Gourmet Burger Kitchen

I have to sadly agree with the remarks of previous reviewers when it comes to Gourmet Burgen Kitchen.

The place seems to position itself as an alternative to fast food joints offering "real" food for those wanting quality. However it is crazy over priced for what you get handed to you. The food is perfectly fine but really is nothing special. Often the accompaniments and toppings on the burger overpower the meat itself making the fact that it is high quality beef completely redundant as it can be difficult to taste any of the flavour it contains.

The whole routine of ordering food at the bar and drinks at the table is just ridiculously awkward. It doesn't add anything to the dining expereince other than frustration. I had to wait to be seated and handed a menu, then figure out what was going on, then have my drinks order taken by a waiter, then queue at the bar to order my food, to then sit back down at my table and wait for it to arrive. If this is supposed to be a quirk of the restaurant I hope to dear God they stop it.

If you are looking for a quality burger experience, different to a fast food joint but still want good value for money, I HIGHLY reccomend you go to either Wannaburger in the West End (less than a five minute stroll from GBK) or The Cambridge Bar (yet again only a couple of minutes away) (in fact Wannaburger and The Cambridge Bar are run by the same team so the burgers in both places are exactly the same in terms of price and completel deliciousness!).

If your defining feature is the gourmet quality of your burgers, then they better be pretty good. They better be really good if you're also going to charge a premium for a semi self service experience (standing at a counter to order in a queue). It was fairly eye opening to be charged £26 for a couple of burgers, 2 soft drinks and 1 portion of chips to share only to find that the quality was barely higher than another well know "stand in line to order" takeaway burger experience.

The burgers were reasonably tasty, but not particularly good value for money given the size of them. Strangely, the cheese on the cheeseburger was a mega mature Canadian style cheddar which actually made it hard to taste the burger as it was so overpowering.

Add in chips that actually managed to taste of absolutely nothing and "service" that involved nothing more than placing a plate in front of you and we had an expensive and underwhelming experience. It may serve burgers, but nothing about the experience is gourmet.

I visited here yesterday and it was a stark reminder of how dining should not be.

1 Ordering at the bar is plain daft and the staff are of the zombie-clueless variety
2 No starters
3 Only burgers on menu which were ok but any decent chef could do them in his sleep
4 No desserts worth speaking of.
5 Toilets had the welcoming aroma of ammonia. I thought the tub of Helmanns below the urinal a nice touch.
6 The meal was rounded of with a cup of luke-warm coffee.

The experience was one I had hoped had died in the 70s it was neither memorable nor enjoyable..indeed it made me think of how factory-farmed chickens feel