Byron

Zomgomgomg! Proper burgers have escaped London and are heading north!
Having been to Byron in both Bloomsbury and Covent garden on several occasions, I knew what to expect and was pleased to see that Byron has made the journey north without losing any of its quality and variety. This is a very welcome addition to Leicester Highcross, and is right next door to John Lewis for maximum accessibility.
I love the rough-​hewn, rustic, warehouse industrial-​style décor with it’s exposed AC ducting and wooden beams.
The staff appear to be quick and efficient on first impressions, but do double-​check your order as it can be quite noisy and you wouldn’t want to be delivered a Peroni when you asked for a Dead Pony!
There’s a good variety of drinks including a really sour fresh lemonade and decent milkshakes. Beers and bourbons are well represented and there are several very nice craft beers of varying styles.
And the food? Yes. Have it! Come! It’s very, very good. But still quite a large portion. You do not need fries each as one just stretches between two. But you should skip the normal fries and try the courgette fries — they’re very nice! Burgers are lovely sweet, juicy patties of quality meat. But please, don’t spoil them by having them well done? A good burger should be cooked medium or ideally med-​rare. Just ask for how you like it, they will do it.
A look out for that juicy dill pickle too! Super tangy and crunchy, just how they should be.
I can’t fault this place after my first visit.

Very nice addition to the Highcross and the best burger I’ve had in Leicester. At £7-£10 for the burgers and £4.25 for the milkshakes it’s also cheaper than a lot of the alternatives.
We went on the opening night with the Burger Club free burger offer, so that may have biased me a little bit, but I loved it. The décor is minimalist but kinda fun, and despite the high ceilings the place is not as loud as you would expect.
The burger meat was good and more importantly, it was cooked just how I ordered it (medium rare). I had the Byron, which comes with streaky American bacon, among the most authentic I’ve had since coming to the UK. I also recommend the Chilli burger if you like hot food, it’s served with sliced green chillies and a chipotle sauce, and was very tasty.
The onion rings were a bit greasy to my taste but the skin on chips were very good, as were the appetizer tortilla chips (a nice change from the Doritos everywhere else seems to serve) and the guacamole and salsa were both nice and fresh. The only other appetizer available beside the tortilla chips is olives, which are nice enough but oddly out of place.
They serve A&W root beer, which while not my top choice in the US is still nicer than many. My boyfriend got the Oreo shake, which was nice and thick and very good as well.
The brownie was very good and served warm with vanilla ice cream on top and the white chocolate cheesecake was also tasty, creamy and not nearly as sweet as cheesecakes have a tendency to be.