Smashed patties are officially in. After years of piling burgers as high as humanely possible and making them too difficult to eat, Glasgow has embraced the thin, pressed burger. These are popping up on more and more menus all over the city and it’s not hard to see why. I love the fast food look and feel of these burgers and I love how much easier they are to pick up and eat. When paired with typically non-fast food ingredients, you can often end up with a pretty special burger and that’s exactly what the Butchershop are aiming for with this monster.
In terms of appearance, the smashed burgers may remind you of your favourite fast food joint, but that’s where it ends. There’s nothing fast-food about this burger, as you can see from the menu. Topped with foie gras, fresh truffle, wild mushroom, candied bacon, caramelised onions and homemade (yes, homemade) cheese, this is a pretty special burger. I should note that I omitted the foie gras from my burger. I’m not a fan of it at all and simply requested it to be taken off. The staff were happy to do so.
If you’ve ever been to the Butchershop, you’ll know that they don’t do things by halves and this burger is no exception. The patties were perfect. Quality is what this restaurant has built its reputation on and this isn’t just any old mince formed into a couple of patties. The quality here is evident and it comes through on each bite with a lovely, buttery char. I was excited to see house-made cheese on the burger but was worried I wouldn’t really be able to taste it amongst such a rich combination of flavours. Thankfully, the cheese was one of the stars here. Robust yet mellow and both sweet and ever s0 slightly salty. I even made sure to scoop up the bits that spilled over on to the plate. It paired extremely well with the charred beef and the crunchy, salty candied bacon. It created the perfect little buffer between each layer of the burger and I just wanted to know what the hell was in it and if I could have more to take home.
Picking up this burger and devouring it felt like an outer-body experience. When I first started writing this blog, the Butchershop was one of the first places I visited. I had nothing to compare it to back then and didn’t really know what I was doing, but when I took my first bite of the burger, I almost shed a tear of joy. This burger brought me right back there. Taking that first bite, I knew I was on to a winner. Simply put, this is one of the most decadent and delicious burgers that you could ever hope to eat. The garlicky, earthy notes from the fresh truffle added a whole other level to an already complex flavour – but it worked well. Sitting there with my burger-eating partner in crime, we just sort of nodded at each other and laughed as we ate, discussing how freaking good the burger was without actually saying a single word.
The burger comes with your choice of skinny fries or thick, hand-cut chips, but I’d also recommend ordering an old fashioned with it. A burger and an old fashioned is such a great combination and the Butchershop make a mean one. The sweet, smokey flavour complimented the many complex flavours going in between the poppyseed bun – particularly the lovely char from the patties.
This burger tastes every bit as good as it looks, but there’s a couple of caveats. As you probably spotted on the menu, the burger comes in at £25. Now, with everything that’s on here and the unbelievable quality of the ingredients, it’s always going to be pricier than your average patty on brioche – but £25 may be a hard sell for some people. The burger also isn’t on the permanent menu and only appears as a special every now and then – probably because of how much work is required to put it all together! It’s definitely a special occasion burger and it was so good that I’d easily consider it over a steak if it was on special when I next visit the restaurant. This is proper burger luxury.
Price: £25.00. Includes fries.
THE JUICY BITS
+ Perfectly cooked. How a burger should be.
+ The house-made cheese was fantastic.
+ Bold and rich flavours combined with the fast food-style smashed patties.
– Price point may be off-putting, but this is about as fine a burger you’ll ever have. Also not always on the menu.
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The Butchershop Bar & Grill
1055 Sauchiehall St
Glasgow
G3 7UD
Tel: 0141 339 2999
Website: www.butchershopglasgow.com
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