britishers -- tell me about WIMPY BARS and their shitty burgers

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I really enjoyed a burger I had at Hamburger Union, right until the moment I got home and was COPIOUSLY SICK. (I think the sickness might have been worth it though!)

Biggest liars ever = "Ultimate Burger".

― Sarah, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

Ultimate Burger Co. should be Ultimate Milkshake Co.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't been tempted into either of those multi-branch establishments.

Still, you have to admit that in South London terms Wimpy's could never hope to compete with the unstoppable juggernaut that is Morley's.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

Best milkshakes = that American Eagle Diner or whatever it's called in Fitzrovia.

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

best burger i've had in recent times - the one i ate last week at home using Waitrose Aberdeen Angus quarter pounder, some manchego-esque paprika-ey cheese, red onion and tomato ketchup. things have gone uphill ever since (because downhill is good really, think about it).

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

M&S did a do-your-own-burger thing last year (Gastrogrill!) which I liked a lot and naturally they immediately stopped making it.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

The prefix 'gastro-' always makes me think of flu and stomach bugs.

― braveclub, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

I had the best ever burger from the Anchor and Hope gastro pub in Southwark. It came with a chunk of bone which one could scrape the marrow out of to spread on toast.

― ledge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

you had toast with your burger?

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah. And a grilled potato cake thing. And no bun. Ok it wasn't exactly a conventional burger.

― ledge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

i used to eat lunch regularly in the starburger near battersea park when i worked at westminster college. they are really just greasy spoon cafes with corporate menus, and not bad if you have a guilty love of kebab shop burgers and chips, which i did at the time. very greasy though (perhaps i needn't have ordered the bacon cheese burger...)

there was a wimpy in morden for ages, tho i hear its not there anymore. wimpy burgers really tasted like boiled beef, iirc, and weren't their buns brown? i remember eating motorway service station wimpy returning from a festival a couple of years back, and it was dreck.

i like those hamburger unions/kitchens... they are springing up *everywhere, and they're replaced the pizza hut off leicester square, for egs... they seem more an offshoot of the nando pehnom than any pre-existing burger chains, tho.

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:00 (nineteen years ago)

Morley's is nightmarish.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

marcello, making your own burgers is very very easy! mince + ketchup to bind, refridge for ten minutes and yr ready to go. stick a lump of mozzarella in there for a nice surprise, season to taste (jerk seasoning is great mixed in to a buger, for some reason)

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

Nando's is a step beyond. King of foods.

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

they feel utterly soulless and dead inside, though. it's like going to masala zone for a hamburger. i agree with steve about home-made burgers. they are better 99% of the time, even if you don't have a grill.

haha stevie i have never even considered adding ketchup directly to the ground beef. i usually add a little parsley, some salt and pepper, and occasionally some chopped up spinach. there's a place in new york that adds chopped up beets to their burger meat and it's totally delicious but i've never tried it myself. i almost always like to put a few drops of worcestershire on them as they cook.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

woops, i wasn't talking about nando's - i mant those burger union places. nando's usually has personality to spare.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:07 (nineteen years ago)

Mandee, come to West Norwood Wimpy ASAP.

I used to love their extra-thick banana milkshake.

This thread has made me desire BURGER. I think I'll go to Red Veg on Dean Street in a minute.

it's like going to masala zone for a hamburger

Ha - xpost. This was my second choice, actually (the veggie burger). Over a fiver though and they take about 20min to prepare it.

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

haha stevie i have never even considered adding ketchup directly to the ground beef.

it works to bind it all together, cos i often don't have any eggs in the house, but ALWAYS have ketchup.

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

I like Jamie Oliver's burger recipe: "breadcrumbs yeah? celery yeah? retrosalad yeah?"

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

i have never had a problem with my meats binding up.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:29 (nineteen years ago)

Over a fiver though

Where isn't? (BK and McD and yr local pizzachickenfish excepted).

― ledge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:30 (nineteen years ago)

Wendy's didn't last long did they? And as for the American Burger Company if anyone's brave enough to remember that far back - their lime milkshakes tasted like mucus.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

Who on earth would order a lime milkshake?

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

We did, once, as an experiment, way back in the days when Pat and Mick had hits.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

There is a posh burger place on Putney Bridge Road just before you get to the High Street, Stevie, which is New Zealandish and very good indeed - and far from soulless. Very much a recommendation.

― Mark C, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:38 (nineteen years ago)

hmmm... i have mates living round there, we must search it out!

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:46 (nineteen years ago)

Sounds like the Putney branch of Gourmet Burger Kitchen, as recommended by me earlier.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

OK, tell me about Nando's in London pls (I can't tell if the comments above are ironic). My sister reckons they're great, but her taste isn't always to be trusted.

All the Nando'ses I've seen in Glasgow are in the car parks next to shopping malls, multiplex cinemas or bowling alleys a la Frankie & Benny's and are 100% without soul (I've only eaten in the one at Glasgow Fort, though).

― Madchen, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

Who on earth would order a lime milkshake?

Most of the characters in Neighbours seem to love them.

― braveclub, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

Nando's just seem sort of cheerfully seedy to me in a way that Hamburger Union et al are not.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:08 (nineteen years ago)

i've never been in a Nando's, it's just never appealed - assume it's crap for some reason. ditto Masala Zone.

― blueski, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

We went to Nando's in Fulham Road once.

The food was cold.

I haven't returned.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

Nando's is beloved of primary school children, which I have always taken to be indicative of its place on the lower rungs of gastronomic pleasure.

― ledge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:13 (nineteen years ago)

The food was OK, to be fair. It's just that the place was parked next to a giant ASDA Home store.

― Madchen, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

Heh, and a girl at the next table's two sides were rice and chips (=2 veg in Glasgow).

― Madchen, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

I just read this thread, hoping against hope that the Union St. Wimpy's still existed, even though I was about 95% sure it didn't anymore. I think the last one left in town was the Ingram (? Modern Art Museum, whatever) and was sad to see it go. I loved going to Wimpy's, and occasionally stopped in for a burger. For some reason I preferred it to all other fast food chains, and never went to a McDonald's or a Burger King.

The other night I was drunk and had a burger in McDonald's for the first time in a very long while, and it was AMAZING. My American desire for disgusting fast food is hard to supress.

― Gukbe, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:53 (nineteen years ago)

Nando's is sort of the Pizza Hut of chicken restaurants - I've never been because I assume it's shit.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

That's KFC Matt.

― braveclub, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

Can't do normal American burgerfood any more, it all sinks to the bottom of my stomach like an giant ROCK.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

(I am talkin about the fastfood chains I mean)

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 13:58 (nineteen years ago)

even though I probably only went to it about three times in three years (OMG so hungover howdowecureit? BUCKET O'CHICKEN!), I miss the KFC on Byres Rd. I guess the street is too posh for it now. I don't have any fast food chains within reasonable walking distance!

― Gukbe, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

if i eat mcdonalds/burger king now - usually when i haven't eaten in 12 hours and am about to pass out - i guarantee i will have apocalyptic shits within 2 hours. i lived off that crap when i was younger - what has happened to me?

― stevie, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

there was some commentary on nando's on a similar thread the other day. i haven't heard a single bad thing about it -- such is the company i keep.

― That one guy that quit, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

As Ben Elton used to say when he was funny, you might as well flush the Big Mac straight down the toilet and cut out the middleman.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:04 (nineteen years ago)

I've been to Nandos twice - nothing special at all, atmos is like TGI Friday or something - like with ice cream machines and balloons for the nippers etc (perhaps Matt's Pizza Hut thing is more OTM)! And the chicken was fairly dry and bland, not that cheap either. It's not TERRIBLE but definitely lower-average. For people who can't face up to the percieved shame of KFC/Morleys/Amir's/Dollar etc.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

Best thing about Nando's: hot sauce!

― braveclub, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

I really like Nando's. Since I gave up eating sad chicken Nando's is the thing I've really missed. (OK, drunken KFC comfort eating too, which I have actually succumbed to, but I felt very bad about it.)

What I particularly miss is their chicken livers in a roll with hot sauce.

xpost Sarah you are insufficiently bourgeois :( I agree their actual chicken qua chicken isn't all that tho.

― Groke, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

The Nandos in Brum isn't too bad at all. And, yes, the kids loved it. The only other thing I know about them is that they say all their chicken is halal.

― Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wait - this just coming in...[Removed Illegal Link]

― Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:14 (nineteen years ago)

Well, it was to a link that said 'most of their branches are halal'.

― Ned Trifle II, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

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