[PREVIEW] The Fred Smith x Byron Chilli Queen Cheeseburger / Byron, London

Twenty two fricking venues. Twenty two.

That’s what Byron is up to now. If anyone ever had any doubt that this whole new wave burger thing wasn’t mainstream, then try to figure out how many covers they must be doing every weekend. Mindblowing.

Our general thoughts on Byron are already encapsulated in a review of their previous special from last year, the Uncle Sam, and haven’t really changed, so we won’t keep you.

What’s great about the Chilli Queen though is the involvement of Fred Smith of the Admiral Codrington, who is fast becoming a local hero. He neatly pirouettes around our nitpicks with the standard Byron experience: the bun is proper, the cheese is American and the sauce is plentiful.

In fact the chipotle mayo is wondrous - it doesn’t turn runny when cosied up to a hot patty and the raw chilli crunch delivers a pleasing uniform heat.

If Byron is Justin Bieber, then Fred is its smooth talking Ludacris.

This is a great way of more people getting a taste of what Fred’s up to, and that is most definitely a Very Good Thing.

Get it while you can. From today until that Queen holiday thing next month, at all the Byrons.

Simon & Rob.

- #Admiral Codrington
- #Byron
- #Fred Smith
- #London
- #UK
- #burger
- #cheeseburger
- #chilli
- #food
- #preview
- #special
- #masonify
2 weeks ago
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[PREVIEW] MEATmarket / Covent Garden, London

MEATMarket, the latest offering from MEATrepeneurs Yianni and Scott, is a fast-food version of their one-stop-burger-shoppe model, hosting some old MEATfavourites as well as spanking new incarnations of classic American-style fast food.

If you’re at all interested in the movements of the Meat[_____] crew then you’ve probably already seen a few reports on this new site in Covent Garden that was previewing last weekend. So, to cut to the chase, here’s our take on it.

If you plonked Gott’s Roadside in a locale like DownUnder in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, we reckon this is what you’d get.

It’s the counterpoint to MEATliquor: the menu is optimised for speed and takeaway convenience. Yianni gave us a quick tour of the kitchen, explaining how it’s been organised so each dish has its own cooking station which will keep wait times to a minimum and make it a real option to the Covent Garden lunchtime crowd, as well as the post-theatre folks who don’t have anywhere to go.

The burgers are the quicker cooking dual patty versions with a few new additions. The Black Palace isn’t really a White Castle slider, more a version 2.0 of the Ibzo burger that was briefly available during the Meatwagon era eighteen months ago. How time flies.

The jalapeño poppers are a proper must-have, just like the deep fried pickles are at MEATliquor. Perfect heat.

The deep fried bacon covered Ripper Hot Dog was the surprise star of the evening.

The velocity of these guys is incredible. #MEATeasy only just closed down thirteen months ago and these guys don’t show any signs of slowing down.

Yianni is getting to indulge his love of Wendy’s and A&W with this one. We love it too. It’s a proper fast food joint with a shiny, new kitchen.

The strip lit market location makes it immediately different. And if we’re honest, underneath those lights, the burgers are more functional than aesthetically pleasing. Our suggestion? Wrap them up. Have some tongue-in-cheek fun with the packaging.

Jubilee Market is one of those especially grotty bits of Covent Garden. You’ll sit on a balcony above it, looking down upon a sea of tourist tat and Microsoft Word signage. It’s quite the juxtaposition and we can only hope tourists do stumble upstairs by accident.

It’s going to be another rip-roaring success, and it might just be the first step to making this corner of Covent Garden something to be proud of.