BurgerWeek Day 1: BurgerVision

Since the teenager and myself are on our own this week we've decided to launch BurgerWeek: seven straight days of cheeseburgers. Each day will include a different burger source. London is a great place to get terrible burgers, so this required careful research and planning. We made heavy use of BurgerApp for iphone, a fun little local guide of where to find edible burgers here.

Bacon Cheeseburger from Lucky Chip*

Today is a special day. Not only is it day 1 of BurgerWeek, it is also the day of the Eurovision final, which we love, because it is bonkers. As an excellent bonus, our favorite TV writer Stu Heritage will be liveblogging it in the Guardian as well. Really, it's almost too much excitement for one day.

Tonight for the Eurovision song contest marathon viewing we will be sticking with the theme and having home-made micro burgers. There's some scheme being floated to use philadelphia as the cheese and tortilla chips for buns. We'll work it all out brilliantly when the time comes I'm sure. Not long now.

To kickoff BurgerWeek proper, our first stop was lunch at the Lucky Chip food truck at Netil Market. (A little runner from the Broadway Market roots must have tunneled under the school and sprouted this some time ago.) The Lucky Chip is normally serving at the Sebright Arms but also does Netil Market on Saturdays. As with all of our planned BurgerWeek restaurants, we'd never been there before.

Lucky Chip at Netil Market

Well, it was great. Easily the best burger I've had in London that I didn't cook myself. We both got bacon cheeseburgers. There was nothing to fault about the burger at all. Good meat, cooked perfectly, topped with melty cheese and nice bacon, sitting on top of shredded lettuce with a tangy blended condiment, sandwiched in a soft but just-substantial-enough-to-handle-the-burger bun. Wow. Exceeded expectations.

The folks running the show were really friendly as well. It helped, I'm sure, to have a properly warm and sunny and breezy market day. Everyone in a good mood. Our food was cooked to order and brought to us at a little table in the courtyard of the market. The chips were tasty but too salty, even for me (I love salt in heroic doses), and a bit soft and greasy. They were similar to my own efforts to make chips in a pan. Not to say they were bad. They were actually quite good, head and shoulders above the tasteless pale starch sticks most places try to pass off as chips here. Clearly homemade and flavorful. Just needed possibly a higher temp finish and a bit less salt. Would definitely get them again, but they weren't at the same level of excellence as the burger.

Will we be back? Oh yes. If you haven't been, you should probably go immediately.


*click on photos for larger version/instant hunger