Honest Burger

Wasn’t my favorite HB experience.
I’ve been to various locations all over London dozens of times, and had my first-​ever bad Honest Burger here — on my birthday no less :(
Service was so-​so and the burger patty was dry despite being cooked to order at medium rare. On top of that, the bun was tough, borderline stale.
For the first time, I began to view their rapid expansion and new-​location-​every-​month growth with doubt instead of excitement.
I’m hoping it’s just a fluke and that they care enough about sustaining their top-​notch quality over raking in the dough with new locations.
That all being said, a bad Honest Burger is still a better burger than a lot of joints out there. Still my favorite burger in London … but I may tone down my enthusiasm a notch.

I’m laying in bed nursing this evenings Honest Burger food baby.
Do I feel the greasy shame I would usually get after eating my body weight in burger & chips? No.
Do I feel contented at what was yet again one of my favourite fast food experiences in London, and all for under £20? Absolutely.
Simple food, perfectly executed. Honest Burgers, I love you.

Simplistic menu, modern and very stylish restaurant.
The burger was just the right size and cooked exactly how I requested.
The seasoned chips are very unique and taste amazing.
If you love a good quality burger and a nice atmosphere, get here!

Super tender beer burger patty cooked medium with delicious toppings and potatoes. Service was nice and quick as well.
HOWEVER
My friends and I all got some sort of food poisoning from the beef. Perhaps it was not cooked long enough or was contaminated. I also heard of another friend getting sick from Honest burger too. Be warned!

Wenn man die Take-​Away-​Box öffnet und einem ein frischer Duft eines Kräutergartens in die Nase steigt, steigt die Vorfreude auf den Burger ins ungemeine.
Der saftige Burger in einem Brioche ähnlichen Brötchen unterstützt die süsse der Zwiebeln. Wer einen herben Burger erwartet beim «Standard-​Burger» der wird enttäuscht.
Es war einer der süssesten Burgers die ich bisher gegessen hatte. Er war ohne Käse dafür mit Smoked Bacon.
Diese kräuter-​Pommes mit etwas Essig waren himmlisch. Wer kann sollte draussen Platz nehmen, nur eine Querstrasse von der londoner Shopping-​Meile, und die Leute beobachten.
Ich war bestimmt nicht das letzte mal in einem Honest Burger.

Every burger comes with these amazing rosemary fries and all so nice!
Don’t know what they do with their mayo but it’s not Heinz and it’s so good!

I have tried a lot of burger joints, and this was one of the best, not the best, but it came close.
So, if you are around Oxford Circus, this is definitely the place to grab a burger, with a great atmosphere, some good veggie options for your salad loving friends, and a the occasional deal, this is a great shout for a bite to eat.
Plus, I should mention the rosemary fries, the trip would be worth it, even if it was only for a handful of these potato-​ey pieces of heaven.

Could not rate Honest Burger highly enough!
I have been to this particular restaurant quite a few times and they have never disappointed. I’m a huge burger fan but these are by the far the greatest. The burgers are spot on and served as they should be, on the pink side (however you can request how you would like yours cooked) and the Rosemary Chips are delicious.
The staff are always friendly and attentive and services is fat and efficient.
If you are around Oxford Circus way and in need of a Burger fix, this is the place to go!

To be honest (see what I did there?! hehe) we only popped in here because it was freezing, and Ethos, the new veggie place across the road was about to close. I’ve eaten at the other branches of Honest before, and I like their fries, though I didn’t rate their burger much. But when we sat down I realised we couldn’t order just fries, so my homegirl and I ordered the veg burger to share (all burgers come with fries included).
And when it came, I remembered. It’s just basically a pakora in a burger. Which isn’t bad — but it’s really not that exciting. And not juicy at all in the way that Patty and Bun gets us salivating. The fries were also a little dry this time sadly. I probs won’t hit an Honest Burger joint again, but still they seem to be doing fine without my business!

If you’re near Oxford Circus this has to be the best place to go.
Great burgers (think I’ve tried them all — non veggie) and the chips are amazing, mixing rosemary with potato is just heaven.
Be aware that it’s not the largest area so there maybe a wait to get a table, but well worth it.

I am an Honest fan.
I have tried a lot of places. I have eaten a lot of burgers. But none that have compared to the greatness that Honest Burgers has been offering me for a long, long time. I must admit I have been holding off on reviewing Honest for a while because I needed some London hamburgers to compare it to. And guess what? Honest are still undefeated champions in my estimation!
They cook the burgers to pinky perfection (although they are more than happy to serve it however you would prefer) and conseal them in a perfect, yet slightly sweet tasting bun. I have tried all of the variants that they offer here, but still my favourite is the plain classic simple hamburger — everything within is just perfect. The sweetness of the onion relish as it balances off the taste of the bun and the salty beef patty. Heaven! Combining this with what I believe to be my favourite chips currently being served in London and you have a heavenly combo. I think that Byron burgers are pretty good. However, I really feel that their standard of chips to let them down, and compare these to the rosemary salted Honest chips and you are really in a different league.
I think that they have done a good job in establishing the décor here that now runs cohesively through the rest of the Honest branches. Nothing too swish, more of a «shack» concept than fine dining, but I feel that this fits well within the context of eating a hamburger.
An area where I really feel that they have let themselves down on is adding a text based queueing app. As it used to be, if you wanted an Honest burger, you had to queue up and when a table was free you got a seat. On my latest visit to this branch, they had introduced a whole complicated system. I was told 15 minutes. I walked around the block and did some shopping for around 20 and I was still no closer to being number one in the queue, I decided to return to the restaurant where there was FOUR free tables available!!! FAIL! And not only did they fail, they upset me because I was so hungry!!!
= Please stop this silly process≠
The staff are trained well, on the whole. Without being over the top, they serve you well and have yet to let me down.
They offer a number of craft beers which I cannot really comment upon as I do not drink beer! However, I do often have their Honest cocktail which is a gin & cucumber-​based affair and this is really great.
Another area where I think that they do well is that they do not add a service charge to the bill. I always feel that you inevitably get better service when the staff are actually working for their tip as opposed to knowing that very few people will ever question that it is on the bill. And with Honest, they do it right!
Honest, you are still my favourite burger in London. Just don’t rest on your laurels. and quit putting prices up.

The burgers are quite average. Or even below the average. We only went there to grab a take away and so they lead you first to the basement to order. Well, there is a kitchen there as well and you get to see how the food is prepared etc. etc. but it’s also really hot there and very uncomfy. So I’d rather order upstairs and wait in a bit more reasonable surroundings than crowd in a basement like that.
So after quite a lot of waiting we were served with our take-​away bags. And when we started munching the buns in the park I’ve realized they’ve also forgot my coleslaw. Very bad surprise :(

My favorite burger in London. Hands down. I’m drooling just thinking about it now. I’m a huge fan because the burger is perfect (especially the Honest Burger), the chips are cooked and seasoned to perfection, and the service is quick!
I actually prefer this location to the Soho Honest Burgers, simply because this location is usually far less crowded. The actual eating area is really small, but if you come here and there’s a queue, it’s well worth the wait!

Went to the recently opened branch of honest burger for a quick early dinner. The venue is bigger and more spacious than the cramped original in Soho. However the burgers in Soho are far better than Oxford Circus at least they are served hot in Soho. The rosemary fries were tasty though.
Hopefully the standard of food is not declining as the chain grows with the imminent opening of the next branch in tooting.

I’ve always stood by honest burger. Flavourful juicy patty, with a mountain of rosemary fries — always good value compared to other burger joints (of course I’m not talking about McDonald’s or BK!). For £10 you get a burger and fries — usually other places will make you order them separately, and it rings in maybe a quid or 2 more.
but I’ll be honest — his branch left me pretty sad! It took over 30 minutes to get our burgers, and the chips arrived lukewarm and not rosemary’ish enough — it wasn’t up to par with the chips i’ve had at other locations. I’m pretty sure I asked for a medium rare patty, but it arrived pretty dry actually. I know its been a month since their launch, but they still need to get the consistency right.
Also, I think we waited for water longer than it took for our burgers to arrive. Had to ask a few times for it, then water glasses with ice cubes were given to us — and we had to ask again for an actual bottle of water while we were halfway through our meal.
Maybe they’re still working out some kinks, but it seemed like a pretty rough night. Maybe the branch will be ok given a few more weeks.

Just got back from this newly opened Honest Burger and was not disappointed at all. It’s the second time I had one of their infamous burgers and by god, they do their burgers (and fries) well.
The meat is one of the best quality here in London (just found out they get all their meat from Ginger Pig) and those rosemary fries deliver just a better side-​taste to go with it than any other burger place does. For £10 in total, it makes it also cheaper than for example Byron. Yes, I’m quite critical on my burgers and this is the first time I’m giving it the full 5 stars.
I bet during lunch time, it has a bit of a wait (we went at 3pm and had no problem finding a seat), because the place is quite small.

I am an Honest Burger devotee. I love them. I love their burgers. I gave their original spot in Soho a solid five stars and meant it, still mean it, I think they make one of the best burgers in London.
Which is why I was so incredibly disappointed by my experience at their latest location off of Oxford Street.
No, not disappointed. Crushed. Like I was being dealt blows by someone I truly respected.
So what’s the story?
With the opening of their latest store, Honest Burger decided to treat their fans. They emailed everyone on their listserv and told them that if they came in before June, they would get a free burger and chips. This was all laid out on their website. In fact, here’s the exact text they had up:
–
FREE BURGER & CHIPS
21.04.2014
To celebrate the launch of our Market Place restaurant and to thank you for joining us, we’d like to invite you for a free burger and chips on us.
This offer is only available in our new Market Place restaurant (a short walk from Oxford Circus tube station) and is valid until the end of May 2014. Please print out this voucher or show it on your smartphone, along with valid ID to receive your offer.
–
Now, for some reason, I didn’t get this email. Why? I honestly have no idea, I must have missed signing up. I’ve been following them on Twitter for years. But no email. Fair enough.
However, I did see the link being passed around social media. Because, as you read above — they’re offering free burgers! Yum. And, as the text said, all I had to do was show up and show the voucher! Yes!
… Only, not really. Because although it never says it above, and there are no terms and conditions for the offer, the free burger and fries was only for people on their mailing list.
Which, again, is never stated anywhere.
And this was made very clear to me when I got there and tried to order. Even more so when I pointed it out to them that it doesn’t actually say anything about a list:
«Yes, we know. Many people have come in showing us this, but we can’t give them away to everyone. We know it does not say you need to be on the email list, but you do. We are, though, offering you the chance to leave before ordering though if your like.»
Um, thank you for that offer? I appreciate that I can walk away … from a restaurant … where I haven’t ordered anything yet.
So I tweeted what was going on, and right away, Honest Burger got back to me and asked me to email them. So I did, and told them the situation, expecting them to realised that they were in the wrong and make amends. Something to say, hey, we screwed up, we’re sorry and we’ll take the hit.
Instead, they sent a response saying they didn’t include it in the text but they can’t give out thousands of burgers.
So no free burger and a polite email that makes me feel like an idiot for a moment before I re-​read the text and realize how awful they are for making me feel that way. Thanks Honest Burger. Fine. But is that worth only two stars? I’d say… no. It was rude, but not reflective of the spot as a whole.
But here’s the thing: the rest of the experience at the new Honest Burger was just as awful!
The spot is tiny. If you thought the first Soho one was small, this is that shrunk down. And they’ve crammed so many tables in there, it’s hard for any one to get around, specially the waitstaff, who has to fight around customers to take orders or deliver food.
It was also so hot in there that I felt gross in my shirt.
Then the topper is that we sat down at 6pm, ordered by 6:10. The burgers didn’t come out until 6:45. Over half an hour for burgers and fries. That’s insane.
But I’ll say this, they make a great burger. Meaty, soft bread, crispy fries, well sauced, still one of my favourites. But after this whole experience, I’m soured on the taste of Honest Burger.
I really loved you guys, and this was all so disappointing.

Free burger yo! A few of us rocked up on Opening day and they were giving out 600 free burgers, so OBVIOUSLY *I* turned up. Asian thrift gene. (I lied, Teresa has a better thrift gene!) We were even within the first 20 diners! (Because we’re crazy crazy eaters!) Anyways, any burger which comes with fries was the offer. I got the honest burger, because I always try the benchmark first.
Anyways, solid burger experience, the patty was juicy and the pickles were lovely. But Was I was tickled by it. Not really, I don’t think it was as terrible as the other reviews. (but that said, we were the first few diners and on opening day…) The fries were WAY too salty, and I know this is blasphemous to say– but I think I prefer fries from GBK or Byron over Honests! We also tried a coleslaw which was quite nice– fresh and crunchy as it should.
Still, free burger. Can’t complain. But there are more memorable burgers around London.

Last night a bunch of Unilocalers were heading to karaōke and decided to have dinner first. I wasn’t really feeling having a burger last night but Robyn sent round a voucher for a free burger and fries, so I figured I’d maybe just have to pay for a cocktail and tip.
I wasn’t so sure of a few of us trying to use a voucher so I carefully checked it for terms and conditions. There were none beyond bringing an ID and the location specified.
We showed up and I was surprised as this location used to be a bagel shop so it is SMALL. Crammed around a table we tried to order and then came the problems. ‘Only one voucher per table’. ’ You have to be on the mailing list’. Ah so there are terms and conditions, but you haven’t mentioned them anywhere on the voucher itself? Pretty sure that is the shoddiest business practices. I’ve worked in marketing and any time we ran a promo, we were so clear about any terms associated with the offer. The waitress said ‘you have the option to eat here or leave’. Whoa. Way to turn a table of people who happily chose to come here, and only after then hear about a voucher, into a table of disappointed fans. To clarify, Honest, we had all been thrilled to come here before this.
The staff were a bit on edge then, as they clearly had been forced to have this discussion numerous times with other voucher holders. So when they asked did I want my burger ‘medium, medium rare’. I said medium which then seemed to spark some more argument from then. ‘No medium, we can do medium well or medium rare. It’s served pink.’ Well then why did you say medium twice? Look just bring me whatever. I don’t care enough to argue with you.
We then waited about half an hour for our burgers, pretty slow considering this is all they make there. I’ve eaten at Honest before and thought their burgers were great, this one was not. It felt very sloppily assembled. The weird shredded lettuce was awful.
Then when it came time to pay, there was all sorts of angst as despite everyone leaving extra money, we came up short. Still have no idea how that even happened. Not their fault but they were so pissed with us.
I probably won’t be back to this venue, it’s too small and way too stiflingly hot. There can be too much of a good thing and Honest is probably trying to expand too quickly.

Honestly, this wasn’t my best Honest Burger experience.
After the kerfuffle with the free burger vouchers (fortunately I had signed up for the email list, so my voucher was good, and I was also being a good boy as I didn’t send the voucher out to everyone I know because I knew that I had to sign up for the email list to receive it), the eight of us decided to order. About thirty minutes (or so) later we got our burgers. Now I’m not going to complain about the burger. Because it was really tasty and juicy (just remember to ask for them medium rare, the medium burgers are a bit dry).
However, there were serious issues with things at this Honest Burger. The service was pretty terrible. We had to ask three times for water (the second time, we got glasses, so it looked promising, but no water arrived). The Rosemary chips needed some serious Rosemarying. The main reason to come to an Honest Burger is the chips, and the lack of Rosemary was a downer (they did offer to bring me MORE chips at the end of the meal, but who can eat two portions of chips?) Also the noise level is ridiculous. It’s absolutely impossible to hear anyone in there. It needs some major sound dampening, and quickly!
So it’s unlikely I’ll be coming back to this branch of Honest Burger. King’s Cross is bigger and I’ve had much better burgers there. Or Soho if I want to sit outside and get there before the queue. This branch, I’m going to avoid.
(However, they do takeaway from 12:00 to 15:00, so I’m sure that’s where they are expecting a lot of their business as well.)

Decent burger, though the middle of the beef patty was more wet and crumbly than you would expect for a medium. Shredded lettuce doesn’t quite give enough of a veggie crunch contrast, but the bun is solid, not too bready.
Chips were great, and perfectly salted.
Looks like it just opened today, so maybe I’ll stop by and give it another go soon.