Friday, August 11, 2017

Beef Béarnaise

And they’re off! Wellington On A Plate is upon us again, and in time-honoured fashion, I kicked off with a burger from Boulcott Street Bistro on the first Friday. I went with a bunch from work, and, although ostensibly there for the burgers, three of our group pivoted when they read the menu and went for the crayfish tail instead. This also looked very good and if I get a chance I’ll see if I can get to this as well.


My avowed intention this year was to visit places that I’d not been to before. So not  a great start, as I’ve been to BSB pretty well every year since they won with the T Rex Burger back in 2012. I may have to revise my criteria to “places I’ve not been to before, unless they’re past winners” which lets me off the hook for Monday as well, when my best-laid plan is to go to Ti Kouka.

BSB’s burger is the Beef Béarnaise and, as you’d expect, béarnaise sauce is a key component of this entry. The description is: Angus beef patty with béarnaise sauce, caramelised onions and rocket in a housemade herb bun, with double-cooked handcut fries. It looked like this:


The bun was a brioche-style with herbs, and the beer match was Garage Project’s Loral Royale. This is an American-hopped (loral is the variety of hop) IPA, and very drinkable it was too.

What was my verdict on this burger? It was a generous and deep patty, which meant it was cooked medium-rare. The sauce made it a bit wet and dripped down my fingers a bit, but it didn’t suffer from burger collapse syndrome, and bun integrity held up until the end. If I was to criticise (and you know me!), I’d question the bun real estate ratio: the bun substantially overlapped the burger, and in the end I left part of it as I’d run out of meat. The twice-cooked fries, of which there were four, were served upright in a cup with a delicious gravy at the bottom. Now, four fries may not seem like a lot, but frankly they were enough – I don’t think I could have finished them if there’d been a plateful.

Overall, a promising start to this year’s burger shenanigans. I scored it an 8. 

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