Recently, a lively discussion on the burger at Jamie’s Italian took place on our Facebook page and seemed to divide the opinions of our readers. Some people seemed to love it, others not so much. We’d never been in the restaurant since it opened in Glasgow and since we thought that the burger looked pretty great in the photo that we’d been sent, we decided to make it our next stop on our never-ending burger adventure.
Sitting proudly on George Square, Jamie’s Italian is certainly a nice venue. Inside, the place was packed and the chatter of the diner’s swept through the restaurant – surely a good indication of the food on offer, right?
There’s only one burger on the menu here and it consists of a ‘prime British chuck and flank steak’ patty topped with smoked mozzarella, mortadella, balsamic onions, tomato, pickles and chillies on a toasted bun.
Let’s start with the patty. There were some faint hints of pink throughout, which was nice; however, there was next to no seasoning in the meat and it resulted in the patty tasting fairly average. It wasn’t bad as such, just forgettable. The patty; however, wasn’t the main issue here.
The main issue with this burger was that it was topped with too many things that just didn’t really work well together. The chilli added some spice, but the balsamic onions and the pickles counteracted this to the point where it just felt like there was too much going on, and not in a good way. There was also next to no smoked cheese on either of our burgers, to the point where I actually thought they had forgotten to add it, until I eventually found a small amount underneath the mortadella. Speaking of the mortadella, it was delicious! It was fried, crispy and full of flavour, but again, it didn’t really work well with the rest of the ingredients. Individually, there were a lot of things I liked here in terms of flavour. The mortadella was good, the chillies were good and the patty was well cooked, if a bit bland. Together; however, it just didn’t work.
Our other main issue was with the bun. The bun itself didn’t taste bad by any means; however, after only two or three bites the entire bottom half had almost completely disintegrated. This was due to the balsamic onions being placed on the bottom bun, with everything else stacked on top. As tasty as the onions were, the fact that there were a lot of them and the fact that they were so wet meant that the bun didn’t stand a chance. We even had to commit the ultimate burger sin towards the end and finish it off with a knife and fork because we just couldn’t pick the rest up.
The burgers at Jamie’s Italian are priced at £10.95, WITHOUT any sides whatsoever. If you want to add a fries or any other side, it’ll cost you extra. We chose to try a couple of different sides of fries and went for the ‘posh’ chips as well as the polenta chips. The ‘posh’ chips were priced at £3.25 and the polenta chips £3.45. The polenta chips came topped with rosemary salt and parmesan and despite resembling roast potatoes as opposed to fries, were absolutely delicious. The ‘posh’ chips, which were drizzled with truffle oil and coated in parmesan, were also tasty. As tasty as both sides were, at almost £11 we felt that they should have been included in the price of the burger. Combined with a portion of fries, you’re looking at around £14 per burger at Jamie’s Italian. At a time where the burger scene in Glasgow is at an all time high, with many of the city’s best offerings available for £7-£9 WITH fries, we certainly wouldn’t recommend this as good value for money. Yes, the restaurant sits on George Square and is quite a nice venue, but £10.95 for a burger on it’s own certainly isn’t very appealing.
Overall, there were quite a few things we enjoyed about this burger individually. It wasn’t a bad burger as such, but seemed overly-complicated and together, the toppings didn’t really work well. A fairly well cooked patty was let down by little to no seasoning and the bottom half of the bun was no weak that it completely fell apart after only a few bites. Add on a hefty price tag and doesn’t include sides and unfortunately, it all results in a rather expensive, yet forgettable experience.
Price: £10.95 (fries £3.25 – £3.45 extra)
SUMMARY
+ Patty was nicely cooked.
+ Fries were great, but expensive.
– Unnecessarily complicated. Too many toppings that didn’t work well together, although there were a few things we liked individually, such as the mortadella.
– Overpriced.
– Bun broke apart quickly.
Have you tried this burger? Did you love it? If so, vote for it in the ‘Glasgow’s best burger’ award by clicking here.
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Jamie’s Italian
1 George Square
Glasgow
G1 1HL
Telephone: 0141 404 2690
Website: http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/home
James vs. Burger 
We were in Jamie’s on 28th, there were no burgers left. We ordered starters, when they arrived we noticed we only had a knife, tried to flag down a member of staff to get forks, but they were busy not making eye contact with tables they’re not serving. So ate our starters with our fingers! Then we got our mains, Husband had ordered the Cod, it arrived minus the Cod, we shouted the waiting staff over, pointed out the error, got asked “are you sure” before it was taken back to the kitchen and returned 5 mins later with Cod. It was our 2nd visit and given the price tag and the less than mediocre food and service it’ll be our last.