Restaurant review: Patty and Bun, Marylebone

After the downright success that was our visit to Honest Burgers last October, Katie and I have been eager to try another of the new burger joints that have been clogging the arteries of my Twitter feed recently. The burger revolution of London just keeps on rolling on, being taken to more and more extravagant levels. The trend of elevating simple fast food into something posh has fallen on the humble patty, and now you can pop out and indulge in lobster, Iberico ham or even a lump of foie gras as part of the experience. But for now I’m not bothered about all that gloss; it’s all about how a patty, bun and condiments alone can be elevated into something special. I must have forgotten the names of half of the new eateries that have opened, but the place that kept cropping up was Patty and Bun in Marylebone. 

There seems to be a formula with the modern trendy burger joint: find a small pipe of a shop in a busy area of town, cram it elbow-to-elbow with tables, turn the lights right down and hire someone to play music that was considered cheesy and awful at the time and is somehow now seen as edgy. Slap a long queuing time with that you’re there. Service will be fast and there will visibly be people eyeballing you for your table. But that said, when has eating a burger every been long and comfortable experience? They are the very essence of fast food (apart from those bloggers who might still be waiting for their burger to arrive at Meat Liquor, although I haven’t had the experience myself). 

And although to a certain extent Patty and Bun fits into this rhythm, I would urge you to overcome these factors for the sheer pleasure of the food that you are about to eat. It is almost torture having to queue outside for half an hour staring at the words ‘confit chicken wings’. The menu at Patty and Bun is minimal, but you want to eat every last word of it in one glutinous sitting. Once you have finished firing laser beams from your eyes at slow diners and a table becomes available, you just cannot order quickly enough.

One mouthful of burger and all the waiting and hanging around is forgotten. It was not a pretty burger to look at, it was the dirty variety that makes your stomach want to jump out of your mouth and grab it before your hands get the chance. Below the golden shiny bun gushed cheese and burger juices, and the perfectly seasoned patty cooked a perfect pink. All of this hype certainly stands, it is right up there with the best. 

But you have no time to grab for that extra napkin, as it’s time for those wings. They sounded amazing on the menu, but I was curious having never tried chicken cooked in that manner. My word. Beneath the crunchy spiced crust they just fell apart, and all I could do was fight Katie for who got that last one. They were good to the point that a shop selling them and only them would do very well indeed. They were truly memorable, and the taste that I now want every wing I ever eat in my life to match.

Likewise, the coleslaw was the finest I have eaten in a burger joint. Often they are a sad afterthought, badly dressed and seasoned. But like everything else at Patty and Bun, the attention to detail was evident. 

We finished with peanut choc ices, as you do. And they were exactly the right thing to eat after a dense main. Not too big, just enough to refresh you and leave you tasting something sweet. I hadn’t eaten a choc ice since I was about 12, but these ones conjured all of those memories back in a second. Mostly of those ones that had been carried in a bag on a warm day for far too long, and were a glorious dissolving mess when opened.

This was madness. I am a grown man, and the thought of sitting in a crammed room with disposable paper covering the table and the woman at your elbow swaying genuinely to Craig David would not be up there on my dining experiences wish list. But I cannot wait to go back. Unlike many places before, I still have the taste of that burger and those wings in my mouth, and not even the surroundings can deter my want. I would thoroughly, thoroughly recommend it. 

It is difficult to compare to Honest, as they both make really excellent burgers. I would happily take friends to either. But for overall experience, I still think that the former edges it. As fun as the Big Mac greaseproof wrap is on the surface, I still like to eat my burger on a plate, and the ambience is not quite so intense at Honest. Patty and Bun nailed the food though. It is only the difference of a few small deeply-rooted faults at either. Reviews of this nature do have a habit of making the writer an unnecessary pedant... 

But the search still goes on, and as the London burger wheel keeps on churning I am excited as to where my next burger will be.

Restaurant review: Honest Burgers, Soho

Gourmet fast food has become really trendy over the last couple of years. Barely a week goes by without Twitter buzzing about a new burger, hot dog or fried chicken joint opening in central London. Everyone loves a burger, but the best thing about these new ventures is the care taken in preparation and the sourcing of ingredients. No longer does late night convenience food mean a dirty burger with dodgy mystery ingredients, these places are now using good quality meat, artisan breads and independently brewed booze. Good times all round! 

I don’t venture into central London too often, so it has taken me a little while to get around to seeing what all the fuss has been about. However, I recently was out in the West End to see a show, and thought that it would also be the perfect opportunity to grab a late night bite. Funnily enough, I managed to accidently get my hands on a quick bratwurst before the show had even started! Stumbling past Herman Ze German whilst looking for a quick early pint, I just had to pop in and grab one. It was just amazing. Nothing new or revolutionary about it, but every element was just really well executed. It was great to see that the meat came from master butchers The Ginger Pig too. Bun, sausage, mustard and joy. I feel sorry for Katie though, who had to put up with me raving about how bratwursts were the future of fast food for the following twenty minutes... It was early though, so I was still thinking about how I satisfy my stomach for when the hunger came around later on. I needed recommendations, so it was time to get onto Twitter and find out where the best burger lay.

Show over and there were tens of replies to my tweet, with most of them saying that we just had to visit Honest Burgers. It was as easy as that, and so we set off through Covent Garden and into Soho full of great expectations. The only problem was that it was getting late, and arriving 15 minutes before close, we were painfully aware that we going to be those annoying customers and worried that we would even get fed. These nerves were totally unfounded though, and we were welcomed in by the friendly staff as soon as we opened the door. 

Despite the time, the intimate space was still bustling. The menu was short and the prices reasonable, with a burger and chips coming in at well under a tenner. So refreshing when most other places cram in the add-ons for those wonderful “how did the bill come to that, I’ve been fleeced” moments. The food came quickly and everything was just right. Honest burgers is exactly what they were; perfectly sized, well cooked and more importantly, tasty.   The Ginger Pig must be doing a roaring trade in town, as their beef had also crept into these tender patties. It’s exciting that people are caring more and more about what is behind the burgers, and the quality shines through in the taste. 

My only complaints were slight and mostly down to my own weird ways. I have a slightly unhealthy love of gherkins, and they are an important part of a burger experience for me, so I was disappointed by the lack of pickle presence. I fully accept that this isn’t a feasible gripe though, but my other issue was a little more pressing. You cannot serve up a bucket of unseasoned chips and not have salt on the table. Crunching through well cooked yet bland chips wondering “what if” is the most frustrating thing ever. Step in the great staff again, who happily offered some of their delicious rosemary salt when I brought it up. Burgers eaten and another surprise, we were content and comfortable. Too often you leave a diner stuffed to explode, but it this case they had judged it bang on. 

We left way after the doors shut and didn’t feel pressured one bit. We eat a lot of burgers,, and these were some of the best. It’s brilliant that fast food is no longer a drunken afterthought, and I’m already finding excuses to eat some more.