Bukowski Grill at Boxpark – Shoreditch, London

Next to Shoreditch High Street Overground station in Boxpark you’ll find many a shop, boutique, nail bar and foodery. One of these fooderies is the Shoreditch location of Bukowski Grill. Personally I love Boxpark and the interesting array of golden shop nuggets it brings us over such a small piece of ground. However just a note to those of you expecting a full restaurant – this is the size of a shipping container.

Within this shipping container I’d say you could seat 12 people max on Bukowski’s wooden bench booths. As Boxpark has a kind of sharing is caring feel to it, there’s also shared bench style seating outside but as it’s February it was too chilly for us so we opted for an inside seat. It was a fairly quiet day and we were shown to our booth quickly then served straight away.

It seemed like a simple choice and having not experienced Bukoswski before we went for the lunch deal which would give us a burger, fries and a soft drink for £9.95 – bargain. My choice was a cheeseburger so nothing too out there but a great stodgy comfort food especially on a colder day. Sorry I keep banging on about the cold – completely ready for Spring over here. As a note, the seats inside were actually very warm so that isn’t a poor reflection on BG, more on my bitterness at our climate.

I digress! Our food was delivered quickly and it looked like a pretty decent meal. The burger meat was cooked nicely- we were asked when being served how we’d like it cooked and I’m a “how rare can you give it to me?” kind of gal. Bukowski went with medium rare which is pretty much how low all burger places go and they did it well. Congrats! The cheese ratio in the cheeseburger was high which initially I really liked but in some mouthfuls it was a little too much. It tasted like a cheddar and although I dearly love cheese it was a little strong for my personal cheeseburger tastes.

Overall though the burger was tasty; medium rare beef in a toasted bun with lettuce and a tomato slice plus some kind of sauce below the patty. Mayo perhap? The beef, consistency wise, felt like mince made into a burger shape (especially as the temperature of the food dropped) so I don’t think this was a burger with an especially high fat:meat ratio. Fun fact: higher fat levels throughout a burger can mean they’re softer and more melty, y’see.

The accompanying chips were crispy on the outside and fluffy inside… great for a dip into the little tubs of mayo or rich ketchup which were presented at the table without needing to ask. Nice. They were probably the fave part of my meal taking into account the cheesiness of the burger and portion wise they were definitely enough for me.

All in all this was a great lunch deal, not the best cheeseburger and not the worst. I’d be interested to try another item from the menu as this place is pretty highly rated but it wasn’t too memorable for me this time around. Maybe I’ll be back, but I’ll let you visit and make your own mind up. Maybe ask for half cheese though. And I never thought I’d say that.