Hamburger Review: Black & Blue London

Black & Blue Steakhouse London

Although Black & Blue is a steakhouse chain, I wanted to give them a try (mostly because the only real burger chain that I had not visited yet was Fine Burger, and they are on the verge of bankruptcy). In retrospect I should have gone there, since Black & Blue was rather disappointing.

The chain must be struggling in the steakhouse market, since Gaucho Grill, who offer the best steaks by far (outstanding products and service), are expanding all over key locations in London.

B&B's menu on their webpage is slightly different from the actual menu I saw at the Notting Hill Gate outlet.

But enough about this,... back to the important things in life. "The Hamburger"

My order consisted of the standard Hamburger (medium rare, bacon, and cheese), the house fries as a side, and the flowery fried onion (their version of the onion ring) for starters.

The Burger was mediocre, and there are a couple of things to criticize. While the salad and tomato topping were fresh, all the other ingredients were lacking quality. First and foremost the meat could not satisfy what I had expected. Though juicy and well cooked, neither the flavor, texture nor the smell could keep up with what specialized burger places offer.

The extra pound spend for the bacon and cheese, was not worth it. Since the bacon looked like it had been fried to charcoal on the outside, while on the inside it was still raw (neither taste was very appealing). The bun was a bit soggy, probably due to the juicy medium rare patty. This could have been minimized if the bun had been properly caramelized beforehand.

The flowery onion is probably the most unhealthy thing I have eaten in a long time. It is made from a large Spanish onion, that is then battered and fried. Due to its size, stay away from it unless you are more then four people.

Overall Black & Blues' Burger is not something I can recommend to eat there. I do not recall the quality of the steaks, but I sure hope they are better than the Burgers, because otherwise this chain is doomed with all the competition that is out there.

Rating: 3 out of 6

http://www.blackandbluerestaurants.com/