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Please note, this restaurant has now closed. Another Big Fernand joint is expected to open in South Kensinton in December 2019. Time Out Food editors, DECEMBER 2019.
London’s food obsessions continue to evolve, but despite burgers being ‘so 2013’ we still can’t quite seem to shake our pimped patty addiction. Big Fernand is a French import that is the latest addition to this crowded market.
The mostly-French staff were exuberant in the opening week, and on our visit the music was so loud that you had to strain to hear your conversation. The experience is made all the more curious by the premises’ split-personality décor – downstairs a rough hewn wood-and-slate burger bar; upstairs a chintzy Fitzrovia living room.
The burgers don’t scrimp on flavour: Le Bartholomé piles raclette cheese, smoked bacon, confit onions and own-made barbecue sauce on top of a thick beef patty, cooked as requested (although the dominant flavour was of the sweet-sour onions). Meanwhile, Le Victor offers a veal burger topped with mild blue Fourme d’Ambert, the same slightly overpowering confit onions, and a sweetened version of the house sauce. The chips are another flavour bomb – that, or the chef’s hand slipped while seasoning them with smoked paprika.
These aren’t the best burgers in town, or – at around £12 a pop without fries – the cheapest. But they’re a decent enough take on this mega-trend that refuses to go quietly.