Carpenders Park, Burgers, Etc Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: In less than 20 years, Danny Meyer has transformed his New York City hot-dog cart into a global fast-food brand giant with eight outlets in London – including a Covent Garden flagship that was revamped earlier this year. Ratings remain remarkably solid for “a chain that does what it’s supposed to do”.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

“Still the best burger in town in my opinion” is a widely shared view of this independent chain with four sit-down and three delivery-only kitchens. “No matter how many burgers I try in London, I can’t beat Bleecker” – “they get the simple stuff right: quality of meat, how the patty is made, doneness, ratio of meat to bread, and it adds up to a serious burger”. Zan Kaufman, a former New York corporate lawyer, launched her brand from the back of a truck 12 years ago, naming it after a Greenwich Village street.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

2021 Review: For “a perfect end to a Saturday morning on Portobello Road”, some still recommend this US-diner-style haunt. But while it’s fine if you’re a trustafarian working off a hangover, or just posing around Portobello, you wouldn’t cross town.

“The Dead Hippy burger is a dirty, dirty legend” – the best-named burger on British menus and “if not the easiest burger to eat definitely the tastiest” (especially when chased down by a boozy “hard shake”) – at the “cool” chain founded 15 years ago by Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis. The expansion of recent years seems to have ground to a halt with the closure of branches in Boxpark Croydon and Clapham Old Town, with a new strategy based around boosting sales via a national network of delivery kitchens launched in 2023. Top Tip – “root beer is available if you want a bit of real Americana!”

2021 Review: Canalside in Paddington Basin, and with massive windows providing water views, this large bar/restaurant – occupying the high-ceilinged ground floor of one of the area’s blocks – has an attractive, if not super-individual, semi-industrial design. Feedback is limited on its gastropub-ish dishes, but suggests it does what it does well.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

“Fab burgers with a posh turn” – including “awesome sweet potato fries” – still lead the charge at these Frenchified fast-food outfits, but they are transitioning into a brasserie group under the ownership of Hush Mayfair’s Jamie Barber. The 20-year-old original – a “great, cosy little spot in Camden” – and its Balham offshoot are all that remain as pure burger bars, while Kingston, High Holborn and Chelsea are now branded as brasseries with an extended menu to match.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

2021 Review: Since 1971, this age-old rocker has grown from its first site, near Hyde Park Corner, to 186 globally, and 2019 saw the group reinvest massively in the capital, with not just a new hotel (on the site that was once The Cumberland) by Marble Arch, but also with the July 2019 opening of a 19,000 sq ft, multi-level, new London flagship at Piccadilly Circus. The latter opening includes a menu shake-up, which introduces an unsuspecting world to new culinary delights, including the ‘24-Karat Gold Leaf Steak BurgerTM’; (as well as the retail opportunities of ‘the world’s largest Rock Shop”’). For silver-haired reporters (who were alive for the chain’s founding) – a generation by-and-large untroubled by the hipster burger revolution – the “generously meaty” patties of the original are “still the best”, and one early report on the hotel says its restaurant “really rocks” too…. Even allowing for cynicism about the effects of nostalgia on the tastebuds, the brand fares better in the survey than most mass-market offerings.

“Well priced, tasty” burgers make this long-running Icelandic chain (with two outlets in London and one in Oxford; as well as Berlin and Copenhagen) a “cheap ’n’ cheerful favourite” for some reporters. Veteran burger-slinger Tómas Tómasson founded the group 43 years ago, and in 2021 was elected to Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, at the age of 72.

“So tasty and messy – I love it”, say fans of this 12-year-old London operation who insist it’s the “best burger restaurant in town – others copy but this is consistently the best” “for when you want a full-on dripping burger and to hell with the diet!”. Expansion of the chain has proved difficult in the last year, with the Notting Hill branch shutting up shop just months after its summer 2022 opening.

2022 Review: “Brilliant burgers charmingly served in a student-friendly hang-out” – that’s the deal at this indie four-year-old, which is located at the northern end of the new developments near King’s Cross.

“The lobster roll is just lovely” at this surf’n’turf-meets-burger chain, where you’ll find “plenty of very tasty grub”. “I was expecting to be disappointed, but the food was excellent”. A dozen years on from its launch, the group’s nine London venues tend to be “full of people done up for a big night out, taking lots of selfies for their Insta”.

“French… and have to admit pretty good” – London’s outpost of this Gallic ‘Maison du Hamburgé’ chain (that’s 50-strong over the Channel) is to be found in South Kensington’s ‘Little France’ and gets a consistent thumbs up. The addition of lashings of different French regional cheeses is key to distinguishing its menu options.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.