My friend and her boyfriend schedule in a date night into their lives to spend quality time with each other outside their home doing something fun. When she first told me about it I thought it was a great idea and decided to give it a go too. It didn’t really work out at the time though because I was in a messy place in life and my husband would invariably end up having to spend the evening cajoling me back into happiness. But we gave it a go again yesterday, and it was fab! Like the good old days we'd both been missing. So Friday night is now officially date night. Cheesy, but true :) Excuse the pun.
We had burgers on our mind, so decided to check out the new burger baby in town, Patty & Bun on St James Street. Pouring rain, a mile long queue, but a giant umbrella and a delicious menu staring us in the face saw us through it. Oh and I got called Barrel, so that had us in splits for a while. “Your name’s Barrel?!” the girl jotting down waiting list names asked. “No, not really” I said, “but that’s fine, I get called all sorts of things...” “Oh well” she said “even if that is your name, believe me I’ve heard weirder ones this evening. There was a Bus in line before you, and a Class.”
So we finally get ushered in. I loved the place immediately. It’s like a garage been converted into a restaurant. Rugged, unpolished wood, lampshades with the paint chipping off. Super casual ambience, friendly staff, and laughter all around. I couldn’t wait for the food!
So we ordered a rum punch to share; it arrived in a jiffy, bursting with fresh fruit. Like summer in a jug. Chilled. Excellent stuff. I went for the the portobello mushroom burger and my husband had the special of the day - a chilli beef burger with smokey mayo, kimchi and some insanely spicy sauce we were first given to sample. For sides, chips with rosemary salt and chicken wings. I couldn’t wait for the food to arrive! Oh wait, I’ve already said that. The burgers arrived. Oh man, I have no idea how they managed to squeeze the things they did into mine - garlic parsley butter, tarragon mayo, lettuce, cheese, coleslaw, baby courgettes, pickled onions, and lets not forget the portobello mushrooms. In a giant brioche bun. It looked quite innocuous when I unwrapped it, but once I picked it up and took that first bite, and all those flavours hit me, and my fingers and my chin, I knew this was no ordinary burger. My husband was in a similar state, and we ate in happy silence. Like a couple of six year olds with cookie dough. As messy too :) The rosemary chips were yummy as well. The only disappointment really were the chicken wings. The sauce on them didn’t quite do it for us, but they seemed to be quite popular, so maybe it was just us.
We could barely move after that meal. Somehow managed to lift ourselves up and walk to the Tube. It all seems a bit hazy now. Burger coma, proper. Believe there’s a word for it too - burgoma.
Go go go!