We recently checked out the new (opened earlier this week) Bleecker Burger in Victoria, after having heard good things about their Spitalfieds take-away and their food truck. Timeout London ranks the Spitalfields operation #1 burger place in London. LOTI (London on the Inside) called their burgers ‘undoubtedly among the best in London’, but we would agree to disagree.
We tried the cheeseburger and the Bleecker Black (double beef, double American cheese, black pudding, onion and sauce) with a portion of their apparently famous ‘angry fries’ (fries with hot sauce & blue cheese sauce). The blood sausage goes real nicely with the Black, but we’ve had tons of burgers during the past few months that by far outshine the taste of this one. What’s really put us off is the small size that comes with an unheard-of price tag of £14 for Black and angry fries. For that type of money you can get a real nice meal at a good restaurant, if you shop around a bit and use a special offer, a meal that would have taken some time and expertise to prepare.
Admittedly, the ingredients (in particular the British rare-breed, pasture-fed beef from Bermondsey’s The Butchery http://thebutcheryltd.com) seemed to be of an excellent quality, but let’s be clear: this is after all still a couple of tiny beef patties with a bit of blood sausage and cheese in a bread bun that took all of five minutes to prepare, no way is £14 an ok price for a mid-afternoon snack like this. £9 for a double cheeseburger and £3 for regular fries is even worse in terms of value for money. We won’t be back.
If you want to try one of the best burgers around, go to bbar, less than five minutes’ walk away in Bressenden Place on the other side of Nova Victoria, and enjoy their classic cheese burger for £3 more, or – we’d highly recommend – their venison and boar burger with quail egg for a mere £5 more. You won’t be sitting on stools in a tiny cramped place with all the charm of an industrial estate, but in a beautifully decorated South African hunting lodge themed restaurant environment with very friendly staff. Read our review here. Or try the fabulous Burgerdict (burger Benedict) at Rail House Cafe (our review here).
Generally interested in more restaurant reviews, read our reviews of Gruvelageret in Spitsbergen here, of Ekeberg Restaurant in Oslo here, or of Kennington Lane Cafe, London’s #1 breakfast spot according to Tripadvisor, here.
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