The Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Here's a new column for my regular readers. Every Thursday (well nearly every Thursday), I meet up for lunch with a friend and we take it in turns to select a venue. The deal is that we take turns to pay. It's a good way to start the weekend and it's become quite competitive as we try and select ever better and more different venues. As he's a greedy sod who likes his food and we give all meals some lengthy analysis, I thought I'd share this with you all. If like me you are always on the lookout for new places, I hope this helps.

Todays lunch was at the "Gourmet Burger Kitchen" at St Pauls in the City. As I was paying, I'd waited until they had a 2 for 1 voucher on their website before selecting the venue. Being a tightwad, I generally try and pick somewhere with an offer on.

The Gourmet Burger Kitchen prides itself on being the funky burger chain for those who like a high quality 100% beef burger. Not having been there before, we got rather caught out by the method of ordering. You are shown to your table, given the number and then you have to go to the till & order. Being thick, this took a while to sink in & even though we got there at Noon sharp, we found a lengthy queue had formed by the time we twigged the protocol.

Anyway, I ordered the Cajun Beef Burger and my friend had the Buffalo burger. We ordered a starter of Chicken kebob. By the time I'd ordered, the queue stretched out of the door. "It must be good was the comment". After a suitable pause, the drinks arrived. Faced with a heavy afternoon, I'd settled for Tea with milk. £1.90 for a relatively small cup, where you do your own bag, did not strike me as great value. After another 10 minutes, the Kebob showed up. The chicken was delicious. Sadly it was gone all too quickly.

We sat, we waited. We waited. To the left and right, diners who'd entered after us had rather tasty looking burgers turning up. Eventually, at 12.40 our food arrived, 40 minutes after we'd sat down. The chips were fantastic. Proper big chunky chips. My friends Bufallo Burger at £9.85 was, in his opinion, excellent. I was slightly disappointed with my Cajun Beef burger at £7.40. I expect a Cajun burger to have a chilli kick and this had none. The sauce was slightly sweet, which was not to my taste at all.

All in all, pleasant enough food, but a bit slow & hassly. I wouldn't go there if you just want a quick bite. At £22.85 (inc £7.40 off meal), Ok value. I don't think I'll be rushing back.

Best Thing: Chicken Kebob Starter.

Worst Thing: The queueing & waiting

Other items of note : Good Veggie options