Has the pool of names for burger places already been skimmed of the decent ones? 'Chosen Bun' is passable, who doesn't like a bad pun, but 'Spielburger' is a close encounter of the worst kind, and using a place of temporal punishment as inspiration ('Burgatory') seems counter productive at best. Don't even get us started on 'BOBO (Bourgeois Bohemian) Social'. Cheeky Burger doesn't fall into this category, but it is certainly suspect.
Cheeky's stalls have been popping up on our RSS for a little while now, but visitation has been tricky due to their predominantly West London foccussed placements. Cue their addition to the World Food Festival in Devonshire Square, regular abode of Street Kitchen. Now that's a bit more convenient.
Arriving to a herd of food stalls bang on 1pm in the middle of the City is a pretty fucking stupid idea. So we arrived at 1pm. It was heaving with ravenous suited office-dwellers sniffing, bulged-eyed for their potential lunch, rowdily crowding round each stall like stock market traders. And nowhere was the crowd heavier than around Cheeky. Super.
Despite an ill-defined ordering and pick up system resulting in the odd confusion of delivered goods, the flustered trio under the canopy churned a steady flow of custom along an impatient line. We ordered the Cheeky Bacon, but were saddened to see the last dollop of now-common bacon jam destined for our burger splashed on another cashmere sweater-ed prick's order. A substitute of streaky bacon rashers were on hand which we gladly accepted in its stead.
We unwrapped a prosaic sandwich - with bottom bun cut bigger than crumpled top, not as pleasing to the oculars but practical, and an awry smashed patty topped with a light cheese and iceberg flailing underneath. The darkly charred edges of the bacon served as the predominant eye candy. The first bite was lacklustre, and so we prepared ourselves for disappointment...
But it was only bad luck, as the second chomp lit up in our noshing units. The patty, just retaining some pink, was pretty juicy with a good seared outside and about enough seasoning. The lightly toasted bun, the top of which had been cloched with the meat and cheese, was supple, spongey but retained a good slight chew. The cheddar suffered as it usually does from a lack of flavour, but had the pleasing bouncy, stringy-goo texture. Fine.
It was the condiments that garnered the attention: The homemade ketchup on the bottom let off a deep, rich savoury tang with an aftermath of sweetness. Matched with the keen creamy mayo that released a delayed smokiness and the sweet onion relish in the background, it concocted an inspired mix of flavour out of what are pretty standard additions nowadays.
With condiments like this, we look forward to testing the bacon jam in future. However the replacement rashers did not disappoint, grilled to a delightful crisp and adding a salty crunch, it might not hurt to see that as a menu option for the Bacon burger either.
It would seem that Cheeky is proving a decent addition to the food market circuit, and with them currently adding pitches at Urban Food Fest and St Giles-in-the-Fields, it is probable that we'll try them again some point.
- Rob