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Searching for evidence that the trend for no-bookings restaurants is over? The Islington branch of these dude-food burger-slingers may be exactly what you’re looking for. Unlike its other four London outlets, you can actually prearrange a visit to this one to fill your face with delicious meat. Frankly, we’ve been waiting years for this day.
That aside, it’s the usual Meat Liquor formula: it’s 33 percent post-industrial (gunmetal-grey girders, venue that looks like an ex-warehouse, graffiti everywhere). It’s 33 percent retro (knackered cathode-ray tellies, vintage black-and-white photobooth). It’s 33 percent wilful (neon ‘WC’ sign that looks like the ‘Mc’ of ‘McDonald’s’ upside-down, in-house radio station whose policy is: ‘no Coldplay, no Beatles, no Celine Dion’). But the most important part of the formula is its 4,000,000 percent brilliant burgers (hey, we never said the maths made sense).
Patties are unfailingly delivered with a lovely core of pinkness. The bacon double cheese burger arrived with a veritable tutu of candied rashers splaying from its sides and the Dead Hippy is the Big Mac that Ronald McDonald might have come up with if he hadn’t spent so much time dyeing his afro. Sides are also superb: the deep-fried mac ’n’ cheese is panko-crumbed cubes of cheesy goodness with a garlicky marinara dip; so crunchy and greasy-yet-light-tasting are their deep-fried pickles, you could almost forget they’re basically conduits for a tart blue-cheese dip. Downsides? Hmm. It used to be that you couldn’t book. Now? We’re struggling to think of one. Really.
Wanna bag 50 percent off here? Check out our Table for Two Vegan-Friendly Box.