One Dead Hippie and a bacon and egg martini, garcon
January 6, 2012 7:33 AM Subscribe
Young and Foodish give you their Top 10 London burgers. Not in the mood for minced cow? Then they also have rundowns of their favourite pizzas, coffees, sandwiches, bagels and salt-beef sarnies. And if you want to read more about food in London, in a way that doesn't suggest that one can't eat well without laying at least £70 at the wagyu-flecked boots of a Michelin-starred chef, then there's £31.75, which took its' inspiration from the infamous Aberdeen Steak House.
Salt beef, like New York-style corned beef, is a Jewish deli meat made from beef briskets cured in brine.
So if salt beef and corned beef aren't synonymous, what's the actual difference?
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:39 AM on January 6, 2012
So if salt beef and corned beef aren't synonymous, what's the actual difference?
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:39 AM on January 6, 2012
Sadly missing the burgers from the now-closed Red Veg all-vegetarian communist themed fast food restaurant.
I loved that place.
posted by davemee at 7:42 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
I loved that place.
posted by davemee at 7:42 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
Corned beef comes in a tin that you have to open with a key? Also, nobody is paying £3 for a corned-beef sandwich.
Seriously, though, we understand these to be different things in the UK.
posted by mippy at 7:43 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
Seriously, though, we understand these to be different things in the UK.
posted by mippy at 7:43 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
It's not v.foodie I suppose in that it's pretty much a fast food place rather than claiming to be authentic, but Ecco on Drury Lane do lovely pizzas.
posted by mippy at 7:44 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by mippy at 7:44 AM on January 6, 2012
So if salt beef and corned beef aren't synonymous, what's the actual difference?
I believe it's because "corned beef" in the UK is generally ground salt beef mixed with gelatin. US-style corned beef is called "salt beef" and, imo, best eaten when served on a homemade beigel* with a slice of pickle from a stall on Broadway Market. Mmmm.
* You get bonus points for pronouncing it correctly (and sometimes an extra serving of meat).
posted by fight or flight at 7:48 AM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]
I believe it's because "corned beef" in the UK is generally ground salt beef mixed with gelatin. US-style corned beef is called "salt beef" and, imo, best eaten when served on a homemade beigel* with a slice of pickle from a stall on Broadway Market. Mmmm.
* You get bonus points for pronouncing it correctly (and sometimes an extra serving of meat).
posted by fight or flight at 7:48 AM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]
Wagyu burgers are always too fatty. All the best burgers are made with some amount of brisket IMO.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:49 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Ad hominem at 7:49 AM on January 6, 2012
Also, nobody is paying £3 for a corned-beef sandwich.
Yeah, well… not when you're slathering the bread with margarine first. I pay $15 for a corned beef at Katz's, and it's worth every penny.
posted by interrupt at 7:50 AM on January 6, 2012
Yeah, well… not when you're slathering the bread with margarine first. I pay $15 for a corned beef at Katz's, and it's worth every penny.
posted by interrupt at 7:50 AM on January 6, 2012
I've lived in, and still love, America. I understand the place of the burger is to both define and transcend the cultures of the red and the blue, of the 1 and the 99 percents, the dinner table and the bar, the passenger seat and the white tablecloth. It defined my time there better than any other object, save my car.
But no one has ever managed to explain to me why a burger is intrinsically better than a steak.
posted by cromagnon at 7:52 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
But no one has ever managed to explain to me why a burger is intrinsically better than a steak.
posted by cromagnon at 7:52 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I'll pay $15 at Katz's or Sarge's
Not to be a pedant, but the corn in corned beef actually refers to an archaic definiton of the word corn, a hard granule. Which in corned beef refers to salt, hence corned beef means salted beef
posted by Ad hominem at 7:55 AM on January 6, 2012
Not to be a pedant, but the corn in corned beef actually refers to an archaic definiton of the word corn, a hard granule. Which in corned beef refers to salt, hence corned beef means salted beef
posted by Ad hominem at 7:55 AM on January 6, 2012
If you're paying more than £8 for a burger, they should be pretty good. In fact, I'd go as far to say that premium burgers in London are much of a muchness. You'd be unlucky to get something shit at that price (although obviously it happens). As long as you get some decent Scotch beef, a bit of seasoning, you're pretty much there.
The pizza list, though is more worthwhile. The UK doesn't do pizza especially well, with a few exceptions there.
posted by TheAlarminglySwollenFinger at 7:56 AM on January 6, 2012
The pizza list, though is more worthwhile. The UK doesn't do pizza especially well, with a few exceptions there.
posted by TheAlarminglySwollenFinger at 7:56 AM on January 6, 2012
British "corned beef" is, as noted, something different and slightly disgusting, most likely born out of post war austerity - which confused me when I moved to America and people started talking about corned beef like it was something worth eating.
See also hash browns being more than just the fried potato patties they serve at McDonalds.
posted by Artw at 7:57 AM on January 6, 2012
See also hash browns being more than just the fried potato patties they serve at McDonalds.
posted by Artw at 7:57 AM on January 6, 2012
I believe it's because "corned beef" in the UK is generally ground salt beef mixed with gelatin.
I know that. My point was that I thought UK salt beef and US corned beef were synonymous, and Wikipedia appears to agree, but the article implies that there's a difference.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:58 AM on January 6, 2012
I know that. My point was that I thought UK salt beef and US corned beef were synonymous, and Wikipedia appears to agree, but the article implies that there's a difference.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:58 AM on January 6, 2012
The latest trend in Seattle appears to be note perfect rip-offs of London restraunts. So we get Blue Sea Sushi copying Yo Sushi and now Boom Noodle copying Wagamamas.
posted by Artw at 8:00 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Artw at 8:00 AM on January 6, 2012
Now I want a Dark Vador burger.
posted by Artw at 8:02 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 8:02 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
London-based steak afficinados should note that Hawksmoor also has a beef tasting menu (or an "eight course tour of a cow") which takes you from tongue to tail and probably leaves you lying on the floor in a delicious meat coma. I want to try it. And hopefully not die.
posted by fight or flight at 8:02 AM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by fight or flight at 8:02 AM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]
by TIMCHESTER
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It was a mixture of laziness, desperation and a perverse masochism that led me to the Paddington branch of the Aberdeen Angus Steak House recently.
Never do this. Vending machines are preferable. Starvation is preferable.
posted by Artw at 8:12 AM on January 6, 2012
3
Share
It was a mixture of laziness, desperation and a perverse masochism that led me to the Paddington branch of the Aberdeen Angus Steak House recently.
Never do this. Vending machines are preferable. Starvation is preferable.
posted by Artw at 8:12 AM on January 6, 2012
also has a beef tasting menu
Finally, A reason to get a passport. I really want to try Beef Tea.
much to my shame whenever I have a french dip I drink the au jus when nobody is watching.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:15 AM on January 6, 2012
Finally, A reason to get a passport. I really want to try Beef Tea.
much to my shame whenever I have a french dip I drink the au jus when nobody is watching.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:15 AM on January 6, 2012
It's good to see that they can appreciate a good burger back in the Old Country. I hold that the hamburger is far and away America's most significant contribution to global culture and the greater good.
Yeah I know we didn't really invent it but we sure popularized it and is there anything better than fries, a burger, and a cold Diet Coke for lunch?
posted by Aizkolari at 8:15 AM on January 6, 2012
Yeah I know we didn't really invent it but we sure popularized it and is there anything better than fries, a burger, and a cold Diet Coke for lunch?
posted by Aizkolari at 8:15 AM on January 6, 2012
As a tourist, I've been to London on multiple occasions and immediately recognized the Aberdeen Angus Steak Houses for what they were. I opted for Lee Ho Fuk's instead, knowing that I was getting the real deal. Every night for three nights.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:16 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by jsavimbi at 8:16 AM on January 6, 2012
Related: Pitt Cue Co. is opening a restaurant this month.
posted by urschrei at 8:23 AM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by urschrei at 8:23 AM on January 6, 2012 [2 favorites]
One more question, is Aberdeen Angus Steak House sort of like New York's Tad's Steaks? Quarter inch thick sirloin smothered in undercooked onions with a baked potato and salad for $10 ?
posted by Ad hominem at 8:24 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Ad hominem at 8:24 AM on January 6, 2012
I opted for Lee Ho Fuk's instead
Did you have the beef chow mein?
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:24 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
Did you have the beef chow mein?
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:24 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
the poor elderly Chinese guy next to me bought half the menu at the insistence of the fuhrer d’.
Heh.
posted by CaseyB at 8:38 AM on January 6, 2012
Heh.
posted by CaseyB at 8:38 AM on January 6, 2012
Is Tad's Steaks something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy? That should answer your question.
posted by Artw at 8:39 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Artw at 8:39 AM on January 6, 2012
My point was that I thought UK salt beef and US corned beef were synonymous, and Wikipedia appears to agree, but the article implies that there's a difference.
They're probably the same thing on your side of the Atlantic, but if you ask someone in the UK to give you some 'corned beef' and some 'salt beef', they'd offer you a tin and a plate of unsmoked pastrami. It must just be a strange distinction we make, like the one between 'french fries' and 'chips' which in the UK are two different types of burger accompaniments, not some potato fries and some potato chips.
I was surprised how expensive Aberdeen Steak House is. Even if you don't know London well, you can eat at a decent chain restaurant for much less.
posted by mippy at 8:54 AM on January 6, 2012
They're probably the same thing on your side of the Atlantic, but if you ask someone in the UK to give you some 'corned beef' and some 'salt beef', they'd offer you a tin and a plate of unsmoked pastrami. It must just be a strange distinction we make, like the one between 'french fries' and 'chips' which in the UK are two different types of burger accompaniments, not some potato fries and some potato chips.
I was surprised how expensive Aberdeen Steak House is. Even if you don't know London well, you can eat at a decent chain restaurant for much less.
posted by mippy at 8:54 AM on January 6, 2012
All the people I talked into eating at Tad's over the years certainly figured I must hate them.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:54 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Ad hominem at 8:54 AM on January 6, 2012
for me, a good burger is not a good burger unless I can pick it up and take bites out of it and it has good bread. Too many on the top 10 london burger list are either stupid towers that will disintegrate at the first approach or seem to have Tesco value buns topping and tailing them. Hopeless.
That Hawksmoor burger looks good though, I am sorely tempted to go there next time I am up in London.
posted by biffa at 8:55 AM on January 6, 2012
That Hawksmoor burger looks good though, I am sorely tempted to go there next time I am up in London.
posted by biffa at 8:55 AM on January 6, 2012
One more question, is Aberdeen Angus Steak House sort of like New York's Tad's Steaks? Quarter inch thick sirloin smothered in undercooked onions with a baked potato and salad for $10 ?
Read the review, the Abedeen Angus meal clocks in at around $50!
posted by biffa at 8:58 AM on January 6, 2012
Read the review, the Abedeen Angus meal clocks in at around $50!
posted by biffa at 8:58 AM on January 6, 2012
New Yorkers will pay crazy money for corned-beef, it's one of many really incomprehensible things they love to brag about.
posted by mikoroshi at 8:59 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by mikoroshi at 8:59 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
The best damn London burger I have tried is, consistently, Jacob's Ladder at the South Bank food market. With Stichelton cheese. Nirvana in burger form.
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:09 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:09 AM on January 6, 2012
Joe Allen's burger is nothing to write home about. It's so average they don't even put it on the menu.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:29 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by MuffinMan at 9:29 AM on January 6, 2012
Read the review, the Abedeen Angus meal clocks in at around $50!
Sorry, Didn't catch that with all the talk of quid, but it clearly says 37 pounds. So I guess it is more akin to another venerable New York institution, Beefsteak Charlie's
posted by Ad hominem at 9:37 AM on January 6, 2012
Sorry, Didn't catch that with all the talk of quid, but it clearly says 37 pounds. So I guess it is more akin to another venerable New York institution, Beefsteak Charlie's
posted by Ad hominem at 9:37 AM on January 6, 2012
for me, a good burger is not a good burger unless I can pick it up and take bites out of it
Amen sister. A burger is meant to be handled and eaten as a whole. With these towers all you can do is take them apart and pick at the constituents. The patties have become so distorted it's now not unusual to find perfectly spherical balls of meat.
posted by Summer at 9:38 AM on January 6, 2012
Amen sister. A burger is meant to be handled and eaten as a whole. With these towers all you can do is take them apart and pick at the constituents. The patties have become so distorted it's now not unusual to find perfectly spherical balls of meat.
posted by Summer at 9:38 AM on January 6, 2012
Angus Steakhouse basically a business based on the premise that nobody will ever eat there twice, so they might as well extract as much money as possible from them without wasting any of it on producing actual food.
We once lived above one, and dined there once out of shear bloody minded curiosity. We were expecting something a bit naff and overpriced, like a TGI Fridays, but the reality was so much worse. So, so much worse. I think we left most of our food uneaten, and it was pricey too (partially due to the sides scam) - we didn't get food poisoning though, so that was a plus.
posted by Artw at 9:42 AM on January 6, 2012
We once lived above one, and dined there once out of shear bloody minded curiosity. We were expecting something a bit naff and overpriced, like a TGI Fridays, but the reality was so much worse. So, so much worse. I think we left most of our food uneaten, and it was pricey too (partially due to the sides scam) - we didn't get food poisoning though, so that was a plus.
posted by Artw at 9:42 AM on January 6, 2012
According to wiki they are dying out - I suspect the internet and grim forewarnings to US travellers have done for them.
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM on January 6, 2012
Read the review, the Abedeen Angus meal clocks in at around $50!
London food prices tend to be a fair bit higher than the US, but for sure you can get much better meals here than Aberdeen Angus for that price or less.
Pleased/disappointed to see at least two Brixton Village food places in that list. Pleased because they are good, disappointed because I'd like to be able to eat at Honest Burgers without following the "give them your phone number, then go off to the pub and wait till they all you half an hour later for a table" approach.
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:47 AM on January 6, 2012
London food prices tend to be a fair bit higher than the US, but for sure you can get much better meals here than Aberdeen Angus for that price or less.
Pleased/disappointed to see at least two Brixton Village food places in that list. Pleased because they are good, disappointed because I'd like to be able to eat at Honest Burgers without following the "give them your phone number, then go off to the pub and wait till they all you half an hour later for a table" approach.
posted by Infinite Jest at 9:47 AM on January 6, 2012
I went to number 5, Meat Liquor last night.
I challenge you to read the above sentence aloud, without laughing.
posted by Optamystic at 9:54 AM on January 6, 2012
I challenge you to read the above sentence aloud, without laughing.
posted by Optamystic at 9:54 AM on January 6, 2012
13twelve, did you also see Chris Ewbank playing cards? I sound like such a name-dropper, but, honestly, I don't get out much and the last famous person I saw in the wild was Darren Hayman, who (regrettably) isn't someone your gran will have heard of.
The first time I ever went to London (in 1998) I went to a TGI Friday's. In 2008, I went to visit my mum in a sizeable-but-v-provincial town that had only just got somewhere to eat that wasn't a McDonald's - a Frankie and Benny's, which is a similar deal only Italian-American themed. I work in an industry where clients like to take you out to lunch, and I've eaten in Michelin starred restaurants, but y'know, it's not as special as getting to go to a place that sells seven types of burgers when you're sixteen and live somewhere too parochial for a KFC. I still like the fact that when we went with my mother it felt like a treat, because it was for her. I went to Latium last year which was absolutely lovely, and we went only because SO's work paid for it, but it's a little bit sad that as an adult I need to go to somewhere expensive to get the same feeling I got being seated in a Leicester Square TGI's. The same sense of unfamiliarity, embarrassment of choice, giggling at the experience because it happens to be one.
I like lists like these because I think restaurant critics are spoilt - they get to eat in places on a weekly basis that most of us will only visit on birthdays, if at all, so of course they're going to think ill of the places that 90% of us will frequent. (They're also way too Londoncentric, but that's another issue. Americans, you don't really have national press like we do, but I bet some get fed up with critics concentrating on certain parts of town/state.) I like eating out being a treat, and I also have the working-class thing of feeling less able to enjoy something if I know it costs more than my supermarket shop per plate. It's more of a challenge to find something really amazing at a price that means you could conceivably do it twice a month, y'know?
posted by mippy at 10:22 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
The first time I ever went to London (in 1998) I went to a TGI Friday's. In 2008, I went to visit my mum in a sizeable-but-v-provincial town that had only just got somewhere to eat that wasn't a McDonald's - a Frankie and Benny's, which is a similar deal only Italian-American themed. I work in an industry where clients like to take you out to lunch, and I've eaten in Michelin starred restaurants, but y'know, it's not as special as getting to go to a place that sells seven types of burgers when you're sixteen and live somewhere too parochial for a KFC. I still like the fact that when we went with my mother it felt like a treat, because it was for her. I went to Latium last year which was absolutely lovely, and we went only because SO's work paid for it, but it's a little bit sad that as an adult I need to go to somewhere expensive to get the same feeling I got being seated in a Leicester Square TGI's. The same sense of unfamiliarity, embarrassment of choice, giggling at the experience because it happens to be one.
I like lists like these because I think restaurant critics are spoilt - they get to eat in places on a weekly basis that most of us will only visit on birthdays, if at all, so of course they're going to think ill of the places that 90% of us will frequent. (They're also way too Londoncentric, but that's another issue. Americans, you don't really have national press like we do, but I bet some get fed up with critics concentrating on certain parts of town/state.) I like eating out being a treat, and I also have the working-class thing of feeling less able to enjoy something if I know it costs more than my supermarket shop per plate. It's more of a challenge to find something really amazing at a price that means you could conceivably do it twice a month, y'know?
posted by mippy at 10:22 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
@Optamystic nowt wrong with licking fine meat...
posted by 13twelve at 10:46 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by 13twelve at 10:46 AM on January 6, 2012 [1 favorite]
I agree wholeheartedly, but were numbers 1-4 found wanting? Or just busy?
posted by Optamystic at 10:51 AM on January 6, 2012
posted by Optamystic at 10:51 AM on January 6, 2012
@mippy I didn't see anyone famous. Though to be honest, I'm totally useless at spotting such people. Honestly I've been sat next to David Beckham and not realised.
My interest in burgers is because I've been working my way through a similar list of New Yorks Best Burgers.
From the NY list I'm saying:
1. Five Napkins, because of the milkshake (er, yeah, honestly)
2. Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien
3. Jimmys Diner (Union Ave, Brooklyn - yes I know its not on the list, but it should have been.)
4. Corner Bistro
5. Shake Shack
posted by 13twelve at 10:58 AM on January 6, 2012
My interest in burgers is because I've been working my way through a similar list of New Yorks Best Burgers.
From the NY list I'm saying:
1. Five Napkins, because of the milkshake (er, yeah, honestly)
2. Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien
3. Jimmys Diner (Union Ave, Brooklyn - yes I know its not on the list, but it should have been.)
4. Corner Bistro
5. Shake Shack
posted by 13twelve at 10:58 AM on January 6, 2012
Just back from a short London trip and not in any way a burger fan, but I did enjoy Charlie Brooker's take on poshburgers
" It was a bit like sinking my teeth into a small, soft woodland creature with a light dusting of flour; one which thoroughly enjoyed being eaten and responded to each bite by gently urinating warm oil down my chin"
Hilarious.
posted by jan murray at 3:51 PM on January 6, 2012 [4 favorites]
" It was a bit like sinking my teeth into a small, soft woodland creature with a light dusting of flour; one which thoroughly enjoyed being eaten and responded to each bite by gently urinating warm oil down my chin"
Hilarious.
posted by jan murray at 3:51 PM on January 6, 2012 [4 favorites]
Timely FPP, as I just came back from my first burger at Goodman's. It was excellent, by any standard: great meat, good bread, free toppings and copious condiments (you'd think that would be a given at £13, but I was surprised) and pretty decent service. What my North American burger bias detected, however, was a distinct lack of ambiance. These fancy burger joints, with their wood panelling and vintage photographs no doubt bought in bulk from eBay, might be able to justify their stratospheric prices with imported, ethically-sourced Nebraska beef and artisanal buns, but they just don't have the feel that makes a real burger place shine.
They even gave us forks and knives, an embarrassing overcompensation. Texas has forever ruined my ability to really enjoy a burger anywhere else I suppose, but I appreciate the London effort - it may be an ultimately futile quest if you believe that food is more than just ingredients, but it's still fun to try.
p.s. Thanks for the tip, Pallas Athena.
posted by Chichibio at 4:21 PM on January 6, 2012
They even gave us forks and knives, an embarrassing overcompensation. Texas has forever ruined my ability to really enjoy a burger anywhere else I suppose, but I appreciate the London effort - it may be an ultimately futile quest if you believe that food is more than just ingredients, but it's still fun to try.
p.s. Thanks for the tip, Pallas Athena.
posted by Chichibio at 4:21 PM on January 6, 2012
well you learn something every day. Corned beef in australia is something different again - though more like US than UK corned beef. In Aus it is pickled silverside or girello. Often eaten with white sauce, boiled potatoes and cabbage for some reason.
posted by wilful at 3:59 PM on January 7, 2012
posted by wilful at 3:59 PM on January 7, 2012
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posted by mippy at 7:34 AM on January 6, 2012