Hitting up a chain, can they produce?
Now I think it's worth mentioning some of my standard rules I've been applying to my meaty endeavors:
Main focus is on the burger, always.
Sides can gain bonus points if included in the meal, however, if I have to buy sides separately then I'm afraid they won't count.
If a waiter says yes to medium rare, it HAS to be medium rare, end of. Don't disappoint.
With that done, we can begin. I went for the stack, a whole 10.95 sterlings worth of 100% prime beef, grilled chorizo, red Leicester cheese, house onion ring (and I quote 'ring' singular, there was just one), smoked chilli mayo, rocket, pickled onions and house relish. Sounds like a bargain until you realise sides are not included. Prepare the bill for a rise to ascent like the selfie stick in the mid 2015's. The restaurant itself is pretty nice inside, free nuts which is always a bonus, but the whole evening just felt like a weird game of musical chairs. You're shown to you table, sit down, then get up to get nuts, then sit down, get your menu, and get up again to order. Maybe you forgot to get the hot sauce, back up again you are! Who do they think they are, Nandos?
The Burger
Off to a good start; I requested medium rare and was ready to hit the brick wall of overcooked disappointment but low and behold, no issues! Order went through like a dream, not a ghastly nightmare where I'm chased by the shady presence of a health inspector.
The burger slice produced a good even pink cooking, handled very well I'll give them that, the meat tasted reasonably good and was well seasoned. The chorizo sausage was perhaps the highlight of the burger, partially because it dominated the overall taste and left little room for anything else. Great if you like a nice piece of Spanish pork. Bad if want 100% prime beef. The onion ring added a crunch and a deep peppery taste to compliment the rich meaty spiced taste of the chorizo. The rocket took this peppery assault to further heights and should of been balanced well with the pickles and cool smoky mayonnaise. Unfortunately the smoked chilli aspect didn't really come through and neither did the pickled onions. So the palate is left in a desperate need of a pickled sharp taste to cut through bold flavours in the meat. Maybe just more of the smoked mayo could of balanced out the rich flavours by toning them down a touch. But we will never know. The bun was top notch, literally as soft as a pomeranian* and seeded for extra crunch. Everyone loves a sesame seeded bun, fact. If only Captain Americas used the same bun suppliers they may have nudged their score up. As for cheese, red leicester offers about as much flavour as a piece of toilet tissue paper, it did make the burger look very appetising though. Overall the flavours were good though essentially it was just chorizo. I would suggest cutting down the quantity of the chorizo to allow the beef to sing a bit more and adding normal batavia or cos lettuce to reduce the pepperiness. They advertise their beef as being high quality prime cut so show that bad boy off! Don't let no chorizo sausage steal your show! Alternatively make the burger bigger? Now to the elephant in the room, no sides...
The Fries
I went for the truffle cheese fries, smother anything in truffle and I'll lap it up (within reason). At £3.95 I never realised such disappointment could ensue after a fairly hefty priced portion of chips. I will be honest, I was at a chain restaurant so I wasn't expecting actual fresh black truffle shavings that hand been scouted and picked by a Slovenian wild pig, but what I do expect is at least some decent chips and a good cheese sauce. These were fairly poor chips, bulk buy I'd imagine. Also add to insult they were fairly soggy. I went straight in for a chip to test the sog factor before the cheese sauce took full effect and ruined any crunch. Epic fail. Unless they leave them pre made under a hot lamp behind the scenes all I can assume is they just don't get their oil hot enough to get the perfect crisp texture. Let's assess taste, the actual chip was fairly bland, complimenting the bland cheese sauce really well. I would hazard a guess and say that no real cheese is even used to make that sauce. If I were to apply a score to them I'd say 1/10.
Onion Rings
After the disappointment of the fries I really couldn't take another hit. I was on my knees praying to the burger overlord that I hadn't just wasted yet more money on more awful sides. Thankfully, they were actually really nice, probably the best aspect of the meal and at £3.55 cheaper than the fries. They were incredibly crisp, and fresh onion too which made all the difference. You could really taste the onion coming through. Complimented with the perfect balance of seasoning ever so slightly favouring the pepper. Now at this point the bill was hitting £18.45 and we haven't even started on drinks. On reflection, I'd go purely for burger and onion rings if I were to return. Heed my advice, you heard it here first.
Overall
The burger was fairly tasty though strongly dominated by chorizo. I did try their cheeseburger too which I would actually recommend over the one I had if you want to taste the beef. The fries were a huge let down. Thankfully the onion rings brought the overall experience back up. However, for the purpose of this review the sides mean Jack! It was a fairly average experience as a whole which is a shame considering they actually managed to produce a medium rare burger. It's not something I'd particularly go back for unless the third party was pushing it. This thought is mainly driven by the price. For a standard burger meal you're looking at around £20-30 all in, which for a chain restaurant is fairly high. Not worth it considering you have to play a fairly tense game of Russian roulette for the side dishes.
6/10
(excluding sides)
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Chapelfield Shopping Centre
Norwich
NR2 1SZ
*Pomeranian: An insanely fluffy dog