Patty & Bun

Venue/Restaurant: Patty & Bun
Website: www.pattyandbun.co.uk/
Location: James St, London, UK
Our Menu Choices:
1x "Smokey Robinson" Burger, no tomato
1x "Smokey Robinson" Burger, no lettuce or tomato

Hello! Mrs B here, thought I would take over the blog for a couple of posts!!

Arriving here to see a queue of about 6 people we questioned whether or not to queue... we did!!

There was no question which burger we were both going to go for, as soon as we both saw "mounds of caramelised onion" and bacon in the description we knew the "Smokey Robinson" was the one for us!

The burgers come wrapped in paper and upon opening you are presented with what can only be described as cheesy burger heaven!

The first bite was incredible, juicy, crunchy/chewy (bacon), sweet (onion), burger fireworks were going off in my mouth!! The burgers were cooked medium/rare but were certainly more on the rare side which was a little bit too red for Mr B's, but I thought it was perfect! The patties were really thick and very juicy, this is going to sound really silly but they tasted really meaty!(?!) Really flavorful burgers combined with the Smokey P&B Mayo, onion, bacon and cheese really made this the tastiest burger I have ever tasted!

You will go through a hell of a lot of napkins during your meal here, these are very messy, juicy burgers!! Slurping and constant sounds of "mmm" will come from your mouth, you will not be able to help it!

Chips come in a paper cup with rosemary sauce on, they are alright, but with lashings of hot sauce they are good! Lots of nice little crispy ones too which i liked!! The restaurant is pretty small and the music was very loud, I kept trying to say stuff to Mr B but he didn't hear me (either that or it was him just ignoring me!?). We are in our 20s/30s so usually like quite a nice atmosphere in restaurants, but we did feel the music was a little too loud in this place! Anyway, not here to review the chips or the actual restaurant are we!

Overall, a really nice experience and great food!

Mrs B's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 5/5
Comment: Unfortunately due to this not being my blog, I have to hand over to Mr B for his official rating...

Official Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 4/5
Comment: Sorry, but this burger needed to be cooked more for me, it was dripping, I didn't feel like it was properly cooked. I would go again (probably because Mrs B will make me), but I would need it cooked medium/well I think...

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

BRGR.CO Soho

Venue/Restaurant: BRGR.CO Soho

Website: www.brgrco.co.uk
Location: Soho, London, UK

Our Menu Choices:
1x 8oz The Masterpiece (cooked "well done") with Vintage Cheddar, Crispy Fries and House Sauce
1x 6oz The Tender Blend (cooked "well done") with Swiss Gruyere, Crispy Fries and House Sauce

After seeing a tweet from Radio 1 DJ Sarah Cox a few weeks ago about the best burger she has ever had, I had to go check the place out. 

Presentation-wise, both burgers we had were presented perfectly, on a tray, with their fries, salad and house sauce on the side. 

Really liked the salad being on the side, the Mrs always says the lettuce etc taints the bun with their taste, so this was good to be able to pick and choose what salad bits to put in the burger! 

Whilst inserting salad and pouring on sauce to our burgers, we both started nibbling on the fries... WOW, perfectly crispy without tasting totally deep fried - really nice!! Then the first bite of both of our burgers was like a little taste of heaven! The burgers were full of flavour, cooked perfectly and totally melt in the mouth! They were crumbly, but not dry-crumbly, and the brioche bun was delicious, fresh, squidgy and warm. 

Thinking the experience couldn't get any better, we started dunking the Crispy Fries in the House Sauce... another WOW moment! This sauce is possibly the best burger sauce we have ever tried! The Mrs says its kinda like tomato sauce/ketchup, mayo, onion and gherkins all together, delicious!! 

Neither of us had any sauce left in our side pots by the end of the meal, if it wasn't being used for the fries, it was on the burger (yep, on top of the BBQ sauce or ketchup/mustard combo!). Really need to find out what was in this sauce!

Loved everything about this experience, the restaurant (even though it was small and pretty cramped), the atmosphere, food and location (located on Wardour Street, close to Oxford Street). Cannot wait to return and try different cheeses and fries - not willing to try a different sauce, I cant imagine any of them being as good as the House Sauce! I wonder if we asked nicely, they might open up another branch closer to where we live?

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 5/5

CONGRATULATIONS ON CREATING THE FIRST BURGER(S) RATED 5/5 ON BENNETT'S BURGER BLOG!

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

Ed's Easy Diner

Venue/Restaurant: Ed's Easy Diner

Website: www.edseasydiner.com

Location: Basingstoke, UK

Our Menu Choices:
1x Cheese or Cheese (with Swiss cheese)
1x #2 Plate (Combo - Smokey Joe's with fries, coleslaw and onion rings)

Finally back in the UK after going away over Christmas and thought I should start as I mean to go on, by visiting a burger joint! With a 20% off voucher through January, this place is even more good value for money!

My burger (Smokey Joe's) was very saucy (after moaning that the burgers I had in the US didn't have much sauce, this one definitely made up for this!), actually too saucy! The BBQ sauce is really smokey so the amount in this burger was pretty overpowering! Still, a great burger, kept its shape, nicely cooked and the bun was perfectly soft and most importantly, toasted!! Plenty of onion in the burger too, a lot ended up spilling out! The burgers here actually taste of something, so many places you can't really notice much flavour in the patty but not at Ed's! The burger is a good size, very filling and nicely cooked (personal preference, I don't like pink burgers!). Quite liked that the bottom part of the bun didn't end up drowned in grease like in some other places!

The Mrs had a Cheese or Cheese with Swiss, she said the cheese wasn't very noticeable but the burger was still the usual high Ed's standard! Lots of (raw) onion in the burger which was nice! After dunking one of my chips in some of the sauce that had come out of my burger, she said she will be asking for some in this burger next time!

One thing that let the meal down a little was the lukewarm chips and onion rings. We noticed that another table sent their fries back due to being cold. Apart from this, the meal was nice, fast service and tasty food.

This is our first visit to the Basingstoke branch, we usually sit at the bar in the Leicester Square branch and quite enjoy sitting there and chatting with the staff. There does seem to be a better atmosphere in Leicester Square, Basingstoke staff seemed more serious (which isn't a bad thing at all!), anyway, I'm not here to review the restaurant am I! 

Ed's never fails to deliver!

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 4/5

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

2nd In N Out of our holiday!

Venue/Restaurant: In N Out Burger
Website: www.in-n-out.com
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
Our Menu Choices:
1x Double Double Animal Style
1x Double Double, no onion
1X Double Double, regular
1x Double Double, no lettuce or tomato with grilled onions 
All with fries
Spread on the side

So on the morning of our last day in San Jose, my fiancee told me that she couldn't leave without having one last In N Out. We made a stop there on our way to the airport and glad we did rather than eat at the airport!! 

Mine was, as before, cheesy, onion-y (creating words here now!), saucy and just plain yummy!! 

This time the Mrs decided not to have Animal Style, but did ask for grilled onions (that come in Animal Style burgers) instead of the regular onion slice that comes in a Double Double. She said if we weren't about to board a 10 hour flight, she would have had the normal onion, but due to uncooked onion lingering on ones breath, she decided she wouldn't put me through 10 hours of bad onion breath! She tells me that the burger is better with regular (uncooked) onion and is looking forward to returning to have a normal Double Double in the near future! 

We have to recommend you ask for some spread on the side - it is the best for dunking chips in and had it have not had warnings telling us it was for immediate consumption and had to be kept refrigerated, we would have bought loads of sachets home with us! This spread is the stuff they put in the burgers (see bottom of burger in above pic!).

We took a New Yorker with us as we had been telling her about In N Out since she arrived, she LOVED the fries! Don't actually remember her saying much about the burger, I did notice that she had asked for it without onion and it came with onion so she had to remove it when we started eating. Apart from that, I think she enjoyed the experience! 

=Also, on this visit we learnt that there are bible references on some of the packaging, no idea why, but apparently they have been doing this since the 80s... 

Anyway, yet another great experience and so glad that we introduced it to our new friend, Yalena! I have no doubt she will be eating there whenever she is in San Jose! 

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: as always, very sturdy 4/5

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 

Applebee's

Venue/Restaurant: Applebee's
Website: www.applebees.com
Location: South Lake Tahoe, California
Menu Choice:
1x Cowboy burger

Pretty dark photo, sorry...

The one thing that really stood out to me was the wholemeal bun! I had started to notice that burgers came in either white or brioche buns in the US so it was nice to see a different bun! Nice squishy bun, tasty burger, nice amount of lettuce, onion and pickles. Very crispy bacon was nice (still American bacon which I'm not a huge fan of though). The onion strings were also very crispy, I am thinking they were actually overcooked? Could have done with some more cheese on the burger, there was only a tiny bit on there! This burger was a good size and very filling. Really liked the fries here, skin on and tasted like they had some seasoning on them! 

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter: 4/5 

COPYRIGHT Bennett's Burger Blog, 2012-present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary and Bennett's Burger Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Chevron

Venue/Restaurant: Chevron Gas Station
Location: Danville, California
Menu Choice:
2x mini burgers

Anyone who lives in the UK will know what I mean when I say these are just mini Rustlers burgers... but worse... Nice size for a snack on the run, but completely rubbery, tasteless and hard buns. Not quite sure what else to say about these burgers! Again, no photo of them, they looked ok, unfortunately didn't taste anywhere near as nice as they looked! 


Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 1/5
Comment: I think I would only eat these again in an emergency... life or death emergency that is! Sorry, these were just awful! 

Lark Creek Blue

Venue/Restaurant: Lark Creek Blue
Website: www.larkcreekblue.com
Location: Santana Row, San Jose, California
Menu Choice:
1 x Hamburger, reg fries with garlic and herbs

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of this burger, but wanted to give it a little review!
This burger was fairly large, quite dry and to be brutally honest I am having trouble remembering anything I would like to compliment about it. It was dry, tasteless and did not have any cheese on it, not sure if there was the option to have cheese on it... 
The fries were tasty, you could taste the garlic and herbs on them, was given a very big portion! 
Such a shame that the burger was a let down as the customer service was great, the waiter chatted to us about football (English football, not American) and made us feel at home! 

Bennett's Burger-O-Meter Rating: 2/5
Comment: as mentioned above, this burger was dry and tasteless, needs some moisture!