We've had our eye on Rox for ages, ever since they were awarded Best Burger in the UK in 2015 by TripAdvisor and won London's Best Burger in a @newopenings Twitter poll in 2016 after a close final with Honest. (Coincidentally, Honest burger rank high in TripAdvisor as well). But they were all the way down in deepest Lewisham. We went down there for Street Feast one time and it took a fucking age to get home. Fool us once Lewisham…
As our luck, and their success, would have it they recently opened a second location in Spitalfields, in the area near Petticoat Lane where a slew of places have opened recently. It is down in lore that TripAdvisor reviews should be taken with a large pinch of salt so this would be interesting.
The decor can be summed up by a single feature: Mason jars as lampshades. You know what we mean, yeah you do.
The Rox classic cheeseburger is a simple construct: Meat, Cheese, Mayo, bun. Simple did not mean effective though. With its great texture, bounce and not-to sweetness, the brioche bun was the best thing about it.
The patty was decently seared and just-about-medium but the beef was quite tightly packed and was that odd, not entirely pleasant, in-between of not being dry but not being juicy either. This was highlighted by the meagre amount of inoffensive mayo. There was a noticeable peppery note to everything, but it lacked an increased depth of flavour that a decent sprinkle of salt would have given. The Monterey Jack cheese was brilliantly rubbery and stretchy but that was all it had going as it was way too mild and weirdly distracted from everything else going on.
The fries we ordered were crisp but had that classic kebab shop vibe about them, with that lingering taste of fryer oil that permeates the fries and stays in the mouth for longer than you'd like. No doubt they are fucking delicious after a night out where you've gotten into 'This Vodka & Disaronno Is Delicious' territory. Not so much on a week day lunch time.
Perhaps we caught them on a Daniel Powter, the place was newly open so maybe there were some teething problems. Ours was the only order at the time, so we assume due care and attention was placed on it. Who knows? We'll give it another go for sure, and then we might even plonk a review on TripAdvisor.