Bleecker Van Love ❤

Yesterday we had the absolute joy of meeting Zan Kaufman the owner and creator of Bleecker Burger, one of our hands down favourite places to eat in London. Not only was she nice enough to pose for a picture with us she also invited us into the Bleecker Bus – the dream! After the treat of getting up close and personal with the lady behind the Bleecker we realised what a travesty it was that we have never actually written about our favourite burger!

Between us we have tried many, many burgers and we haven’t found one yet that we like more than Bleecker. Stef has even been to the burger bar in New York that inspired Zan to set up Bleecker, and it didn’t come close. We’ve tried pretty much everything on the menu and we haven’t found something yet that we don’t like. So what is it that makes Bleecker so special? It’s hard to explain, the entire combination is so good and you really need to experience it for yourself… but we’ll give it a go since that’s what we do!

1. The beef – the Bleecker patties are made from some seriously good quality aged beef. You can really taste this in their burgers, the deep meaty flavour sets them aside from your average burger
2. Texture – Bleecker manage to have just the right meat-fat ratio, the right grind, and cook their patties perfectly medium rare. I don’t know where my obsession with a loose patty started but Bleecker definitely meet my exacting standards on this front. It’s so soft, so juicy, no effort required to get your gnashers through this burger and it melts in your mouth. There’s nothing I hate more (in burgers) than an overcooked, tightly packed patty that’s dry and chewy. It’s he curse of almost every pub burger I’ve ever had. None of that here, this is soft, loose, juicy joy.
3. The bun – this is an extension of the texture – a lovely light springy sesame topped bun – toasted on the grill (important), soaks up the dripping juices from the patty without going soggy, and just the right bun-to-meat ratio.
4. The bacon – streaky, crispy, but sliced super thin so you get the yummy salty flavour without having to contend with a big chewy hunk of bacon messing up the… you guessed it.. texture!
5. The cheese – american, melty, nuf said.
6. The sauce – it’s secret, it’s good, I have no idea what it is and I don’t need to.

Double bacon cheese

..and angry fries in the back

It’s a winning combination and we just can’t get enough of it. So far I’ve only described the bacon cheeseburger as this for me is the staple (I always go off-menu with an extra patty – Stef goes double cheese sans bacon, I don’t know what her problem is). However, I think the signature Bleecker Black certainly deserves a mention, as do the fries.

Bleecker Black – Beef black pudding sandwiched between two patties topped with special sauce. The black pudding is cooked on the grill giving it a lush crispy exterior, and the flavour is out of this world. It adds a depth of flavour I haven’t had before in a burger, and if this were my signature dish I’d be pretty proud. Queen Bleecker did good.

Fries – thin cut, super crisp with delicious crunchy edges. I don’t know how they do them so that they come out so well so consistently but they are ace! You can either get these plain, with a generous seasoning of salt, or you can get the pimped (and my preferred) version – the Angry Fries. These are genuinely a thing of genius. Take those delicious crispy chips and smother them in buffalo and blue cheese sauce. Buffalo chips basically. I don’t know why nobody has done this before. So good, and if I’m craving wings (which I often am) a portion of angry fries with my burger will usually hit the spot.

Bleecker Black and Angry Fries

You can find Bleecker Street at their permanent locations in Spitalfields Market and Canary Wharf all year round, or check their website to see where the truck will be popping up week by week. We’ve caught them at their Summer spot on the Southbank, lunchtimes at Kerb at the Gherkin, and at the dear departed Dalston Yard. I don’t know when or where we’ll be seeing them next but I’m looking forward to it already!

Forked by Tolibear

www.bleeckerburger.co.uk

Twitter/Insta: @bleeckerburger