Jumping on the buttermilk hype comes Wetherspoons. When done well, I am a big fan of buttermilk chicken. Whilst the best I have tasted have been across the pond (as expected), there are an increasing number of joints in England getting on-board (Bill's being a great example)... Some good, some not-so-good.
In typical Spoons fashion, the time between ordering my food and it arriving was worryingly fast (have had <5 minutes in the past), which is fine when ordering a burger -- not so much when you order a full roast.
As the burger was placed before me (no microwave bags - huzzah!), I could sense this was not going to be the most fulfilling of meals. The glazed brioche bun seemed reasonably fresh, accompanied with lettuce, onion and tomatoes. The buttermilk chicken piece was sizeable, but reminded too much of what you would get in a packet of Birdseye Chicken Chargrills.
When biting into the burger, immediately noticeable was the lack of sauce. Serving a burger without sauce means you need to drive enough taste through the meat, which is near enough impossible in most instances. I guess with Spoons, however, there is a heavy element of condiment DIY required for any meal, hence why they have almost every kind of sauce on the planet on the premises. Unfortunately, it is normally on the other side of the restaurant, so you will need to embark on a Frodo Baggins adventure to find it.
This burger required excessive amounts of ketchup to cure it of blandness. The buttermilk flavour seemed almost non-existent, and whilst the chicken was crispy, there was simply no real flavour to it. Additional seasonings in the coating would have helped, though ultimately it would still feel like a mass-produced burger, which is normally the core problem with these kind of establishments.
Paying £5 for a meal, including the drink, means you cannot really expect the holy grail of burgers. With that in mind, I have certainly had better burgers at Spoons than this one and I will likely avoid purchasing it again. The burger was bland throughout lacking the buttermilk flavour and any real seasoning in the coating.
Patty Master Musings:
- Great range of condiments in Spoons. I miss sachets though. Much harder to steal an entire bottle of ketchup -- uh.
- Why on earth do they now serve meals on my nan's crockery? This never used to be the case in Spoons.
- Itbox. That is all.
- Did I Dip It? Not only dipped, but required bun lid removal and major ketchup addition to bring about about some taste. Ouch.
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