Five Guys Burger & Fries

On Thursday 26 February I was lucky enough to be invited by KMI Brands to the launch of a new cosmetic and wash bag range alongside that of a new perfume and aftershave at the Sanctum Soho Hotel. What promised to be a night of high end perfume and designer bags meant that I spent most of the day pondering (read worrying) about what to wear, and forgot to eat. 

By the time I had arrived at Oxford Circus to meet BeautyqueenUK I was so hungry I was considering nibbling on my own arm to keep me going. Instead, in a case of monkey see monkey want, I clocked the Five Guys Burger & Fries joint on Argyll Street and dragged the missus in to try it out.

I had seen mixed reviews of Five Guys through various forms of social media - the burgers always looked stunning and resulted in me craving one, but the main complaint from visitors was that £8 for a burger was a touch too expensive. I disagree after my visit and if you bear with this post, I’ll tell you for why (a nice Gavin & Stacey reference for St David’s Day). 

We wandered into the brightly lit red and white restaurant at about 5.45 p.m. and approached the serving counter. As soon as you walk in, thanks to the open cooking area packed with people all tasked with their part of making the dream work you can instantly smells the cooking patties. By the time I had walked the twenty yards to the counter I was drooling, my stomach was crying out and to be honest I could have ordered everything on the menu. 

You order at the counter, are given a number and then wander round and wait to be called. When ordering you pay for the type of burger or hot dog that you want and then get to choose from a range of free toppings to add. I opted for the £8 cheeseburger with lettuce, pickles, grilled onions, ketchup, mustard and relish, whereas the missus opted for a small cheeseburger burger with grilled onions. 

Considering that by now people stood next to me could hear my stomach churning I also decided on a portion of Cajun fries for £2.75.

You can see the full menu on the Five Guys website here.

The five minutes we waited for the burgers seemed to take an eternity, but while waiting I was intrigued to watch what appeared to be a well oiled machine pump out burger after burger to equally ravenous customers. 

Grabbing the bag and making a beeline for the nearest table I have to say that I was really impressed as I opened the bag. The burgers, wrapped in tin foil were larger than I had expected. When I think of gourmet burgers from places like Byron, Dirty Burger and Honest Burger (their burgers cost around the same) the offering from Five Guys was larger - cue a big drooling grin (not a pretty sight). The fries came in a cup but they had clearly thrown a load on top and considering it was a regular portion there were enough for both of us to munch away on after the burgers had been devoured.

So, my cheeseburger - heaven wrapped in tin foil as it shall now be known is shown below along with a few pictures of me motoring my way through it. Oh dear god, just thinking back to eating it now makes me want another. This is like burger crack they are so addictive.

The patties used in my large cheeseburger were hand-made and Five Guys pride themselves on the fact that everything is fresh and that their restaurants don’t have freezers. You could tell and I was greeted by a rich, meaty patty, full of flavour and no signs of dreaded grease. Even though there was no signs of grease the patty remained moist and juicy. I can hand on heart say I’ve not had a more flavoursome patty, ever.

Every topping had a distinctive taste - the grilled onions were plentiful and juicy, the pickles added a nice sharpness and the relish bonded it all together.

I think I may have found the perfect combination of toppings and bite after bite was a taste sensation. We actually waited for it to be cooked longer than it took me to demolish it. It was gone in sixty seconds. As I worked my way through it the missus literally just sat there in stunned silence.

Like everything in life perfection is rare, and while the blend of spices on the fries makes them tasty with a nice warm after burn there is just a bit too much for my liking. Between us we couldn’t finish off a regular portion. About thirty minutes later and boom, the fries started to repeat on me and at the event I had to keep popping outside to burp! 

When we arrived at Five Guys we didn’t have to wait long but as we were eating the queue grew, and grew and then grew some more to the point that it was nearly to the door. I would probably be miffed having to wait for the burger but it is testament to the following that Five Guys is building in the UK.

To summarise, the best burger I’ve had in years and I can’t wait for an excuse to wander up into central London again. This knocks the spots off Byron, Honest Burger and Dirty Burger. Sorry guys, Five Guys is the best.

FORGET THE REST, TRY THE BEST

What is your favourite burger experience?

To find your nearest Five Guys click here.

To read more about the launch of the limited edition Sanctum Soho fragrances (the male aftershave is out of this world) you can do by clicking here.

You can see and buy the stunning Dan Gold designed wash/clutch bags for him and her here.

You can keep up to date and follow Beautykinguk.co.uk using the various social media below:

Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Google+
Bloglovin

View Post

Honest Burger - Camden Lock Market

Confession time - I’ve become slightly addicted to finding and trying out burger joints in London. 

After an enforced break from work due to illness and suffering from extreme cabin fever I spent day after day trawling the internet looking for the best, more succulent looking places to try.

I have 10 places in my sights and aim to have them all visited and reviewed by the end of September. 

Burger at the Oasis (sadly no longer with us), a burger joint in Las Vegas sits at the top of my all time favourites while Dirty Burger is the best I’ve tasted in my adopted home city. Can I find anywhere better? The challenge is on!

I had seen Honest Burger in Brixton Village when I attended an ilumi event a few months ago, and had that not been a food tasting evening I’ve have wandered straight in and bought one. The smell wafting from the kitchen was rich and meaty while the place was packed which tends to be a good sign. 

I vowed there and then that an Honest burger needed to be consumed.

The first branch opened in Brixton in 2011 and since then a further five have opened in Camden Town, Soho, King’s Cross, Portobello Road and Oxford Circus. 

After a visit to London Zoo and with a stomach that was growling louder than an Asian Tiger we descended on Camden Lock in search of food. The many amazing stalls aside (that’s for another time - in short, it’s a foodie dream on a Sunday afternoon) had me drooling but I was on a burger mission and after searching high and low (seriously, 15 minutes) we finally found the entrance to Honest Burger. 

To say that it’s a narrow entrance is something of an understatement. If you blink you will miss it, it’s actually opposite Shaka Zulu and Gilgamesh.

Having never been to the chain before I had no idea what to expect but I had seen a few reviews that suggested I was in for a treat. What struck me first of all was how close the tables were together. While the place was empty when we arrived this wasn’t a problem but as it started to fill up on a warm afternoon it became quite stuffy inside and when I’m eating I don’t particularly like to be nearly sitting on the lap of the stranger sat at the table next to me - it’s one of the reasons I try to avoid places like Wagamama.

Browsing the menu doesn’t take long. Like Dirty Burger the choices are quite limited - a picture of the menu is below.

The menu

The staff were really attentive, they gave us time to cast an eye of the menu before taking our drinks order - I opted for traditional lemonade which looked great when it arrived in a jam jar with plenty of ice. It was so cool and refreshing and set me up for the meat treat on its way.

I ordered the tribute burger at £10 while my partner in crime had the cheese burger priced at £8.50. Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but the burgers do some with fries. Again, the staff knew their stuff and were attentive, they even came back to check how we wanted the burgers cooked.

The waiting time was reasonable, a good ten minutes to sip at our drinks while watching the world go by and there is no better place to people watch than Camden Lock Market on a warm sunny afternoon. 

As the cheese burger was placed down I think I drooled a like bit with envy, especially when my burger rocked up with a film of grease covering the entire top of the brioche bun. I was so hungry even this couldn’t put me off. There were plenty of crispy fries that were perfectly seasoned and full of flavour.

The Cheese burger

After dismantling the burger to take a look I was impressed that the bacon was cooked really well and was crunchy, just how I like it. There was plenty of American cheese and the relish mixed with the mustard pickles combined wonderfully. The patty was cooked medium and again I couldn’t argue with the preparation, it looked fantastic and as I took the first bite there was a taste explosion in my mouth. The beef patty was rich in flavour and juicy without releasing a spray of grease and fat onto my shirt. 

As we entered I was really hungry but after finishing the burger I was actually so full I struggled to finish the fries. 

My Tribute burger

While I think it is slightly overpriced and I was disappointed by the seating layout, how greasy the brioche bun was I couldn’t argue with the fact that it tasted amazing and filled me right up. Chomping away on a burger where you can taste the rich beef while watching the world pass you by was a fun experience. 

I don’t think I’ll be visiting the Camden Lock branch again unless it’s empty however I will be trying the  larger Honest Burger in King’s Cross on a more regular basis, especially as it is just around the corner from my office.

Honest Burger doesn’t beat Dirty Burger or the specials at Bryon Burger but you could do a lot worse, especially in Camden Market with the ‘special’ £4 Chinese meals on offer.

RECOMMENDED

Where is your favourite burger joint? Why not let me know in the comments below?

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

View Post

The Monday Montage

The last seven days have seen weird things happening with my blog - not only have I had the urge to write lots more but the traffic coming to my little corner of the Internet has gone wild.

My review of Dirty Burger from earlier in the month received over 1,500 page views in a day, Lush I Should Coco from March over 300 and my tattoo article over 200.  

So what has BKUK offered to people stumbling across my pages over the last week?

Tigi Bedhead Supercharge Duo Giveaway

After being open for a month on Saturday I drew the winner of the gift set. 

Congratulations again to John Wharff, owner of one of the coolest male beauty blogs around ‘Mr Wharff’.

Dirty Works Coconut Caress Body Scrub

Arty outside photographs were the order of the day again on Saturday when I likened Dirty Works Coconut Caress Body Scrub to sandpaper - it is a cheap and cheerful product that won’t break the bank but will strip away layers of dead or dying skin.

Structure Paste Flexible Adhesive

The surge in traffic aside, on Thursday I wrote up my thoughts on Structure Paste Flexible Adhesive. Personally I think this is one of the most bizarre posts I’ve ever done as I managed to fuse The Happy Mondays, glue sniffing and references to colleagues at work into what was originally an attempt at a serious review of a product I really was shocked by - for all the right reasons. 

Erasmic Lather Shave Cream and Brush

'Erasmic is orgasmic' was the punt I took when thinking of something funny to say but after my first experience of using a shaving brush instead of being lazy and using gel or foam resulted in some surprising results.

Coming up....

So what does the coming week hold? Well, I attended my first ever blogger event a few weeks ago with the lovely people from Ilumi to sample their new Chinese and Modern Asian range of gluten free meals. 

The night had so much to write about it has actually taken me days to write it up where I'm happy that I haven't missed too much out and where I think I do the products and evening justice.

In addition to this I’ve been trying StoneFish Clay by Fish Soho and trying to resist the temptation to eat Soap and Glory Sugar Crush.

I hope you have enjoyed one or two of my posts over the last week and feel the urge to return to check out my musings over the next seven days.

View Post

Tigi Bedhead Supercharge Duo - The winner is….

While I still consider myself very new to the bloggersphere, back at the end of March I got overly excited by reaching 250 Twitter followers and decided to giveaway a Tigi Behead Supercharge Duo gift set.

The competition attracted a lot of interest, drew some new people to the blog and until recently was one of my most popular posts (this has since been significantly exceeded by review of Dirty Burger and my tattoo).

Using the powers of Rafflecopter yesterday the winner was selected in true lottery style.

*Drum roll please*

The winner is John Wharff - @MrWharff

Congratulations John, an e-mail is winging its way over to you shortly.

The interaction that this giveaway has provided spurred me on with my writing, and I’ve decided that when I reach 750 Twitter followers and 200 on Bloglovin’ I’ll run another. This time however it’ll be one of my favourite brands of the moment:

The Thalgo Duo Cleanse & Pure set also comes with the freshness exfoliator. Worth over £50 it must be worth a punt. 

I’m sure whoever wins this in time will be a very happy person.

As always, thank you to everyone who reads, comments and follows my blog. I really appreciate it.

View Post

Dirty Burger - The Best Burger in London!

For someone so obsessed with trying to reverse the ravages of time I really shouldn’t eat fast food, but I just can’t help myself when it comes to Dirty Burger.

I first spotted a review for Dirty Burger in Time Out when looking for the best burger joints in London.

All of the reviews had me literally drooling and as they had a branch in Kentish Town, Camden I just couldn’t contain my excitement. I even started to stalk pictures of the burgers online and on Twitter. It became something of OCD moment for me and it wasn’t long until I ventured off to find it – map in hand.

Make sure you play with Google streetmap before you leave home – this place is a hidden gem and you are more likely to walk on by a few times before you find it. I know I did.

Dirty Burger doesn’t need to be all flash and gimmicky - it also doesn’t need a menu the length of your arm. They sell burgers, correction. They craft the best burgers in town.

With a simple pricing system and few options ordering doesn’t take long – you can have a cheeseburger, burger or what is known as a Dirty Cop Out (that’s the vegetarian option). In addition, there are fries and onion fries (think stringy onion rings).

Once the order has been collected you can then tuck in. The patties are served on a brioche bun, smothered in a lovely tangy mayo with a tomato and gherkin. The burgers are juicy and the flavour to die for – you can really taste the deep rich flavour of the meat come out with each bite.

The patties use several cuts of beef including rib eye and Bavette. The juiciness comes from the way in which it’s cooked. Rather than just slapping the meat onto a grill the chefs drizzle stock over the cooking patties and then cover them so that they steam in their own juices.

Each time I visit I’m never disappointed – the fries are hot and crunchy. They have texture and flavour. The onion fries are awesome and so much nicer than conventional onion rings, but best of all the quality and consistency of the burger is king.

With a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on offer you can’t go wrong if you fancy a snack or have a hunger hole the size of Texas.

Dirty Burger has everything you need.

As an aside, the shack in which Dirty Burger is located is always clean and tidy. It’s not the largest place on earth and it can become slightly crowded at times. Don’t let this put you off – pop in for a bite to eat and you’ll be hooked for life.

At £5.50 for a taste sensation of a burger you can do a lot worse.

Burger King who anyone?!?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

View Post