Burger & Lobster / Bread Street

Who are they?

Burger & Lobster are a small chain of restaurants devoted to serving two things - I will leave it to your keen intellect to decide what those two things are. Sufficed to say, their offerings mean that they don't even bother giving you a food menu. Given that a new restaurant in the heart of the city of London had just opened, it seemed rude not to give them a go.

Thoughts

On a busy Friday night, it's to be expected that it will be tough to get a table and this was certainly no exception. Burger & Lobster operate a no-reservations policy; if you want to get in and sat down, you have to put your name down and wait in the bar area for a table to become available. An unintended consequence of this was the chance to enjoy some of the more unusual beers on offer (including a Czech pilsner called Hobo and a strong American IPA).

After eventually getting seated, I asked for their signature burger (as in, they don't have any others to choose from) with cheese and bacon, which comes accompanied with fries and a small side salad complete with crutons and vinaigrette. I don't know about you, dear reader, but a side salad is the last thing I think of when I order a burger - that should be in the burger, rather than next to it. But I digress.

The burger itself is a solid looking meat patty, topped with cheese, a couple of slices of bacon, more salad and a very large slice of tomato. Add the sesame seed bun and the meat itself is positively dwarfed by the rest. The burger is certainly above average in taste, although it didn't really strike me as a taste set apart from the burgers you can find at other specialist establishments, such as Byron. Yes, the burger is actually quite big in size, but of that, over half of it is the accompaniment to the patty - that being the huge tomato and salad. For me, this is a bit puzzling, as I already have a salad in the form of the side dish - why add even more to the burger? It strikes me that they are trying to make up for the small size of the burger.

It wasn't that the burger was bad; far from it. The burger is nicely cooked and tasted fine, it's just that there just wasn't enough actual meat and a specific taste to enjoy it properly and for the relatively high price for a meal there that left me wanting more, I simply can't recommend it. For that price, I was expecting at least a larger sized offering, but this seems tailored more to the fancy city crowd who perhaps eat half of the burger, some of the chips and all of the salad (because they are on a diet, of course).

Conclusion

After all the hype and the price you are expected to pay, it's definitely a bit of a let down. Perhaps they are intending you to bring a friend and swap half and half for a surf and turf experience? I would like to go back and try the lobster, but after my experience with the burger, I feel that you could probably find a better experience elsewhere and for cheaper; be it for a burger or a lobster.

Score

6.5/10

Where can I find them?

http://www.burgerandlobster.com/
Four restaurants dotted around the City, with this one near Cheapside