

The Diner are offering anyone who eat any of their burgers (that includes their cheeseburger, the arch burger, my favourite - the Diablo, and a host of others) a second burger patty for free. That's right, you can make your burger a DOUBLE and pay not a penny more.

Now surely that's something worth celebrating on Black Friday. Enjoy.

Food Hoods: Get your favourite burger featured on this beautifully illustrated Food Map

We're pretty spoilt, you know, in London, with all our great burgers. (Hi again, by the way, I haven't posted for a while as I've had a busy couple of months but hopefully a few more posts coming down the pipe shortly).

I would say we've got a pretty established set of great burger slingers, and so it would seem that now is the time to institutionalise them into something beautiful. This is what I'm talking about:

A couple of weeks ago a fellow burger enthusiast (let's call him a bit of a foodie), had a chat with me about a food map he was creating - codenamed "Food Hoods". The intention is that the map will be hand-illustrated and cover the crème de la crème of the city's best food and drink neighbourhoods. This obviously appeals to me because it means that as well as being able to plan to get my burger fix around the capital, I can explore other foods in the area - recommended by peers.

Hoods that have been confirmed already are:

• Soho
• Covent Garden
• Fitzrovia
• Marylebone
• Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Hoxton
• Hackney (London Fields, Dalston mainly)
• Whitechapel & Spitalfields
• Brixton
• Clerkenwell
• Bermondsey

Food Hoods is the creation of Will Moody and he wants to make sure your favourite burger joints are included on the map, which is where you lovely lot come in.

All you have to do is plug your favourite burger into the comments section below, or tweet me and Will (@HamburgerMe @FoodHoods) with your top burger restaurant in London.

Now, and this is important, you need to make sure you share your absolute number one. The place you'd go if it was your last burger in London. And Will will make sure the best ten make it onto his new illustrated map.

If you want to get your hands on a copy of Food Hoods you can pre-order your copy here - it comes as a fold-out map for sticking up on your wall or a small booklet (better for burger fans on the go). As great maps take time to produce, the first copies will be ready in early 2016. 

New York Burger Tour in 36 hours

It’s not every day you get to play in New York and eat great burgers. But I had that chance very recently when I was travelliong to Washington D.C. with work and took the opportunity to spend a day and a half, a mere 36 hours, in NYC. I hopped onto AirBnB and booked myself into a flat in the heart of Greenwich Village (right on MacDougal Street, and a stone’s throw from Bleecker St.) arriving around midnight on Friday.

Inevitably I was stoked about being able to try out some of the New York burgers on my bucket list and with a host of recommendations from Fred Smith, Zan Kaufman, and Will Leigh (not to mention numerous others) I had a hard job picking and choosing.

This is where my recommendations took me:

National Burger Day UK - 27 August 2015

National Burger Day is my wet dream. It's the UK's celebration of burgers that happens every year on 27 August, first launching in 2013.

For a burger blogger everyday is celebration of burgers, but National Burger Day brings a nation together over everyone's favourite comfort food and it's really kicking off at Dalston Yard where 18 burger joints are selling their wares for your pleasure.

Here they are:

Tickets sold out pretty quickly, but the good news for the rest of you is that Mr Hyde have negotiated a 20% discount with some serious burger slingers across the UK on the day in question - check out a restaurant near you and download a voucher to get involved:

Here's last year's video to get excited about.

I wrote about National Burger Day in 2013 here, and in 2014 here. Careful, there's burger porn involved.