Meat liquor

Meat liquor.

Yep I finally went to meat liquor. It didn’t live up to my high expectations spawned from 2 years of waiting for a visit.  I’m bitterly disappointed that is was merely good and not amazing. The burger was nice the meat was tasty but it didn’t blow my mind. The chilli cheese fries had nothing on Almost Famous’s version in Manchester and to top it off about 18 months ago I told my GF this was meant to be the most amazing burger on the planet, she wasn’t that impressed I’d dragged her away from the Disney store for this vaguely average offering.

So I’m going to go cry myself to sleep. Please leave me in peace. Here are some pictures. 

 R.I.P two years of lofty anticipation.

7/10 (I was expecting 12/10)

www.meatliquor.com/

74 Welbeck St  London W1G 0BA
020 7224 4239

Red’s true BBQ - Leeds

So apparently some people have viewed my blog already!! How they found me I’ll never know? On to post number 3 then I guess.

Seeing as I live in Leeds I thought it was about time I talked about somewhere that was actually in Leeds. The venue in question is Red’s True BBQ which opened in September 2012 and has been mental busy pretty much since it opened. I only went after it was recommended on the Leedsgastroguru.blogspot seeing as I’d managed to walk past it twice without noticing it had even opened.

As ever it was crazy busy and this is another place following the current trend of not taking bookings. Hence I only made it into the venue at my second attempt of trying after being turned away on the first for turning up at 6:30 on a Tuesday evening.

We were a party of two and were sat on the end of larger table, be prepared to share your evening with some other diners. The décor in the place is modern and quirky with the lights turned fairly low. The whole place is pretty smoky thanks to the open kitchen but you are going to a bbq restaurant so what do you expect.

The menu is made up of the usual culprits, ribs, burgers, pulled pork that kind of thing which you can get with a combination of sides. There were some exciting looking cocktails and a range of shakes and non alcoholic options. I went for the iced tea which was made with good old Yorkshire Tea. Very nice and refreshing it was to, with a pleasant mix of sharp lemon sweet tea and a bitter finish.

For food I opted for the cheese burger (naturally) and my dining partner got the pulled pork and slaw.

The burger was good, nice tasty beef, cheap cheese etc.. but the beef portion was a little small and dwarfed by the stodgy bun. On the topic of the bun I personally love a toasted brioche with my burger I like that light crispy shiny surface. However this bun was of the cakey cob persuasion like you get everywhere in Derbyshire. So if you’re going to have the burger, go double.

To the pork. My dear Mr Red what have you done? The pork was beautifully tender and could be eaten with a spoon but it tasted of thin air! Apparently this problem extends to the beef brisket as well which I’m reliably told was equally tender but bland as out. The pork was garnished with some pork scratchings which was a good idea but scratchings are a bit of a kop out if you ask me. Some warm fresh crackling would have been better than cold scratchings. The slaw served with the pork was good, I’m not adverse to a little mayo free slaw every now and again and it cut through the fat in the pork perfectly.

The sides that came with the meal were the highlight of the night. Onion rings were crisp, red hot and rather on the large side and the deep fried pickles were gorgeous. I’ve been meaning to try these deep fried vinegary slices of heaven for ages but not got round to it, I’m glad I did.

On the hole then this place did alright. It’s not expensive and once you finally get in the its pretty lively and service swift. I wouldn’t rave home about it, but the concept is fairly novel and new to Leeds and the punters seem to be lapping it up.

7/10

Cloth Hall Street

(nr Corn Exchange)

Leeds LS1 2HD

truebarbecue.com

Patty and Bun, London

On a recent visit to the capital I found my self near Bond Street and decided to visit Patty & Bun to see what all the fuss was about.

I’d like to take this moment to talk about a recent point made on Chris Pople’s blog (cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.co.uk) about his trip to the Electric Diner on Portobello Road. Chris pointed out that although many of you bloggers and critics etc in the Big City are getting a bit fed up of the whole sloppy burger craze, “this thing is still a relative novelty to most people”.

Now I know you’re all sick of sloppy American diner experiences and queuing for an hour to eat a burger! But in the North of England there is virtually no where to get a decent burger and the few places that do exist have “mostly” only sprung up in the last 12 months or so.

Rant aside, this leads me back to my excitement at being down “south” and popping in to the much talked about Patty & Bun.

The venue in question has fairly plain “wipe clean” Décor, but was nice enough all the same and the staff were pleasant and punctual. I ordered the Ari Gold burger, which was about £8-9 for the burger alone.

Anyway there it is, she’s beautiful isn’t she. Sadly that’s about as far as I got to the bedroom with this burger. It had all the right ingredients; good quality beef (so I’m told), oozy cheese, sexy bun, burger sauce mmmmm. But what it left in my mouth was a watery mouthful of blandness. The beef was under seasoned, fairly tasteless and the whole thing underwhelming. The Ari Gold has got all the right components, it should be great... but its not.

This is starting to feel like an overly negative post, especially as it’s my first review. So I’ll try and place said burger into context. Out of every burger I’ve ever eaten in my beleaguered culinary existence in the North East of England and Yorkshire, this ranks in the top 10%. The problem with Patty & Bun is the “hype” I was expecting Nirvana but it didn’t happen. My advice is go somewhere else, Dirty burger is cheap if your in Kentish Town, Almost Famous in Manchester is good (love that place) or if you like a burger beautiful on the outside and plain in the middle, go here. I know plenty of men that would settle for that in a woman.

6/10

54 James St,

London W1U 1EU 

www.pattyandbun.co.uk