CITY : London
VENDOR: Byron Burger (significant and growing UK chain)
NARRATIVE: After a successful trip to Covent Garden the week before I wanted to check out the competition for our leading burger to date. It has been a long day, it was hot but they had the windows open and it was like being outside.
BURGER: The entitled Byron Classic –includes cheese, bacon (as you can see too fatty) and salad –(no hidden pickle).
BUN: Appeared good and first bite was fine but was actually too thick and with a very low amount of Byron special sauce was actually quite dry.
DRIP FACTOR: Good
DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? Yes b
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes but the over think red onion had to be removed first.
CHIPS: Tiny – like they were made from new potatoes – very very poor!
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Not as I can walk to much better places within a few moments!
OVERALL SUMMARY: Disappointing!

Served on brown paper: New Criteria – No

 
MARKS OUT OF 10: 5/10 – my evening was rescued by being able to say hello to Kathleen Turner on the way home.

CITY : Singapore
VENDOR: Mandarin Oriental
NARRATIVE: Had to duck out of a team dinner to get work done and been camped in the lounge for 5 hours the only choice for food was room service and we only just managed to get it in time before they closed. What else to cheer me up but a burger!
BURGER: Average – unannounced pickle very frustrating. Also had crispy bacon and fried egg! Bit greasy...
BUN: Good -
DRIP FACTOR: Low
DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? Nope – the worst example to date it was in pieces before half way.
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes but only in separate pieces.
CHIPS: Good but once again in the metal baskets!
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Not for a burger
OVERALL SUMMARY: Below average even for a hotel burger!

Served on brown paper: New Criteria – No – white linen everywhere – did not really work!

 
MARKS OUT OF 10: 4.5/10 – Give this one a miss!

·         CITY : London (Covent Garden)

·         VENDOR: Shake Shack (Covent Garden)

·         NARRATIVE: After a long day (or past few days rather) of gardening, Craig and Andrew decided to take advantage of an absolutely glorious sunny and warm(ish) evening in London. [] Craig – come on Andrew get to the burger review! After some minor banter between Craig and Andrew as to whether or not they should stick with the original plan, or bow to the power of work (cough cough) life balance, they convinced themselves to stick with the original plan (minus the tube, plus a taxi!). Andrew wanted Craig to try one of his home town favourites (mind the auto-correct there) – Shake Shack. The original Shake Shack was just one block from Andrew’s first apartment in New York City in Madison Square Park. The original is famous for long lines (i.e., queues) and the setting of being in beautiful Madison Square Park. Now, as for the burger(s)....

·         BURGER: The Double Smoke Stack - Juicy and perfectly cooked with a signature “special” sauce[]  (Craig – which was excellent), crispy bacon, and melted cheese. Cooked just right![]  Craig – no hidden pickle!

·         BUN: Definitely a highlight – other than being slightly smaller than preferred, the bun was soft and fresh – just like the ones Andrew remembered from New York! The bun was the perfect beginning for a mind blowing juicy bight of burger.[]  Craig – have to disagree here – the bun was too thin for me and whilst the taste was good this let the burger down!

·         DRIP FACTOR: Craig was a bit fearful at the beginning as his first impression was it was a bit too greasy, but no-no, once he stuck with it and watched how Andrew perfectly executed his eating strategy, there was no drip, just simply beauty.

·         DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? Like a glove[]  Craig – the thin roll just did the job – just!

·         COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes. Perfect sized. The easy substantiation here was there was little conversation between Craig and Andrew during the actual eating programme (again, mind the auto-correct there).

·         CHIPS: Simply put by Craig “Well the fries certainly top the list!” and “Is there salt, oh, it’s already on them”[]  Craig  - I do however refuse to give any points for salt!

·         WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Easy answer for Andrew seeing as he’s been countless times in his lifetime, yes. For Craig, let’s just stick to the facts, after they were finished Craig claimed he felt that he could have had one more! He eventually wised up and decided he’d have enough, but the temptation was certainly powerful.[]  Craig – the temptation and the fact that I still felt hungry (the insubstantial bun effect!) even after one of their double burgers (a single would be a disaster for a hungry traveller!). I decided not to buy another after a quick calorie review which revealed that one meal was over a full days allocated calories or about the same I expend run a half marathon! Though this was in part due to the shake – which was an absolute highlight!

·         OVERALL SUMMARY: Enough said above. Great.[]  A very very good burger! The American new boy seems to know his stuff! However, as he drowned his burger in ketchup you wonder if he could actually taste anything?

·         SERVED ON BROWN PAPER: No. Wax paper. Experienced Andrew slowly pulled the wax paper back as he ate more and more of the burger to keep the burger perfectly together. Rookie Craig made a mistake off the start and completely removed his burger from the wax paper wrapping. Craig fully recovered though and finished strong.[]  Craig – rookie and recovery my foot – the wax was swimming in grease so needed to be removed!

·         MARKS OUT OF 10: 9.0/10 – if you’re ever in a City with a Shake Shack, definitely worth a stop.[]  Craig my score would be 8.5 so an average of 8.75 but cant disagree with the sentiment!

·         NEW CRITERIA – POST BURGER EXPERIENCE: See additional photo. Best way to burn off the [] (Craig near 2000!) calories is a long walk on a beautiful night in a world class city. No better way to end a great night of eating and de-stress after a hard days work.

CITY : London (Canary Wharf)
VENDOR: The Hilton (Canary Wharf)
NARRATIVE: After an overlong day in the zoo there was only room service left as an option. So I decided to sacrifice my healthy eating week in the pursuit of another blog entry! I went for the double cheeseburger with bacon and Monterey jack cheese on the recommendation of the hilarious guy who takes the room service order who once again cracked his half fat coke joke when I ordered a diet coke! Yes I know that given the burger and fries this is sort of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted but...
BURGER: Really good flavour in both of them! Slightly overcooked!
BUN: Disappointing – I suspect it had been defrosted in the microwave as the base was crisp and largely inedible – however this was not important – see more later!
DRIP FACTOR: Pretty heavy for overcooked burgers! Where does the drip come from if the burger is dry?
DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? See next answer!
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Even the giant pythons of the Amazon rain forest with their dislocated jaws which have been known to eat small wild dogs could not get their mouth around this! Totally impractical. I had to remove the base of the bun (see question above) the tomato, lettuce, the pickle – (not declared in the menu – pet peeve!) and the huge amount of raw onion to be able to get it into my mouth. The skewer did indeed hold it together which would have been helpful if using this as a doorstep or footstool but essentially just added to the difficulty!
CHIPS: Fries in an over pretentious silver basket – actually well cooked, warm and the right amount!
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? All too often to the hotel but will be avoiding the burgers!
OVERALL SUMMARY: Every hotel should be able to knock up a straight forward burger for the weary traveller who does not have the energy to deconstruct their food or hunt for undeclared pickle! This one cannot do that. The raw materials were actually quite good (except the frozen bun) – but over engineering and poor prep left this with a very poor score.

Served on brown paper: New Criteria – No – on a slate plate – slate for a burger! For goodness sake!
MARKS OUT OF 10: 3.5/10 – Give this one a miss!

Grill'd Healthy Burgers, Melbourne

CITY: Melbourne
VENDOR: Grill'd Healthy Burgers
VENDOR WEBSITE: http://www.grilld.com.au

NARRATIVE: We ordered the "Mighty Melbourne" which has grass-fed lean beef, tasty cheese crispy trim bacon, a fried egg (which they note came from a free-range chicken), a couple of slices of beetroot, salad and some relish.  You get a choice of bun - one with sesame seeds, or one with flour.  Australians like their burgers with egg, bacon and beetroot.  It is very good, but not to everyone's taste.  It def appeals to mine.
BUN: Toasted on the burger-side.  It think this might make the whole thing a little less soggy.  Less chance of inadvertently putting a finger through the bun.  No complaints on the bun.
BURGER: The burger had a very nice taste and was very juicy.  Perhaps a little too juicy (see 'drip factor').
DRIP FACTOR: This burger had a high drip factor.  I felt the drip make it's way down my forearm to my elbow.  It's impossible to lick your elbow.
DID IT STAY TOGETHER? I don't know how, but it did indeed stay together.  It did take a firm grip and some fairly careful finger placement to achieve this.
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? This burger tested the limits of our jaw-extension.  I did it, but it was not comfortable to take a clean full cross-section bite.  This might have been assisted had I squashed the burger first, but then I would have blown the drip factor off the scales. 
CHIPS: These were cooked to perfection with the right about of crispiness, and the chip size and quantity was perfect.  There was a sprinkling of salt and herbs (rosemary, I think), but too much.  I could do without the herbs.  They give the chips a non-chippy flavour, and  we don't think that people should mess with the chip formula too much: potato, oil and salt is the winning combination.  Dip if you must, but leave out the herbs, please.
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Yes, absolutely.  It plays in the blurry space between fast-food joint and family restaurant.  I would not delve too far into the 'healthy' claim, though…  It certainly didn't feel healthy... 

OVERALL SUMMARY: The burger was very tasty and scores highly for the mix of content.  It loses for drippiness, and the herby sprinkling on the chips is a no-no.  The burger wins on taste but stumbles on ease-of-eat and accompaniments. 

SCORE OUT OF TEN: 6.5/10

 

CITY : Toronto
VENDOR: The Burger’s Priest
NARRATIVE: Recently rated the 8^th best burger in Toronto http://www.torontolife.com/daily-dish/restaurants-dish/2012/05/16/25-best-burgers/ so given the beef loving Canadians you would expect good things. This was a joint visit by two members of the judging committee (JB & CR) and therefore a joint review. It was an early meal before going to a baseball game so we were certainly in the right mood! Venue is very cool and is just a roll up joint. Menu behind the counter is quite difficult to read but this led to the guy serving us helping out and making recommendations – excellent service!.
BURGER: Very good – perfectly cooked, moist and full of flavour. “The California” comes with secret sauce, soft onions and importantly no hidden pickle. Good flavours!
BUN: A new development they actually lightly fry the roll to making it lightly crispy! However on the downside this did make the burger slightly greasy overall. It also gave it the appearance of having been trodden on!
DRIP FACTOR: Some drip due to the nice moist burger which would have been ok but was however very sneaky in how it emerged and ended up only narrowingly missing my trousers and shoes!
DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? Slighly messy towards the end – not helped by greasy fingers but was not a problem.
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes! Easily – went for the single burger as it was early and it hit the spot! Double next time – and nice that they have these options!
CHIPS: Large bag of fries – slightly browned but nice and hot and full of flavour.
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Yep – would dry some of the other options on the menu and also a double – great spot, service and a real burger joint!
OVERALL SUMMARY: An excellent place – I think only let down by the fried roll becoming too greasy so getting messy.  Excellent value and a great place! It was packed by the time we headed out so clearly a destination of choice.

Served on brown paper: New Criteria – Yes though in the form of a brown bag!
MARKS OUT OF 10: 6.5/10 – if I was to judge it on the food alone then it was not quite up there with some of the best but clearly a place to go back to!

 

CITY : London
VENDOR: British Airways Gold Lounge Heathrow Airport Terminal 5
NARRATIVE: Having reached an all time low with airplane food I decided to sneak in a cheeky burger before getting on the plane to Toronto. Having had several of these before I knew it was good but had never set it the challenge of our exacting criteria.
BURGER: Very good, solid and full of flavour. Maybe a little dense and over cooked but you certainly knew you were eating it.
BUN: Very good – nice flavour and texture.
DRIP FACTOR: None – maybe as over cooked – see above.
DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? Perfectly!
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes, although they had sneaked in an unannounced pickle that needed to be removed which could have killed the experience! There was also a deadly looking skewer that twisted inside that could have resulted in injury but this was spotted in time,
CHIPS: All 6 of them (see photo) were excellent!
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Sadly all too often! But the burger is my top tip to anyone over BA airplane food!
OVERALL SUMMARY: They pull these together to order and they arrive quickly! All very good quality as you might expect in a first class lounge and a definite highlight! Sadly lacking a little in presentation.

Served on brown paper: New Criteria – Yes  - This seems to have become a trend.
MARKS OUT OF 10: 7.5/10 – few minor faults – too few chips, hidden pickle and skewer do not stop this from being a strong contender.

4.5/10, a burger close to home - but one to forget, David Lloyd Leisure Centre, Worcester

CITY : Worcester
VENDOR: David Lloyd Leisure Centre
NARRATIVE: Its been a big weekend for Sport in the UK with sport relief so I earned a cheeky burger for lunch on saturday. Everything is calorie rated so at least you know the damage you are doing to yourself!
BURGER: Ended up being good quality and full of flavour! Nice and thick. No herbs or anything just good beef!
BUN: Brilliant - three seed sesame, toasted to perfection and able to stand up to the fat factory! Very impressive!
DRIP FACTOR: Horrific! From just looking at it the fat started to pour out of it, it carried on just as the roll was turned sideways and required some squeezing to clear it out. Leaving a delightful pool of fat on the plate! Suggests to me it was cooked from frozen.
DID IT HOLD TOGETHER? After the fat drainage yes it was actually really well constructed. Held together extremely well.
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes - devoured it!
CHIPS: Proper english chips to look at! But actually not cooked through properly so soft and cold on the inside. Largely left them, which was just as well given i was in a gym!
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? I am a member, so yes but another burger- probably not! Caesar salad is much nicer!
OVERALL SUMMARY: Gyms cant do burgers. It had bacon which was not cooked enough to add flavour and was fatty so needed to be trimmed. Salsa that came with it was very bland - waste of a condiment. Once the fat was drained the rest of the burger was actually very good - but all in all not a great experience.
MARKS OUT OF 10: 4.5/10 - burger (when drained) and bun were good but let down by everything else.

7.5/10, Mr Burger, Melbourne

CITY: Melbourne
VENDOR: Mr Burger
VENDOR WEBSITE: http://mrburger.com.au
NARRATIVE: Mr Burger is a food truck.  They do festivals and the like, and stop at parks in the summer.  We ordered their standard 'Mr Burger' burger.  They only sell three types: Mr Burger, Mr Meat, and Mr Veggie.
BUN: Classic soft bun.  Not at all crumbly.  
BURGER: Nice thick meaty burger inside.  Over 1cm thick.
DRIP FACTOR: There was very little drip, and the burger was moist.
DID IT STAY TOGETHER? Yes.  It stayed together.  Inside its paper wrapper, it was half wrapped in foil: this made for very pleasant burger eating.
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes we could.  Perfect eating size, construction and configuration.
CHIPS: These were the perfect chips in my opinion.
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Yes. This was a very good burger.  
OVERALL SUMMARY: This burger did not pretend to be something that it was not.  It was an honest, well constructed, tasty dinner, and it was just the right size.  It wasn't pre-occupied with fancy ingredients.  There was the perfect blend of sauce/toppings, meat and bun, and it all held together.  Nice touch with the foil.  The only way they could make it better in our opinion is with more lettuce - we like a slight bit of crunch in the vegetable matter.  
SCORE OUT OF TEN: 7.5/10

CM

7.5/10, BQM Burger, Toronto

CITY: Toronto
VENDOR: BQM Burger
VENDOR WEBSITE:  http://www.bqmburger.com/
NARRATIVE: I went a slightly exotic route and had one of their burgers from the ‘Signature collection’  THE HAWAIIAN - sweet pineapple, smoky chipotle aioli, jalapeño havar-ti, and savoury bacon – taste the islands brah.
BUN: Light and soft but with a perfect touch of toasted crispiness.
BURGER: Cooked perfectly – I had the medium to well done and it was not overcooked!!
DRIP FACTOR: low – and you have the choice of cut 
DID IT STAY TOGETHER? Yes for the most part – it was a pretty huge bun but held together until I tried to eat it.
COULD WE ACTUALLY EAT IT? Yes but some help required as I had to cut the whole thing into two (but it may be a diff story for others).
FRIES: Tried the sweet potato ones, they were the large wedge type, warm but not very crispy.
WOULD WE GO THERE AGAIN? Yes ( the ambience of this small burger joint in a ‘new and happening’ area of Toronto was quite good, except for the cold draft that blew in whenever someone opened the door).
OVERALL SUMMARY: Happy!
SCORE OUT OF TEN: 7.5/10

SC