Review: The Burger Joint
The Burger Joint first opened in summer of '09. The same year that Banksy opened his infamous exhibition at Bristol Museum. Coincidence? Yes.
What is not a coincidence though, is how The Burger Joint has managed to grow to 3 restaurants across the city. A trifecta of beefy goodness. Ashamedly I had never been. Which is madness. So I went (which is clarity of thought).
Let's dance.
Starters:
Marinated Lamb Skewer - Served with a salad garnish & tzatziki at £3.95. Pretty tasty, couple of nice big pieces of lamb on there. Big fan of the tzatziki. Good value, and a tactical choice if you don't want to fill-up before the main event.
Nachos - Served with guacamole, salsa, sour cream, jalapeños & melted cheese and chilli con carne at £6.50. Not a good choice if you are having a mountain of meat for your main. Large. Classic sharing food, it's nachos as you know and love them. Would be enough for 1 between 2. In fact, lose some of the nachos for a better topping to nacho ratio - yes I went there.
Mains
Level of concentration perusing menu - medium difficulty sudoku.
Level of conversation - cheese
Level of anticipation - growing.
The Burger Joint menu is a rather long list of ingredients accompanied by check boxes. Like a multiple choice test where everyone passes with 100%.
Bun
Includes lettuce, red onion, sliced tomato and gherkin as standard. 4 options. Brioche the natural choice.
Patty
13 choices. From beef to kangaroo. The beef is from Ruby & Whites butchers who I'm pretty sure charge you for just browsing, so at £8.95 for the prime 6oz patty that's not bad at all. I doubled up my burger because I thought it would look better in the picture. I did it for you. I'm like a meaty Jesus. Except I don't walk on water, I just float down a river carried by a torrent of misplaced self-importance.
The burger, or burgers in my case, were well seasoned. They had been browned on the outer layer like they'd been pressed into the grill but there was still a slight pinkness at the centre. If you are used to burgers in some of Bristol's other fine establishments that are served pink all the way through, then I'd specify that's how you'd like them at the point of ordering. Hypocritically I rather enjoy a rare burger whilst still acknowledging that historically due to the cheaper cuts of meat used to make them they should be cooked all the way through. This time I went for 'as it comes' and wish I'd have had them a bit rarer. The patty itself was dense, nicely seasoned, slightly earthy in a good way.
Toppings
27 toppings including 8 types of cheese. Pulled pork for the millennials, pineapple slices for the wronguns. There were also another 17 menu items that I'll let you discover yourselves. I kept it simple with blue cheese and sautéed onions. I would have liked a bit more cheese, but then I always want more cheese and it would have come spilling out the sides. It's really hard to get blue cheese in a burger. Melted too much and you can't really taste it, too crumbly however and it sits there making people feel awkward - like an unattended bag-for-life at a train station.
Variety of choice is the name of the game here. If you want to go for kangaroo, black pudding, and tortilla chips then don't let me stop you. I mean, you're wrong and you need to have an intervention, but it's your slippery slope and it's up to you.
Sauces
2 free to kick things off. 23 to choose from. How big are this places fridges?
Sides
Sides glorious sides. 12 options. By the time I got to this point on the menu and saw that 'green salad' was an option I let out a little snort laugh. I went for the french fries as I wanted to give an honest review and not be distracted. If I did want to be distracted I'd have ordered the parmesan and truffle fries.
Verdict:
Slick. Each of my favourite burger restaurants in Bristol has it's own strengths. Whether it's the house brew and side steak (?!) at Chomp, the juiciness of the burgers at Three Brothers, the creativity at Atomic Burger or the chicken burger at Burger theory.
The Burger Joint has burgers at well above average standards, with choice of toppings that you won't get anywhere else. Whether you're in one of their 3 restaurants, or looking for the ultimate hangover cure - you can't really go wrong. Well, unless you order kangaroo, black pudding, and tortilla chips in a burger with cranberry sauce and a side of potato salad that is.
