Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Just stopped in at 6:00 on a Sunday evening, to be informed that they had run out of beef! How does that happen at a burger restaurant?

After my last visit to a GBK for a Unilocal event, I wasn’t really keen on visiting any GBK. I had a friend with me who thought GBK was a good idea and I didn’t object. I thought I’d give this chain another shot, it is a different location afterall and we’re just getting a snack, it can’t be that bad, right?
Our skinny fries arrived while I was in the toilet. At first taste of my skinny fries (skinny chips) with fried rosemary (added on for 30p), it was cold, I thought it was just that first few, but no, all the subsequent fries were just as cold. I asked my friend the time it was between the food arriving to me returning to the table, and it was about a minute. Unsatisfied with my cold fries, I picked up the bowl and got up from the table, at the same time a staff member walked by the table. I told him of the problem with my food and he took the bowl from me, turned around to the kitchen and returned to my table with another bowl of skinny fries with fried rosemary, all in less than one minute!
The fact that my bowl of fries was replaced within a minute already hinted to not expect anything I wanted — a hot order of fries. Heck, I’d even settle for a warm order of fries. Alas, it was another bowl of cold fries with fried rosemary on top. Seriously? Just because the bowl is hot, does not mean my fries are hot. I couldn’t be bothered to ask for another order because I figured I’ll just continue getting cold fries anyway. I would have gladly waited 4 minutes for some fresh – out of the freezer – into the deep fryer – into a bowl – fries, but it was never offered to me, nor do I think they were willing to make me some.
Honestly, my £3.05 skinny fries (£2.75 regular skinny fries + 30p fried rosemary) taught me a valuable lesson, which is not to return to GBK. It’s good to know their food is consistently bad.
If an establishment cannot even get something as basic as fries/​chips right, do you really trust it to make you anything else?

I rarely eat burgers and visited this restaurant after a dreary trip to Spitafields — don’t even ask! However this restaurant sold amazing burgers which reminded me of the sixties when Wimpy was worth a visit. No plastic cheese or artifical tasting fillings. The burger was succulent, generous and had plenty of fresh garnish.

A busy (at least during week days) branch of the sprawling GBK empire it’s newer and less careworn than some of the older branches, but I’m afraid I can’t raise much more than a meh. My last visit involved me parting with the what seemed like quite a lot of money for a not-​very-​special burger (a Habanero, as I recall) and a Coke, and waiting for twenty minutes to get my takeaway. The spicy Habanero I would have said was not really so perhaps my tastebuds have taken too much of a battering of the years, but I didn’t feel the burn. So, erm. meh it is.

I had just completed a 5 hour aerial workshop and was tired and super hungry. Burgers and steaks were on my mind for considerable calorie loading. My friend brought me here since it was walking distance.
I order haloumi bites with kiwi habanero sauce, rosemary fries, and the kiwi burger. The haloumi was an excellent starter though the sauce was average. Then the large burger showed up stacked with tomatoes, lettuce, onion, pineapple, beetroot, fried egg and burger patty. That was good, but I swear my Aussie burger versions are better. There were a lot of fries too. They were fun with the rosemary, but I had hoped for a more prominent rosemary flavor since I loved it so much. The burger is so large, you can’t stop until it’s finished. Otherwise, I’m afraid the ingredients might slip out.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience, but I kept saying «though».

Huddle round veggies and hear the tale of a giant burger! Normally when you chance a veggie burger, you get some form of unidentifiable veggie mush patty but not at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Call me a food snob, but this is one of the only chain restaurants I would recommend to a friend or a fellow Unilocaler ;-) After visiting Sunday Upmarket, which is lege by the way, we ordered up a gut full of food at the GBK in Spitalfields. As it was our first visit there, when I was ordering the Veggie Camembert burger the description had a lot of ingredients in it, (sweet potato, Portobello mushrooms, roasted red pepper etc) so I assumed it would be mashed to a pulp and deep fried. But no, it arrived with a fanfare of rocket in a giant tower. The people at the next table sniggered, I look shocked, it tasted goooood!
I did have to deconstruct the tower to eat it and then it was like a burger/​salad bonanza. I’ve included a pic above in case you don’t believe this fairytale of burger heaven (in the background you can see the normal sized Avocado Bacon Burger the bf ordered). A couple of downsides to GBK you have to order at the till and pay beforehand, service then is quite slow and erratic as clearly they don’t expect to be tipped with this payment method. Also if you want to order an extra portion of sauce it costs a whopping £1.55. Jeesh!

These guys know about timing, starting with a humble yet great idea, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, prepares fantastic burgers with the best ingredients. They now have many posts through out the UK, and still growing. If they keep the quality and originality of the menus I’m sure they’ll be huge around the world. This restaurant has recently opened in Horner Square and it has the same standards of the rest. If its the first time you come here, I recommend you try for starter a plate of marinated olives, great for waiting and keep your stomach busy, then the best burger, the Pasterella, it comes with pesto and mozzarella.
To accompany this treat why not have a nice glass of Pinto Noir, and leave the Coke for a day at Mc.Ds. It is a combo that will send you to hamburger heaven.