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It’s hard to stand out in Pop Brixton’s buzzing food community, but this quick ’n’ dirty vegan burger joint has done it, by serving ‘bleeding’ burgers from the Beyond Meat company.
The much-hyped ‘blood’ – which seeps out when cooking – comes from beetroot, and the burgers contain protein from peas, rice and mung beans. Bland as that may sound, when magicked together by the BM crew, it turns into something quite unexpected: a Burger King doppelgänger.
Both the signature Halo Burger (two Beyond Burgers, vegan cheese slices and caramelised onion) and the Smoky Carolina BBQ Summer Special (gouda-style vegan cheese and battered onion strips) tasted like they could be dished up at any big-hitting burger chain without anyone batting an eyelid, even down to the overly sweet sauce and enjoyably stodgy bun.
After wrestling the patty away from the sauce for closer inspection, it really did taste like meat. Or rather, like a fast-food beef hamburger patty. Clever as that is, you’re paying around £10 for a small burger, which seems pretty steep.
But overall, it’s messy, it’s fun and it works. And props to Halo for not pretending its burgers are healthy just because they’re plant-based. This is vegan junk food at its junkiest and we’re more than okay with that.