Lunch at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen at the Flemingate Centre in Beverley

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Location

Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Unit 18, Flemingate Centre, Chantry Lane, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU17 0NQ.

Tel: (01482) 679294

Initial Impressions

Gourmet Burger Kitchen, usually written as GBK, is a restaurant chain which specialises in burgers. This branch is located in the Flemingate Centre, a newly built outdoor shopping precinct, in Beverley in East Yorkshire. The Flemingate Centre has a pedestrian shopping precinct, various shops and other eating establishments, a Premier Inn and a hotel and is next to a new building for East Riding College.

There is no parking outside the restaurant, as it is in a pedestrian zone. The nearby parking is in a multi-story car park in the Flemingate Centre itself, with the car park at the time of writing costing £1 for three hours, making it perhaps the cheapest place to park in Beverley. Being part of the same centre, the car park is only a few minutes walk at most from the restaurant.

There are a few tables under cover outside the restaurant itself and food can be ordered for take away as well as for eating on the premises. The majority of the food is burger based, as GBK state that, for them, it’s all about the burger, but this includes aged beef, buffalo, lamb, chicken and vegetarian options and there are also some salads.

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The restaurant was visited early on a weekend lunchtime and was fairly quiet when entered, with only a handful of tables occupied. Custom did pick up slightly during the visit, but not significantly. Upon entering, customers are shown to a table and given a menu, as well as being asked if they have visited before; if they haven’t, the ordering process is explained.

The main part of the kitchen can be viewed from inside the restaurant itself. On the table is a bottle of tomato ketchup, paper napkins, cutlery and a shaker of hei hei salt. More napkins and cutlery, as well as other condiments and shell on peanuts with small glasses to put them in, can be got from a condiment stand next to the counter.

Once the food is chosen, customers have to go to the counter to both order and pay. This is not a problem when the restaurant is mostly empty, as it was on this visit, but can be more of a problem when dining alone, although not as great here, where customers are shown to a table, as elsewhere where they choose their own.

The Food

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A Coca Cola was ordered to drink. This came in a 330ml glass bottle, and was therefore of a better quality than the more common draft. A glass of peanuts and a bottle of the roasted red pepper sauce were collected from the condiment station. The peanuts were nice but rather messy, leading to tiny bits of broken shell over the table. The sauce was moderately spicy. Although there is a lunchtime deal, the food was ordered from the normal menu.

The Burger

A Habanero Burger was the burger ordered. This is listed as an RH burger, which simply stands for Resident Hero. A side of Skinny Fries was also ordered and a complementary dish of Baconnaise was provided (hopefully, buying it gets a larger portion than the complimentary one; if not, it’s very expensive).

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The Habanero Burger comes with mozzarella cheese, habanero jam, house mayo, a slice of tomato, lettuce and sliced red onions, served in a slight toasted bun topped with sesame seeds and held together by a toothpick flag. At some branches of GBK it is possible to get the burger cooked to different levels; at this one only well done is available. The burger itself is served on a plate by itself (due to GBK being all about the burger). The salad toppings were fresh, the burger was cooked fine, not being overdone, the bun was toasted perfectly and the habanero sauce was quite spicy – possibly too spicy for some.

The Skinny Fries came in a metal container lined with some type of greaseproof paper. Skinny Fries are only a few millimetres in diameter; consequently they are quite brittle, difficult to east with a fork and have a tendency to cool down quickly, especially if removed from the container. These are inherent problems with the fries, not something that’s the fault of the restaurant, and should be considered before ordering them. The fries themselves were perfectly cooked and were just as expected.

The Baconnaise came in a little dish. This was an odd sauce that was pretty much what it sounds like – mayonnaise with pieces of bacon it. Not bad, but perhaps not something that would be deliberately chosen to eat.

My Review

The price for the meal came to £14.85 including drinks. This is on the more expensive side for a burger, and this is actually one of the cheaper dishes on the menu (for a cheaper burger without descending to the level of fast food, it’s suggested that the J. D. Wetherspoon’s pub The Cross Keys in Beverley is tried) although the burger itself is a cut above the average. The meal itself was enjoyable.

The location was well maintained and looked good, as it should be given that it is not that old. The staff, of which there were plenty given that the restaurant was quiet, were prompt and polite. service was immediate and the burger itself came out rapidly.

Overall, the Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Beverley served a nice burger, a bit different from the more typical ones, but commensurately more expensive.