Contrary to what some people may think, I am not all about fine dining. As you’ll have seen with my last post I like to try out the best of London’s street food scene as to my mind this is where some of the most exciting developments in food can be found.
Last year I went to Brixton Market for the first time and was blown away by the inimitable Franco Manca. My wife and I promised ourselves that when we went back last night we wouldn’t just end up going back to FM, although we were sorely tempted. Instead we wandered around to see what the catacombs of loveliness would have to offer and ended up in Bukowski’s, a burger and grill joint.
Looking back this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, one of our new year’s resolutions has been to eat vegetarian during the week. The thinking behind this is that it encourages us to be more creative with our cooking, we can afford to spend more money on better quality meat at the weekend, it’s more sustainable in the long-term (meat prices are forecasted to sky-rocket) and, perhaps most importantly, it makes you really appreciate the wonder that is meat!
The decor inside was a cross between something industrial and something rustic (like Mad Max meets a 50s burger joint) and was atmospherically lit. Service was quick, friendly and efficient – which was exactly what we were after. I plumped for the delicious Fat Gringo burger: beef patty (cooked nicely medium rare, definite tinge of pink in the middle and very juicy) with Monterrey Jack cheese, candied bacon, jalapeno mustard (which really did carry quite a kick), red onions and a tomato relish. This was all good, very good. However, what I will remember for a long, long time were the two smoked pickles on top. I hadn’t noticed that the menu said that they were smoked, so when I bit into them I got quite a shock! Simply delicious though!
We had some of their chips to go with it, triple cooked in beef dripping meaning that they were beautifully crispy on the outside, whilst retaining a fluffy interior. I also had one of their strawberry milkshakes as last night represented the last vestiges of “dry January” (phew!!).
All in all, this was exactly the meat hit that we were looking for. I can highly recommend Bukowski’s.
timmilford.com 
I went to the one at Boxpark and thought it was a great place – my only negative, and this sounds really daft, is that the burger was too meaty! Just needed a bit more fat. Brilliant chips though!
I thought the meat quantity was spot on – but maybe I’m just greedy!!
Or I’m just a junk food heathen! Yes, that’s what it is! PS I love Five Guys!