Burger Meats Bun - A review

by Bex

Roz's review of Bread Meats Bread reminded me that I haven't written about my trip to Burger Meats Bun yet!  It's a shame they have such similar names, both opening this year and both in the city centre and both serving gourmet burgers - there are bound to be comparisons.  I haven't tried Bread Meats Bread yet as I was working late on the Tuesday we were invited along to their launch party.  I really want to check it out though so we plan to try it soon - Nik and I actually tried going there for a good burger to celebrate his becoming a Mr again after passing his surgeon exams (thanks for all the congratulations for him on Twitter!) but they closed at 10pm and he'd been working the late shift so we didn't get into town until then!  We ended up in my favourite burger joint - Cocktail & Burger instead, so good and open late!  :)

Anyway, so our trip to Burger Meats Bun was back in October when Mum & Dad were visiting.  I'd seen a lot of hype about this place on Twitter so I was very excited to try it out.  We only had one evening where we could all go out together after their plans changed so I suggested Burger Meats Bun.  I kind of wish we went somewhere else now.  We had a good night and I actually thought it was OK - my dessert was amazing - but Dad and Nik were unimpressed and if I'm honest, I don't understand why so many people seem to be raving about it.  I'm also a little apprehensive writing about it as I recently discovered they do not react well to even the slightest negativity about them and in my opinion they deal with bad reviews in a terrible and personal way which makes me never want to return.  I understand how awful it must be when you work hard for something you love to hear that not everyone loves it too but I really don't think there was any need to call Nik "narrow minded, ignorant and rude" for his review simply because he stated he didn't think it would last.   Not the best way to win back customers and it gives a really bad impression of the owners, it's completely put me off going back.  You can read Nik's Tripadvisor review here (which I think is fair and, as is the entire point of sites like Tripadvisor, the honest opinion of one customer among many).

I don't like writing negative reviews and often just don't write about a place if I don't want to rave about it.  However, you know I always write exactly what I think and following their reaction to Nik, I felt the need to write my own full review so, whether I might receive a personal attack in response or not, here are my thoughts...

As you may know, BMB do not take bookings but we thought we'd be ok on a Wednesday night and we were.  We were received with a friendly greeting and were asked to take a seat at the bar to wait for a table, it was quite busy but we barely had time to sit down before they fetched us to take us over to our corner table.  I like the decor with little cows and grass which I noticed through the window on the way down the steps to the door and the fun art on the walls.  The place is very simple with metal tables and chairs and a bit of an industrial feel.



I initially quite liked the gimmicky-ness with the kitchen roll they brought to our table instead of napkins and paper table mats.

We ordered our drinks and perused the list of burgers on offer.  I opted for the Smokin' Bacon (£8) as did Nik.  The drinks were nice, although the beers were a bit on the pricey side.  I had a dark & stormy (£6) which I enjoyed.  We all shared a bottle of wine (£18.50) and Nik and Dad also had a beer each (£4.20 and £4.50 for 330ml bottles).

I was really disappointed with the cheesy chips (£2.50), they were rather tasteless and most of the cheese was stuck to the paper underneath.

My bun was burnt on one side (Nik's was burnt worse than mine), I actually ripped that bit off and tried to take a nice photo from the other side, this was before I tried the food and before they annoyed me so much with their response to Nik on Tripadvisor.  Even so, you can see the bun looks pretty unappetising and not what I expected for a brioche bun after sampling something similar elsewhere.  Mum opted for the special which was pork belly and she really enjoyed it (but then she does live in a country with no pork).

The dark brown sauce you can see oozing out of mine was spread all over the base and was an extremely strong tasting sauce which reminded me of concentrated beef stock.  I didn't notice much flavour from the beef patty itself, perhaps due to the quite overpowering flavour of this sauce.  The patty was also a little dry but a lot of wet juices from the salad and onions dripped onto the paper and I would have much preferred having a plate as I often felt the paper might let the mess drip all over me.

When it came to dessert - Nik and Mum had the doughnut bites with chocolate sauce - £4.50 for 4 little bites.

I opted for the burger & shake (£5) - a large macaron designed to look like a burger with chocolate ganache as the burger, mango jelly as the cheese and raspberry coulis for the ketchup - a great kitsch idea and really very tasty!  The shake was a lovely blueberry shake served in a little milk bottle with a paper straw.  I wanted to keep my straw after and they were kind enough to give me a fresh one to take home.

The staff were lovely, very friendly and helpful.  We were served quickly and had no problems getting a table.  My dessert was very good and the burgers were OK.  Unfortunately I have to agree with Nik that it just wasn't worth almost £90 for 4 of us, even with alcoholic drinks included.  I've had nicer burgers in Glasgow and elsewhere and I didn't think the place was particularly special.  I know a LOT of people who love this place and go back time and again so unlike Nik, I think it probably will continue to do well (which I assume it is as it was pretty busy for a week night).  I just know we won't be going back, even for that dessert!