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Burger & Lobster: the most fun in London to be had for £20

27/2/2012

11 Comments

 
The proposition at Burger & Lobster is so good, at such a decent price, the fact that anyone should provide this for hungry Londoners brings to mind public service rather than commercial enterprise, though no public services are of course ever this good. Do they give Russians knighthoods? First Goodman, now this; perhaps we should just get our wages paid straight into his bank account.

B&L has some of MEATliquor’s DNA in the offering: no bookings, great cocktails, amazing prices and food eaten off trays rather than plates, but for those who don’t like MEATliquor’s brash interior design, permanent darkness and deafening music, the inside of B&L is a somewhat more refined affair with leather banquets, natural light and the sound only of people having a good time. In that sense it feels substantially more grown up.

What they both share however is queues, unless that is you get there early. Burger & Lobster opens for lunch at midday, and on one Friday that we were there, by 12:30, the restaurant was full. By 12:45, we heard staff telling newly arriving punters that there was 30-45min wait to be seated. But this excess of demand over supply is not because of canny marketing by the restaurant or because it’s a fashionable venue to eat at (which nevertheless it has become), it is because they offer the best value lobster meal in the country as far as we can tell.

The food at B&L, as we expect you know by now, is the choice between: burger, lobster, or lobster roll, all priced at £20. There are no starters and limited desserts. The menu was designed to flip punters but most find it sufficiently comfortable that they want to hang around.

On our travels, only The Lobster Shack in North Berwick offers lobster and chips cheaper (£16.50), but unlike Burger & Lobster, they don’t put a roof over your head while you’re eating it, so if it rains, you get wet. And of course North Berwick is 385 miles away for anyone who lives in Zone 1. J Sheekey meanwhile is in zone 1 and does put a roof over your head but then they’ll charge you £42 for grilled lobster. So much for the competition. 

There’s clearly an element of subsidisation here with a £20 burger helping make a £20 lobster possible (so thank you all those of you who eat burgers there, really, thank you) but in our view, the burger at both MEATliquor and Goodman is better (sorry B&L), and the point of the place is surely lobster, so lobster it is. But then is it lobster roll or whole lobster in the shell? 
At a purist and theoretical level, the obvious option is the whole lobster in the shell for the required presentation alone ensures you cannot be short changed on lobster as you might be in a roll. It’s MrsCC's preferred option, clearly a fine way to go and at £20, a bargain, and so why not. However, my preference is for the Lobster Roll. The point to make here is that you are certainly not short changed in the amount of lobster you receive in the roll, it overflows with it. But secondly, and not unimportantly, the brioche itself is one of the best you’ll taste: a divine temple to butter. But in case you want more, in case you want a cathedral to butter, they supply a boat of melted butter also, so pour some more over the roll at your leisure and experience the bliss.

When the lobster roll arrives, on tasting the first bite, I was hit by a wave of pleasure that I can scarcely remember food ever provoking before in my life. This is after all, something new, lobster rolls like this in the UK are unheard of. So despite the roll being proportioned and appropriate, I thought momentarily (being struck by out and out gluttony) that I should have ordered two rolls for I never wanted this to end. The regret was short lived because even before the end, I was entirely sated and an ambulance rather than a taxi seemed my more probable next transport so that a nearby hospital could give me a necessary butter transfusion.

Whatever you order, it comes with fries, which are excellent even if sometimes excessively salted, and a side salad that is really very good albeit seeming like a token nod to wellbeing if you go to town with the butter boat.
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lobster, fried and salad - £20
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Lobster roll
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the burger
A word on drinks too. Cocktails here are the equal of any and from the menu (there’s no food menu, only a drinks menu), you can choose cocktails that pair well with Burger, or, err... Lobster. However, go off piste and they can make you anything you want and make it well. But it gets better still, virgin cocktails are fabulous too, and it doesn’t even stop there: they also serve proper ale at proper prices. Pints, of beer, from a tap. 

There is, in our book, nothing bad to say about Burger & Lobster, it is brilliant: brilliant food, brilliant drinks, brilliant prices. One lunch time with an hour to kill I popped in alone and had the lobster roll and a pint of beer, had a bill that was less than £25 (before service), and felt that I had eaten like a king. 

The queues are the only problem but you can’t blame the restaurant for doing a good job and being popular. The owners are, we understand, looking at expansion, but getting through on their existing site two tonnes of lobster a week, unsurprisingly there are supply issues around securing enough lobster for a second and larger restaurant. 

Possibly you haven’t eaten there already, possibly you’ve been put off by the queues, possibly you believe it’s all just hype. But if you haven’t, you owe it to your cardiologist to give it a go: arrive a little before midday, or otherwise an off peak time, go with a friend if possible and share one of everything on the ‘menu’, and see if that’s not the best main course you can get in London for £20. If there’s one better, we really can’t think what it is. 


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Burger & Lobster on Urbanspoon
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11 Comments
David L
28/2/2012 12:42:38 am

Welcome back! Amazed you think the Meatliquor burger is better than B&L- agree otherwise.

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Kavey link
28/2/2012 02:13:01 am

I keep meaning to visit. Not working in central London means far less lunch visits... glad you're back.

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Matt C
29/2/2012 09:06:52 am

Wholeheartedly agree. Best value dinner in town, if you take the whole lobster that is. Lobster roll is definitely worth getting too (but clearly less lobster meat than a whole lobster), we agreed we would share it as a starter nex time.

Agree about the burger too, nothing special, and clearly cross-subsidising the rest of the menu. Preferred MeatLiquor and Hawksmoor's, have yet to try the proper Goodman's one.

Booking "system" is a bit of a mess, but as long as you know this in advance it's fine. We stopped by c.6pm on a Saturday (when it was already at capacity) and returned at 8.30-9pm (we were in 10, so had to split up, but they told us this at 6pm as they had already taken "bookings" for the 10 seater table. Definitely heard lots of grumbles and mutterings from people stuck at the bar waiting for their table, but for lobster at these prices I noted no one left either.

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Kay@Chopstix2Steaknives link
5/3/2012 01:25:07 am

Definitely best value lobster in town! Have yet to try Meatliquor but the Hawksmoor burger is my benchmark in town. =)

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Tom
8/5/2012 02:02:29 am

The Big Easy on the Kings Road dwarfs those prices and it's EXCELLENT:

"Lobster Festival" Whole fresh Nova Scotia/Native Lobster served steamed with fries, house salad and a free Jose Cuervo Gold frozen Margarita or ice cold beer.
Includes Vat, excludes service. Subject to availability.
£14.95 P/P

Oh and the burger is excellent too, and only £7.90!

Got to be one of the best places in town for Lobster/ Ribs/ Burgers etc.

Just wanted to share this with you.

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Lloyd
14/5/2012 02:37:51 am

Big Easy has really gone down hill lately though. Yes they do good deals and serve big portions but the quality really does vary. I would say try both places but cannot vouch for the Big Easy being king anymore I am afraid. Better ribs in Barbecoa, Better burgers in Hache - not really a lobster fan but have to say their lobster wasn't bad.

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thecriticalcouple
30/5/2012 12:47:50 pm

we have since checked out Big Easy, really enjoyed it and it now has a blog post of its very own. CC

Vero
19/7/2012 09:01:45 am

‘No reservations’? Of course, there are! What would you call a fact that one still has to come down to the restaurant two hours before the anticipated dinner and put his name down on the list - as opposed to an old-fashion way of doing so over the phone?

We went to Burger and Lobster yesterday and were second on the list when we arrived, assured by a not so welcoming lady at the door that a table would be ready within 1 to 2 hours wait. Alright, we thought, and headed to the nearest bar to start an evening with a drink… And there we were, sitting at the May Fair Bar two hours later with three cocktails down my neck and no phone call from the B&L people. Almost considered having a dinner at the Nobu who always make sure they help you find a table especially on a Wednesday night but thought, hey, I want to try the Burger and Lobster and see for myself if it is worth waiting for at all after all..

So we decided to head back to the restaurant to see what’s happened. The lady at the door had now a longer list in her hand and a fewer customers waiting outside. We were offered to wait again, now at the restaurant’s bar where all cocktails were served with an orange zest on top, not that we cared much after the ones we had at the May Fair Bar. All in all, after having put our names on the list at 6:25pm we were finally seated at a quarter to 9pm. Hurray!!!

The place was buzzing and packed – and no wonder why. The grilled lobster I had was good and a real value for money as you’d expect to pay a bit more for a half lobster in other London restaurants. However, the burger was a bit of a disappointment – nothing wrong with it but nothing spectacular either. I had better ones in.. Byron and had not had to wait for it for hours for it!

I am not really sure what B&L are trying to achieve with their limited menu where burger does not really fit (and is overpriced) and the waiting time which is beyond comprehension. A fully packed place every night and no returning customers? I truly wonder how long they last…

As for me, I’d rather take control over my dinner arrangements, be it a burger or lobster.

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London Lady
11/1/2013 02:01:51 am

Had very nice dinner here yesterday evening but still trying to figure out why my lobster was £30, hubby paid bill without realising everything is priced at £20. Not sure I'd go back £80 is a bit steep for burger & chips

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Bob Smith
1/10/2013 09:27:02 am

saw a box of Mccain frozen thin fries stored in the restaurant. Expect more at this price

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Max
22/6/2016 10:48:23 am

Prices have been put up and a fifteen percent service charge not happy won't be back

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