Penelope's Kitchen, MediaCity, Salford

It's about time Media City got some decent lunch options. If you work in the vicinity you might not want a dirty great burger every day of the week, but for the occasional treat or a Friday blow-out I'd recommend a visit to Penelope's Kitchen.

It's a new indoor offering from the same people that ran the Dock Grill out on the square over the summer months. I never ate there, but I assume they'll be back outdoors next year serving up a similar mix of breakfasts, burgers and dogs.

The burger (can't remember its name. The classic maybe?) was the best I've had in a long while. Two pleasingly beefy patties (from Frost's butcher's in Chorlton apparently) cooked medium, plastic cheese, grilled onions and sauce. Messy but lovely. Only the brioche bun didn't quite do it for me, it couldn't handle all the slop and goo and ended up flattened out like some sort of baggy hat.

Fries were an unexpected bonus, they weren't advertised and I didn't order them, so they're either included as standard or I got lucky. Whichever it was they were good, similar to those from a fast food chain whose name I won't mention, and I mean that as a compliment.

An absolute steal at £5.50, and still great value even if that shouldn't have included the fries. It's not often I get enthused about this sort of thing ('ooh look another filthy burger place, how novel' style cynicism tends to kick in), but I'll definitely be back here. Recommended.

8/10

The Pie Factory
101 Broadway
MediaCityUK
Salford
M50 2EQ

http://www.penelopesmcr.co.uk

@penelopesMCR

Kerb and Caravan, King's Cross, London

I'm still here. Just. A trip to Somerset, a hell of a lot of tennis (watching not playing) and the sudden onset of a proper summer have all conspired to make my blogging even more sporadic than it was already. Lolling around in the sun and watching Murray win Wimbledon has taken precedence over waffling on about what I've been eating. With good reason I hope you'll agree.

So, now that the ghost of Fred has finally been laid to rest, back to business as usual.

A flying visit to Kent for work the week before last meant a change of trains at St Pancras. A few years ago you'd need a good couple of hours spare to make venturing from the northbound stations worthwhile, but the King's Cross area has come on in leaps and bounds in recent times, and boasts a whole host of options from sherry bars to street food, all within a few minutes walk of the station platforms.

It was the latter option that tempted, the street food collective formerly known as eat.st has expanded and relaunched as Kerb. They now have a whole host of stalls on daily rotation on the new pedestrian street round the back of King's Cross.

Kimchi Cult, purveyors of Korean style burgers, was the one I'd been looking forward to most. I bloody love Kimchi and was intrigued to see how its cabbagey funk worked outside its usual environment. I'm pleased to say it works very well. The spice and savour of the stuff works a treat with a high quality beef patty and plasticky cheese, in the same way that anything else pickled works with a burger or sausage.

It was all beautifully put together; bun the right texture, the right sort of melty cheese, very good meat in the patty, but the whole just didn't do that much for me. The presence of kimchi just made me crave a great bowlful of it in a porky noodle soup.

I can't blame Kimchi Cult for this, I think the realisation is finally dawning that I don't really care about burgers. The relentless obsession with the things in the food world in recent years has brainwashed me into seeking the burgery holy grail, but I don't think it exists. They're just not that exciting. Give me a fine steak or a Thai salad or a bowl of raspberries or a pork pie instead please.

£6 for the kimchi cheeseburger. Personal preferences aside this was a top notch burger, but six quid still seems to be pushing it a bit. I had plenty of room for lunch number two ten minutes later...

..which came courtesy of Yum Bun. I was hoping for a pork bun, but I'd left it too late so had to settle for the Japanese fried chicken bun. Garnished with iceberg lettuce, tartare sauce and chilli dressing this was a bit bloody lovely. The soft bun was a delight, just a little bit chewy but light and airy with it. The chicken: think KFC popcorn chicken with better meat, better batter and better frying skills. Very good.

£3.50 for one of these, or £6 for two. As with the burger, a bit overpriced I'd argue. I do think that the food served at all of these stalls is very good, and deserves comparison with similar restaurant offerings (I'm sure it's better in many cases) but lunch can be had at many restaurants for not much more money, and with the considerably larger overheads of a building, waiting staff and so forth. Minor gripe over, and ultimately the prices are pitched at what the London market will bear.

Between my burger and bun I grabbed a takeaway coffee from Caravan. I really want to eat at this place, the menu reads like a dream, but there wasn't time on this occasion so a coffee had to suffice. A £2.40 flat white (very fairly priced for the location) was good, but not as good as I'd been led to believe the coffee here would be. The coffee itself was excellent, the execution just slightly off though, the texture of the milk a little thin and not as smooth as it could have been.


Kimchi Cult 7/10
Yum Bun 8/10
Caravan coffee 7/10

Hanover Street Social, Liverpool

Liverpool gave me the runaround this time last week, or rather, I gave myself the runaround in Liverpool. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to eat, so long as it was good.

A vague inkling that Asian and spicy might be the way to go led me to the Maharajah, but the enormous void of the restaurant with just two couples hiding away in one corner felt too dispiriting for a solo dining session. I walked in through the door and straight back out again.

Where next, I thought? How about that Japanese place that gets consistently good reviews? A bowl of noodles wouldn't go amiss. So I traipsed across town to Etsu, only to find the reverse situation.They were so busy they couldn't fit me in. At least the traipse across town was a fine one;- Liverpool is really growing on me so I need to spend more time there (and less time on Knowsley Industrial Estate, chance would be a fine thing).

By this stage I was getting weary, I'd been up since five thirty that morning and was craving sustenance, so I gave up on Asian food and ended up in the vicinity of Liverpool One. If all else failed there'd be Salt House or Lunya.

I chanced on Hanover Street Social and remembered reading that it was run by the people behind Salt House Tapas, which seemed like as good an endorsement as any for a quality operation.

Sadly it didn't really turn out that way. It wasn't so much bad, as just a bit slack. I suspect this is a quality operation, but it was as if the B team were on duty for the Tuesday night lull and either couldn't really be bothered or weren't quite up to it.

The good bit first: tiger prawns and Colchester oysters can be had for just £1.25 or £1.50 each (a bit less for the half or dozen), so I had a couple of each. The oysters were spot on; bright, saline and creamy. Properly shucked too so as not to lose the juices. The prawns were also sweet and fresh if a touch overcooked, but went down a treat with very well made aioli and house ketchup.

The cheeseburger, offered cooked medium or well, was where it all went wrong. The burger itself had been overcooked into pointlessness, several stages past medium. It was dry, mealy and not really worth the effort. Why not send it back, you might ask. Well, sometimes I just can't be bothered with the hassle. I'm sure they'd have replaced it with something better without question, but sometimes when you've had a long day the extra ten minutes of time and effort doesn't seem worth it. Get the calories, cut your losses and leave.

Everything served with the burger was what brought to mind the description 'a bit slack'. All of it was perfectly edible but didn't inspire much enthusiasm. Limp fries, tasteless onion rings, catering pack relish and a big pile of undressed rocket. Ho hum.

As I've said I made no complaint, I ate most of the burger to fill myself up before bedtime, not that anyone actually went so far as asking me if everything was ok. I didn't really mind, it saved me the bother of replying 'fine thanks'. Other than that service was perfectly amenable.

Prices are reasonable for this sort of thing, or at least would be if the thing in question were done well. I paid just over twenty quid for the two courses and a glass of wine. I'm sure there's a quality operation lurking here somewhere, and perhaps on another day I'd have found everything wonderful, but a burger meal that was wrong in pretty much every way suggests something's not quite right.

5/10

16-20 Hanover Street
Liverpool
L1 4AA

http://www.hanoverstreetsocial.co.uk/

Home Sweet Home, Manchester

I really should stop listening to my cantankerous brain. Home Sweet Home is another of those places I'd written off as probably being a bit rubbish due to some misguided preconception or other. In this case it was a vague notion, from past glances through the window and at the menu, that it combined two food fashions I'm not that much in love with (sort of half way between twee tea shop and American inspired filthy food joint).

I don't think that categorisation is too far wide of the mark, but who cares whether there's actually any concept or not, the important thing is that the food and drink is really good. A Cheeseburger toastie could easily be a big greasy mistake, but in practice turned out to be bloody lovely. It wasn't exactly lacking in grease, but all of the oozy cheesy beefy richness was offset perfectly by the bite and crunch of gherkin spears. Just as you'd find with an actual cheeseburger of course. 

Thin-ish fries, skin on with a good potatoey flavour were worth adding for £2, even if I didn't really need them (when asked 'do you want fries with that?' the instinctive response can only be yes), and the coleslaw was decent stuff if a bit too creamy for my tastes.

A flat white was very well made, velvety smooth with quite a mild tasting coffee. It was served in a glass which seems to be a Manchester thing as North Tea Power do the same (all of my favourite coffee shops east of the Pennines use cups).

I'd definitely return to try more of the menu. Service is friendly and quick, the food is good and the prices fair. The cheeseburger toastie will set you back £4.50 with coleslaw, fries are £2 extra. Not the cheapest of lunches but a pretty monumental one. £2.20 for the coffee. 

Home Sweet Home is the business. Don't let my brain tell you otherwise.

8/10

Edge Street

Northern Quarter

Manchester

M4 1HE

http://cheeseburgertoastie.co.uk

SoLIta, Manchester

A celebratory dinner in anticipation of the Blog North Awards (congratulations to Around the World in Eighty Bakes, which won in the food and drink category) was required on Wednesday, so I thought it high time we ate at one of the multitude of new restaurants that have opened in Manchester over the last year or so.

SoLIta got the nod primarily as it's an easy stroll from Piccadilly station, but also because of an American influenced menu filled with interesting sounding deep-fried stuff and meat cooked on an Inka grill, a super high temperature charcoal burning piece of kit presumably similar to the more well-known Josper.

Starters (or small plates if you prefer) of bacon jam on sourdough toast and rooster scratchings were a mixed bag. The scratchings, being deep-fried chicken skin, were bloody marvellous, but the bacon jam didn't really do it for me. It seems strange to criticise jam for being too sweet, but it was just a bit too one-dimensionally sugary and not bacon-y enough. Not unpleasant but just a bit boring.

My tribute burger was the best part of the meal. I've read some early reviews of this place where the burgers were overcooked and weirdly textured. They've certainly addressed this as mine had quite an open, loose texture and was a lovely even pink inside with a thin, blackened, savoury crust. That grill is working just fine.

Classic accompaniments (hence the tribute name) of cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard complimented the meat well and the bread was up to the task but a bit oversized relative to the patty. Chips were of the bought in frozen variety.

AS went a little more experimental, choosing the deep fried mac'n'cheese with pulled pork. Anyone who's ever been to New Zealand and ordered lasagne from a chip shop will be familiar with this. Slice up cold pasta in a bechamel based sauce, breadcrumb it and fry it. What could possibly go wrong?

In this case, nothing, at least not with the macaroni fritter itself. The crumb was greaseless and the macaroni cheese within smooth and peppery how I like it. The down side was a smear of teeth-itchingly sweet barbecue sauce dolloped on top that didn't do it any favours at all. The pulled pork had the same problem, the flavour of well cooked shreds of moist meat drowned out by the overly sweet sauce.

Service was very good throughout our meal, the front of house guy was friendly and eager to please. Prices are fair, some of the smaller things are a bit steep (£2.90 for a bit of chicken skin) but that's countered by the booze which is great value (£3.95 for a large glass of wine, £3.20 for a pint of well-kept beer). We paid around £36 including service.

I liked SoLIta, my burger lived up to expectations so I'd definitely return to see what that grill could do with a good steak. If they cut back on the sugar and made their own chips I'd probably love the place.

7/10


Turner Street
Manchester
M4 1DW

http://www.solita.co.uk/

Dirtyburger, Kentish Town, London

Those of you who spend rather less time than I do obsessively scouring the internet for all things food related may not have realised that, in these benighted times, the streets of London are no longer paved with gold, but with burgers.

There are a hell of a lot of burgers in the fair city of London, a hell of a lot. An entire sub-genre of food blog devoted to chronicling the burgers of London has sprung up of late, and they really do make me hungry. In the grand scheme of everything I like eating I'm not even that big a burger fan, but there's just something enticing, some basic urge that needs satisfying when I see all these photos of dirty great slabs of beef, glistening with cheese 'twixt bread. Want burger. Drool.

Want burger I certainly did on a very brief foray down South last week, and as luck would have it I wasn't too far away from Dirtyburger, which was also conveniently located down the road from Hampstead Heath, a quick yomp up Parliament Hill afterwards would count as a cursory effort at working off some of the grease.

My dirtyburger wasn't that dirty, I've undoubtedly had dirtier, half pound chilli cheeseburgers from Big Mama's of Headingley spring to mind and it's a decade and more since I've had one of those.

It was bloody delicious though, the taste of fantastic quality beef being particularly prominent despite some assertive pickles. The bun was up to the task too, holding together 'til the last even though the meat was very pink and juicy. Only the cheese seemed to have gone awol, it was definitely in there but didn't really taste of anything.

Crinkle cut fries were crunchy and moreish but I wish I tried the onion fries instead (who am I kidding, as well as). There's beer if you want it and Fentiman's pop. £5.50 for the cheeseburger, £2.50 for fries. Bring a coat in winter, it's a sort of shed out the back of Pizza East (same owners) and heating looks unlikely.

8/10

79 Highgate Road
London
NW5 1TL

http://www.eatdirtyburger.com/

Whitelock's, Leeds

It's getting a lot of attention at the moment is Whitelock's, and rightly so. I'll spare you the blather about it being a Leeds institution, the grand history of the place and so forth, plenty of others have and will do that better than me.

On a personal note I don't have any great memories of the place having been in there just a handful of times in the fifteen years since I first darkened the door of a Leeds pub. I do like a good pub though, and I like to see a pub with a hinterland thriving, so I was keen to pay a visit as soon as I heard the guys from London's Mason and Taylor had taken over.

On the face of it nothing much has changed. It looks the same, and pleasingly has retained a very mixed clientele. There were all sorts in there at teatime a week last Saturday, and there was a happy buzz about the place.

The aim is clearly evolution, not revolution. There's a new menu and an extended beer range, but much more in a traditional pub vein rather than the full on modern beer bar approach.

We drank pints of something local and pale, I can't remember what but it was well kept and quaffable. There was also an impressive rhubarb beer (Saison?) from Ilkley Brewery.

To eat, a burger was a bit of a monster, the highlight being a thick, juicy patty cooked to medium with properly melted cheese in a good quality bun.

I wasn't such a fan of everything else on the plank though, the fat chips being undercooked in parts, the salad limp and the onion rings a little greasy. I did like the blobs of slaw or remoulade or whatever the hell it was though. I shan't bang about the fact it all arrived on a plank, other than to say it irritated me as usual.

The burger was good value at under a tenner for a very substantial meal, and I enjoyed it even if the accompaniments needed some work. Whitelock's is very much a pub of course, and drinking remains centre stage. I'd say they've got the place back on track towards being a great drinker's pub where it's worth staying for dinner too. I'll definitely be returning to see how things progress.

7/10

Turks Head Yard
Leeds
LS1 6HB

http://www.whitelocksleeds.com/

The Castlebar, Ealing, London

I'm writing this for one reason, and one reason only: a damn fine burger.

The Castlebar isn't the most attractive of pubs. It was the night that Poland played Russia and the outdoor drinking area was noisy, windswept and more than a little bleak. TV commentary vied with Eastern European chanting and the Uxbridge Road traffic for aural supremacy. Loud was an understatement, conversation nigh on impossible.

Table service, friendly and efficient once someone's attention had finally been caught, was a bonus, but the beer selection was uninspired. I wasn't in the best of moods. RP persuaded me that the food was worth ordering. I remained unconvinced.

Sturdy cutlery and starched white napery arrived after we'd ordered, incongruous placed on the bench seating with the backdrop of football bedlam. A sign of the quality to come.

The burger was excellent. A thick, exceedingly juicy patty, served medium, with a defined beefy flavour. The supporting bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo were spot on too, though I'd have ditched the few rocket leaves that had also found their way in there. The bun held up to the challenge, in spite of the succulence, and the fries were plentiful.

The burger cost around a tenner, and was well worth it. On a warm night, with a football match of interest, I'd have loved the place I'm sure.

8/10 for the burger
5/10 for the pub

The Castlebar
84 Uxbridge Road
West Ealing
London W13


http://www.facebook.com/TheCastleBarEaling

Johnny Fontane's, Leeds

FREEBIE ALERT

On Friday night I headed down to Johnny Fontane's, a new American diner soon to be opening on Great George Street. I was surprised to find they've occupied the large corner unit that was formerly Brio's. It's a very big restaurant, an ambitious place for an independent just starting out, and rather pleasing to see that the site hasn't been taken on by one of the usual chain suspects.

The restaurant has been kitted out in what I've decided to call diner moderne. There are classic diner stylings (red leatherette booths, Coca-Cola trays, the condiments), but with the plastic chairs, picture windows and sleek bar the overall look is more contemporary. Not sure what I'm waffling on about here, interior design is not my thing so I'll shut up before I look foolish. Whatever it is I like it.

Burgers are the order of the day. The freebie offer was any single burger, any side and any drink which will usually set you back a very reasonable £9.99. The invitation said I'd been invited to share a table with other food and drink bloggers which gave the impression of everyone being seated together, getting a bit of a speech from the owner and so forth as is often the case with these things. In practice it was a bit of a free-for-all, I did sit with some other bloggers but only because we turned up at the same time.

It's a semi-self service ordering system. Order food and drinks at the bar, receive a pager, when it bleeps collect your food from the service point. Perfectly fine in theory but things did go a little awry when the server forgot to give me a pager and my order ended up attached to the next one.

Teething problems with the service system aside, was the food any good? Yes it was. The bacon cheeseburger was the equal (probably better actually) of any other I've eaten in Leeds. The patty had a pronounced beefy flavour that wasn't overwhelmed by the other ingredients and was cooked medium as stated on the menu. The meat was definitely good quality, I'd have no qualms about ordering the burger medium rare or rare in future.

Those other ingredients were all as they should be in a classic burger; - just lettuce, tomato, plasticky cheese and crisp, streaky bacon. The only improvement for me would be the addition of pickles as standard, I didn't notice until afterwards that the menu does say these can be added on request. I guess they've decided that more people don't want pickles in their burger than do. No pickles! What's wrong with you people?

The bun was also high quality and held up well, not falling to bits as the burger was eaten. If I had one criticism it's that the bun was a little too substantial for the filling, but I'd easily rectify that in future by ordering a double.

The fries were delicious in a slightly filthy way, being of the sort that manage to combine crusty, crunchy bits with a touch of grease, as opposed to dry, rustlier frites. As with the burger patty, you could tell they've done their homework sourcing ingredients, as they had a great potatoey flavour, tasting of much more than the frying fat alone. I also sampled one of the onion rings, which was even more delicious than the fries, the batter crunchy, herby, salty and very more-ish.

The drinks list is also worth a mention, there are a few good American bottled beers, some British draft options (which hadn't arrived on Friday, but which will include Ilkley Brewery) and some top quality spirits (bourbon in particular) at very reasonable prices. I drank a Brooklyn Brown Ale which tasted to me like a sort of turbo Newcastle Brown, malty and a good match for the fries.

I'll happily return here and pay for food and drinks. As well as my own there were a few grumbles from others on Friday night (cold burgers, cold restaurant, burgers not consistently cooked and so on) but nothing that can't be ironed out through practice and experience. The food and drinks are all excellent quality, especially for the prices they are charging. I hope it's a big success.

For other perspectives (and better photos) from the same table check out what Neil and Ewan have to say.

Unit 1
40 Great George Street
Leeds
LS1 3DL

http://www.johnnyfontanes.co.uk/

London and South-East round-up: the not so good, the bad and the ugly

I thought I might as well balance things out with a report on the less than inspiring things I ate down South last weekend. It's not all amazing street food and wonderful sourdough pizzas down there you know.

The George, Gravesend

This was actually better than expected. It's a pub attached to a Premier Inn which usually means crap food. The George seems to have retained some semblance of independence though, offering a Sunday carvery which isn't the norm for Whitbread establishments. Carvery is usually a byword crap food as well though, so it was almost a pleasant surprise.

The beef was dessicated and flavourless, but the turkey, hidden beneath its leathery cloak of cow, was much better, moist and tasty. None of the vegetables were overdone, a welcome change to the regular carvery mush. Good gravy and a passable Yorkshire too.

Sponge pudding and custard for afters wasn't bad either. Overlook the beef and all in all a satisfying enough meal.

6/10

Hever Court Road
Singlewell
Gravesend
DA12 5UQ


Wagamama, Windsor

Sometimes I hate Wagamama, but after a visit to the Windsor branch I left feeling generally positive about the place.

When I'm in hating Wagamama mode I tend to dwell on how average much of the food is, and how if you're in most UK cities the same dishes can be had elsewhere, executed better and for less money.

I was probably liking Wagamama on this occasion for two reasons, firstly I had one of the dishes they're better at, chicken chilli ramen. In my experience there's a sliding scale at Wagamama that goes something like this:

Noodle soups = not bad, can be quite satisfying
fried noodle dishes = ok
fried rice dishes = just about ok
curries etc = awful

My bowl of ramen was quite satisfying, it hit the spot on a cold day. Nice bouncy noodles too.

The second reason was the presence in our group of four young children (in the under 1 to nearly 4 range). They've really got the family angle covered in there, there were crayons and colouring pads and beginner chopsticks all over the place, which generally made for a festive and entertaining lunch.

I want some of those beginners chopsticks in adult size though please. They're like normal chopsticks but fatter and with a little hinge to join them together so they kind of form chopstick style grabbing tongs. All the better for eating more noodles at once I say.

6/10

31 High Street
Windsor
SL4 1PH


The Kingfisher, Chertsey

Things are heading downhill now. I had the burger here (£8.95) and there wasn't a huge amount right with it.

The patty itself was the high point, generously proportioned and formed from good quality beef. But it was overcooked and the cheese on top wasn't even remotely melted suggesting it had been added some time after the burger finished cooking and the bun was dry and the chips were average at best.

Other dishes of calves liver, steak and another burger were respectively overcooked, not bad at all and no idea because it never turned up after an exceedingly long wait so we got bored and cancelled it.

Not much in the way of beer choice either. A distinctly mediocre pub.

4/10

The Kingfisher
Chertsey Bridge Road
Chertsey
Surrey
KT16 8LF


Frankie and Benny's, Rochester

I can't recall ever having been to a Frankie and Benny's before so in a moment of retail park madness with a work colleague I thought we'd give it a try. Rest assured it's as crap as you might expect.

A louisiana wrap was a large flour tortilla stuffed with some low grade chicken that was more mushy, bready chicken coating than actual chicken, alongside some bits of iceberg and an awful lot of red onion, the whole lot doused in far too much of a one-note vinegary, hot sauce. A bit like Frank's hot sauce with the heat and acidity, but without the flavour.

The chips were weird and undercooked. It cost six quid. Couldn't fault the friendly chap who served us though, so he got his tip.

3/10

Medway Valley Park
Rochester
ME5 2SS


Côte, Ealing

Another chain, another disappointment. I've eaten at a Côte before and quite enjoyed it, so I did expect better. Breakfast this time. I wanted eggs but not a fry-up. The breakfast menu at Côte had just what I was after.

Sadly when it arrived it wasn't just what I was after anymore. It's not a complicated thing, Eggs Royale, but I do think it needs quality ingredients and accurate execution otherwise it will be minging. It was minging.

The salmon and bagel were inoffensive but basic, like if you bought the cheapest available version of each in the supermarket. One of the eggs was woefully underdone and leaked raw liquid white over everything as I cut into it. The hollandaise was ok but what with the greasy salmon and egg juice it was like eating a great big pile of cholesterol slop.

I didn't bother sending it back because I didn't really fancy another plateful even if the eggs were right. £8.10 for the meal but by the time a small coffee and 12.5% for the (confused) service had been added that had become £12.64. Shit.

2/10

9-10 The Green
Ealing
London
W5 5DA

Byron Hamburgers, Charing Cross, London

Sunday night was burger night. Yes that was the night before I ate the meatiest breakfast ever at Hawksmoor. No I don't usually eat that much meat. I'd heard generally positive reports about Byron so was looking forward to giving their burgers a try.

The menu keeps things simple; a couple of appetisers, six burgers or create your own, assorted deep-fried sides, and salads. To drink your best bet is to choose from a good selection of craft beers, most of which are American but local breweries Camden and the Kernel are also represented.

We ordered some tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole to begin with. The chips were good quality but the dips were bland and boring.

A classic cheeseburger for me, cooked medium as requested. It was fine, if a little boring. It was cooked properly, the cheese was right, the bun well textured but something was missing. There just wasn't much flavour or juiciness in the patty.

The sides were far better. Excellent courgette fries, onion rings and chips. All three were greaseless, crisp and very moreish, particularly the courgettes. We also ordered fries to compare and contrast with the chips, but they only turned up on the bill and not at the table. They were removed from the bill without question, and we didn't really need them anyway. Three bowls of deep-fried stuff between three people is probably enough.

The bill came to about £16 each for the food, a good beer apiece and service, which was fine apart from the forgotten fries. I'd go to Byron again, (it's certainly a notch up from some of its competitors) but not in any hurry. There are other places waiting in the burger queue.

7/10

24-28 Charing Cross Road
London
WC2H 0DT

There are loads of other branches in London, but none outside the capital as yet.

http://www.byronhamburgers.com/

Northern Food on tour: a week in Israel

Unlike neighbouring Jordan, Israel is rarely out of the news. It's a controversial place, with controversial neighbours and a controversial relationship with them. Visiting this tiny but varied country was a fascinating and informative experience to say the least. I have my views on the various controversies, but I'm not going to go into them here. Instead I'm going to state one incontrovertible fact: The Israelis know how to eat.

We traversed the country from Eilat on the Red Sea coast, to the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, a short trip into the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, north to the coastal city of Haifa then back to Tel Aviv, the party city on the Med and it's neighbouring historic port town, Jaffa. Aside from one crappy pizza we didn't eat a single bad meal.

Israeli cuisine, if there is such a specific thing, is basically Middle Eastern in style. Everything you'd find in Jordan, you'd find here too. Much the same could be said of Palestinian cuisine (the borders of modern day nation states are unhelpful here. Using them to define cuisine is largely pointless. Most Jordanians are Palestinian, as much of Jordan was once the part of Palestine on the far side of the Jordan river, Transjordan as it once was).

There is also much more to Israeli food than that local to the region, thanks to the Jewish diaspora. If it's Jewish food from anywhere in the world, you can find it here. From the sturdy stews of Mitteleuropa to modern American classics such as the Reuben sandwich, they've got it covered. In the manner of the British they have also enthusiastically adopted the food of other nations. Tel Aviv, for example, is a city of sushi eaters.

I've included some reviews below, but we also ate a lot of food casually on the streets and in cafes. Here are some of the highlights.

At breakfast coffee and pastries are a popular choice. The pastries were always good if not quite French standard. The coffee was usually high quality too, and I developed a bit of an iced coffee habit towards the end of the holiday.

At lunch a falafel or shawarma sandwich was always a good option. Always generously proportioned, but always with plentiful fresh salad to lighten the load. It's difficult taking photos of felafel sandwiches, but you get the idea.

There are numerous local takeaway chains, most of which appear to be rather expensive but give them a try and you'll probably find the portions are huge and the quality is high. We had these enormous chicken schnitzel sub sandwiches in Jerusalem. Think Subway but with good bread, good meat and good salad. So not really like Subway at all then come to think of it.

There are fresh juice stands all over the place too, with pomegranate particularly prevalent in Jerusalem. I love the stuff but it's not the most refreshing. It must be packed full of tannins as drinking it gives a dry mouth feel similar to red wine.

The food markets were excellent, we strolled around the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and the Yemenite quarter market in Tel Aviv, and the produce looked outstanding (as it usually does anywhere Mediterranean). Look at those aubergines!

The stalls selling deep fried meaty goodies are worth a look too. Little pasties (sambusas) and rice balls (kubbeh) stuffed with spiced mince made a delicious snack.

On the booze front we drank more than in Jordan, but still not a great deal. The most commonly found beer is Goldstar, a dark lager that's certainly better than your bog standard cooking lager, but still nothing special. It seems the craft beer revolution has reached the shores of Israel though. We found two brewery pubs, the Golan Brewhouse in Jerusalem and LiBira in Haifa. LiBira was the better of the two, we tried their full range and the double pilsner and the bitter were particularly worth checking out.

The local red wine we sampled on a couple of occasions was more than drinkable, and reminiscent of other dark, hot climate Southern Mediterranean reds (think Sicily).

And finally, before I move onto the reviews, I must give an honourable mention to the delights of hairy cheese. Our Israeli friends (of whom more later) assured us we couldn't miss out on this treat. Possibly the most unappetising sounding foodstuff ever, though I have a sneaking suspicion that's not its real name.

It's vermicelli soaked in sugar syrup or honey and wrapped around hard, salty goats cheese. Rather delicious as the savoury tang of the cheese really balances out the cloying sweetness. Try it!

In just one week we barely scratched the surface.

Fortuna, Jerusalem

The best meal of the holiday. A restaurant with a simple concept (we later learned this is common in Israel). For a fixed price you get the full mezze, bread, chips and a choice of grilled meat skewers.

The absolute star of the show were the salads in the mezze. Each one of them (there were ten in total) was superbly seasoned and spiced, and no two were remotely similar. I'm not nerdy enough to take notes when I'm on holiday so the specifics evade me, but I do recall a stand out being a carrot salad with preserved lemons. Sweet, sour, bitter, crunchy and wonderfully refreshing. The houmous was also a rival to Hashem's for best of the trip.

Hanger steak skewers for me. Cooked medium rare as requested it was remarkably tender for the cut, and deeply flavoured. Perhaps a little more charring on the surface would have been nice though. Entrecote across the table was equally good.

The chips were no afterthought. Rustling, salty and lovely. RP couldn't keep his hands out of them long enough for me to take a photo the fat git.

9/10

About 100 shekels per head for the meal with beer and service

Fortuna
2 HaArmonim Street
Machane Yehuda
Jerusalem

Sima, Jerusalem

A rather extravagant meat fest at the end of a long, hot day. The premise here was the same as at Fortuna, only this time with a choice of sides, loads more meat, and a half bottle of perfectly quaffable local red.

The mixed grill platter comprised a sirloin steak, grilled chicken fillet, beef kofta and grilled chicken innards. The steak was spot on, nice and bloody with a good char, and the chicken innards were a revelation. I use the term innards, because I'm not exactly sure what some of it was. There were definitely kidneys, and liver, and hearts, but also some other unidentified stuff. I'd strongly recommend the hearts, packed with chickeny flavour they were. I have an idea they'd be good deep fried, or perhaps grilled then dropped in a noodle soup. The chicken fillets were boring though, could have given those a miss.

The mezze were all perfectly good, though not up to the standard of Fortuna. The same goes for the sides.

8/10

About 100 shekels per head for a huge meal, wine and service

Sima
82 Agrippas Street
Machane Yehuda
Jerusalem

Julius Meinl Coffee House, Jerusalem

I think Julius Meinl is a chain, but it rates a mention because we had good shakshuka here. A classic breakfast dish in these parts, shakshuka is basically eggs fried up in a tomato sauce then brought to the table sizzling in the pan.

This was a good version with a rich tomatoey sauce, it arrived sizzling like an inferno with an entire loaf of bread apiece to scoop up the goodness. The only downside to that level of heat is that the yolks were cooked through.

Coffee and orange juice included in the set price were good too.

7/10

About 35 shekels per head for shakshouka, bread, coffee and orange juice.

Julius Meinl Coffee House
Jaffa Road
New City
Jerusalem

Fattoush, Haifa

One thing we didn't eat as much of on this trip as anticipated is shawarma. Kebab stands weren't quite as ubiquitous as expected in either Jordan or Israel, and where we did find them they often only had chicken. Ever since an unpleasant experience in Turkey a few years back I have a deep mistrust of chicken that sits there all day on the spit, intermittently being fired up and sitting there sweating at ambient temperature the rest of the time. It's a recipe for intestinal disaster.

As such I think this was the first shawarma of the holiday. Posh shawarma rather than street shawarma, but it was pretty damn good. Shards of salty meat and onions, a big pile of parsley to freshen things, a pool of nutty tahini and soft bread.

We also had a big bowl of houmous and a whole load more bread that we didn't really need.

And then some beer and wine. I tried a dark beer from the Taybeh brewery, noteworthy as being the only brewery in the West Bank. It was a bit bland and boring though.

8/10

Around 50 shekels per head for the meal with soft drinks or a beer or glass of wine

Fattoush
Ben-Gurion Avenue
German Colony
Haifa

Kanibar, Haifa

It's not clear whether this place is called Kaniburger or Kanibar. The internet thinks Kanibar, but I'm sure it was Kaniburger when we were there. What is clear to me is that the burgers there are bloody brilliant. The best burger I've had this year.

A fat, succulent, well seasoned beef patty (the 220g option, about 8oz), cooked exactly as requested. Medium in case you were wondering. Nice and pink. A good sturdy bun, yielding but strong enough to stay intact for the duration. Lettuce, tomato, gherkin, melty swiss cheese. Ketchup, mustard and mayo at the table to add your own. The chips were average, so I'd just order a huge burger and not bother with them.

Splendid. And all thanks to my Israeli friend Lee, who I met while travelling in Australia years ago, and who I contacted out of the blue on Facebook to say I was coming to Israel and would she like to meet up, and who said yes of course, and who took us out for drinks, and then on a grand day out round the North of the country, introduced us to her friends, and took us to this great burger bar. Thanks Lee, you were a great host!


9/10

About 75 shekels for a classy burger, chips, soft drinks and service

Kanibar
Sderot Moriya
Mount Carmel
Haifa

Said Abu Elafia and Sons, Jaffa

For various reasons we never really got round to eating a restaurant evening meal in Tel Aviv or Jaffa, but we did manage to get sandwiches from Said Abu Elafia and Sons three times in three days. It's a bakery, open 24/7, constantly busy, and with a deli counter making toasted sandwiches.

Apart from tuna, everything is vegetarian, so a sandwich will usually be stuffed with sliced cheese, cream cheese, olives, tomatoes, sweetcorn and whatever else you can persuade them to shove in there. One will serve two people for breakfast, light lunch or a late night snack.

7/10

17 shekels for a mucky fat but strangely wholesome toasted sandwich

Said Abu Elafia and Sons
7 Yefet Street
Jaffa