Veggie Burger – The Singl-end, Glasgow

Tucked away behind Sauchiehall street, the Singl-end is the definition of neighbourhood café. Unassumingly tucked away down a staircase and hidden amongst endless blocks of beautiful-looking flats, my first visit to the café almost felt like discovering a secret – somewhere I wasn’t supposed to know about.

The Singl-end; after briefly closing its doors for the better part of a year, has re-opened as a café bakehouse. Walking down the stairs and into the café on my first visit, my senses were overloaded. There was a massive table of cakes staring me right in the face with the most spectacular-looking empire biscuits (which I’ve STILL not been able to try yet due to being too full) that I’ve ever seen in my life. When THAT is the first thing you see when you walk into a café, you know it’s going to be good!

Looks-wise, it feels very Mediterranean restaurant meets hip Brooklyn café with its bright colours and stripped back décor. The service here is quick, but it’ll feel even quicker as you spend most of your waiting time reading the handwritten postcards underneath the glass table tops. It’s a fascinating wee place and you feel like you could discover something cool at every table. You can tell that a lot of love and care has gone into making it as welcoming as it is.

Anyway, on to what you really want to read about – the food!

The Singl-end does a fantastic vegan breakfast which I ordered on my last visit but this time it was all about the burger. There’s one burger on the menu – a veggie burger topped with cucumber pickle and served with sweet potato fries. I’m normally not keen on cucumber on burgers at all but since my last visit here was so good, I decided to give it a shot. There was an option to add halloumi for an extra quid, which of course I opted for. Oh aye – and you also get to choose your own bread at the Singl-end. There was so much to choose from, I just asked what they’d recommend. I was advised to go super-seeded and that was good enough for me!

Recently, I had a long debate with a friend about if it was acceptable for a burger to served on a morning roll. I’m of the opinion that burgers should be on buns and that morning rolls are best for things like square sausage, cheese or a good old fashioned roll n’ crisps. Imagine my surprise then, when my burger arrived on a single slice of seeded bread – no top slice, no roll, no bun but a single slice of bread. Granted, the bread looked delicious but the burger blogger in me immediately wondered, “is this even a burger?!”. When I asked the member of staff to recommend a type of bread, I had just assumed that it would have came in bun form, like a seeded bun or sourdough roll. This wasn’t any fault of the staff, but I just pictured a burger on a bun and not a slice of bread.

Arguments about burger form aside, how did it taste? To be blunt, it was excellent. The veggie patty was very moreish and there was huge chunks of mushroom through it that was rather unusual, but pleasing. It was soft, but not so soft that it fell apart and the pickled cucumber actually wasn’t bad! The fact that it was pickled certainly helped it not have that usual foosty cucumber taste that I find quite overpowering. Let’s not forget about the halloumi. The thick texture and ever so slightly salty flavour was the perfect way to finish off the burger. It was complimented superbly by the homemade spicy tomato sauce that was served in its own tiny jar next to the burger.

I almost forgot the chips. THE CHIPS! These were some of the best sweet potato chips I’ve had. Smokey, thick, chunky and perfect for dunking into that wee jar of tomato sauce. Seriously delicious!

This was a really good veggie burger and the different flavours present here all worked really well. I’d have just preferred it on a bun or roll for a more traditional burger experience.

Price: £9 (Halloumi £1 extra)

SUMMARY
+ Great flavour.
+ Beautiful presentation.
+ Very filling.
– As tasty as the bread was, I’d have preferred it in a bun or roll of some kind.

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The Singl-end
265 Renfrew Street
Glasgow
G3 6TT
Website: http://www.singl-end.co.uk

LEGAL / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: ALL Photography by PAMELA GRAHAM PHOTOGRAPHY. Copyright of Pamela Graham & Pamela Graham Photography. All Rights Reserved.