Mmm... Bleecker Street Waterloo

I've been swimming a fair bit lately and after three nights of swimming on the trot I thought it was acceptable for me to indulge inone of the dirtiest burgers available in London. 

Enter Bleecker Street Burger down on the Southbank in Waterloo. A stones throw from the Udderbelly where I was meeting a friend for a show. I calculated I had just enough time to grab a burger and head in for the cabaret show. 

Right next to Look Mum No Hands under the  Hungerford Bridge it's now settled into a pretty permanent looking burger joint on the Southbank. Which is good news for those looking for a quick fix of meat on the river whilst enjoying the sunshine! 

I got in the queue and ordered! A double cheese burger, and fries.

I didn't quite like the fact that they cooked in batches. Basically the queue to order ends up in a queue to pick up, and whilst if you're at the beginning of that queue it's great, but if you're middle or at the end like me you end up having to wait for all the other slow people ahead of you to be called and pick up their burgers. And unlike me they're not half as excited so when their number is called they resemble some imbecile looking like they've never heard the number 72 before... Durrrrr!!!! Hurry the F up people!!!

Anyway the reason this riles me up is due to those extra seconds and moments mean my burger is still cooking itself, much like a nice beef joint. So it risks being overdone. And definitely not pink. This is bad news. And surely Bleecker should know better. I held my breath waiting and internally trying to hurry these people up! 

As a result half my double patty was definitely not pink whilst the other one was perfect. Bit of a shame! 

So I finally got my burger, and it was decidedly greasy. Consisting of cooked onions, two layers of cheese and burger sauce, it's pretty drippy! I did end up licking my fingers. A lot. The bun was pretty soggy in places, because of the batch process of cooking them and laying them out they lost their crispness waiting for all those patties to be ready.

And please don't hate me but I still would prefer a tiny bit of lettuce or at least something remotely healthy.

I got chips on the side! So I'm not that healthy! 

It was good though. Dirty good. Drippy tasty and really naughty! 

I did feel a little bit gross afterwards, even all those pool sessions can't really negate the badness of a Bleecker street burger. 

Bad but oh so good ;) 

Mmm... Honest Burger Oxford Circus

Hitting a burger joint on a rainy Monday night with a vegetarian isn't going to be the best idea I've ever had. Luckily there were three of us and the vegetarian was outnumbered. Ha ha! And we'd had a fair amount of red wine so we just wanted to get out the rain and get dinner! I of course just wanted some meat.

I have actually gone to a burger joint with a veggie who allows himself a piece of meat very very occasionally. His quote from said visit that he 'felt like King Henry the VIII' was pretty funny. Maybe we were in for a similar experience?

My fellow meat eater and I were in for a bit of flack. But we were unaware of this at that point. Just a word of advice. If you like meat a LOT it's probably not wise going to a beautiful burger joint with a vegetarian, and newly upgraded vegan! Argh! Although credit to her...  The fact that she even walked into Honest burgers just off Oxford Street was a bonus. I love how secretly I was thinking that even though she didn't partake in the meat eating she was still supporting the cause by buying food!

I ordered the special. An homage to Spain that consisted of a concoction of meat like a cured ham atop a beautiful cheese and a signature beautiful honest patty, not forgetting a large roasted red pepper that added a sweet dimension to the burger. Oh and the lovely lovely rosemary chips.

My compadre went for the cheeseburger. We were very happy with our choices.

And the veggie ordered the chips. Meh. I'm not quite sure what to say about this. Except maybe it was my fault that I said how much I loved their rosemary fries. Hmmm I was kind of looking forward to trying a bite of the veggie offering. It wasn't to be. 

Three can be a crowd sometimes and this time it definitely was. My fellow burger buddy and I heartily tucked into our burgers with gusto. 

We were really enjoying the beautiful morsels of juicy meat tucked up into beautiful soft brioche buns, while the poor veggie just had a bowl of chips to tuck into. I know who was winning here. 

Unsurprisingly we got into a heated debate about the terrible carnage the consumption of meat was doing to our planet. 

Actually it was more like a vegan tirade against meat and whatever we said wouldn't have made a foie gras difference. 

That'll be the booze talking! 

Suffice to say I probably won't be attending any burger joints with a vegetarian again. Except maybe our King Henry dude.

All in all it was a particularly weird visit to a burger joint. But I came away happy, and full so job done.

Maybe next time I can take the veggie to Meat Mission and they can turn her into a Dead Hippie!!! Ha!