Previous AWESOME meal at Red Dog Saloon

Burgers! Where do YOU love?

Birthdays are a big deal in my family. The now obligatory post-birthday Loz and Kathry lunch is even more of a big deal. It has to be somewhere posh or cool and involves lots of food and not a little drink. This concept could only be improved if Big Sister lived a little closer and was able to come along!

This year’s birthday lunch for Loz was meant to be a brunch, an all-you-can-drink brunch no less at the South Place Hotel, but now one of us is, ahem, up the duff, all you can drink Prosecco suddenly didn’t seem as exciting.

Our first port of call was going to be the delish Red Dog Saloon on Hoxton Square. Disgustingly big burgers, pitchers of beer and Hipster Central – what wasn’t to love? Well, actually, the lack of non-meaty products wasn’t particularly to love for veggie Loz so we decided on nearby The Breakfast Club instead. Having a cheeky branch in Shoreditch that we hadn’t visited plus a rather fabulous German beer on tap made this seem like the perfect spot but having had a quick gander at the other branch on Artillery Lane opposite Liverpool Street, and spying the queue OUT OF THE DOOR we thought that we might save our feet and head to Spitalfields instead.

Previous AWESOME meal at Red Dog Saloon
Previous AWESOME meal at Red Dog Saloon

And that’s how we ended up at Byron. Yay for Byron! Got a booth immediately AND they serve Brooklyn Lager. Score! (And being in the second trimester means that certain mummies-to-be can have one alcoholic drink a week. Double score!)

Byron burger: hot.
Byron burger: hot.

Now, Byron is emerging as the biggest train in the burger joint trend that looks unlikely to die out any time soon. People in my office actually clapped for joy at the arrival of American chain Five Guys to Covent Garden, and I have been lured in the slightly dirty, and slightly pretentious queue-only, world of Meat Liquor on several occasions.

Byron is a much cleaner brand than ML but still aims to retain the trendy aesthetic so key to the burger revolution: the interior is modern with chairs that you want to pinch for your own flat, and the burger buns are shiny brioche. You may want to discount the most visible of this brand of tasty meatwich but please don’t. It. Is. Awesome.

You might have a Byron on your high street but the burgers are good, the sides are very good (onion rings and chipotle mayo are musts), and the Oreo cookie milkshake is the perfect way to finish. There are very few veggie options, as with most of these places, but the Portobello mushroom burger was pronounced to be the proverbial hit.

Lozzie enjoyed her gargantuan meal, evidently.
Lozzie enjoyed her gargantuan meal, evidently.

Incidentally, Loz rates Gourmet Burger Kitchen quite highly as a veggie destination. It doesn’t feel quite as much like a restaurant as Byron (it’s a bit closer to Nando’s in that you pay at a counter), but as well as offering a vegetable-based, goat’s cheese option, there’s also a bean burger and a falafel one. A bit of variety is never a bad thing, although a meat-substitute burger would be even better, my vegetarian relatives tell me.

God I love a dirty burger. If a topping isn’t oozing out of the rapidly disintegrating bun then frankly it’s just not worth the effort. Funnily enough, Whitechapel’s aptly named Dirty Burger is next on the hit list with Camden’s Hache being named the restaurant of choice for when me and hubby have London overnighter when celebrating our wedding anniversary in November.

I want this all again, NOW.
I want this all again, NOW.

I really wish I had written this post after lunch as I have started to drool on my desk. Ah well.

If you know a great burger place in London or Essex then give us a shout please!

Category: Life