Picking out a burger place for the Super Burger Bros night out is a democratic process, the result of the vote was conclusive and The Bagel & Burger Kitchen topped our poll. February is the month of love, burger love. Would we fall head over heels for this place?
At the time of writing, The Bagel & Burger Kitchen isn’t even 2 months old, but this place is giving some of the more established joints in Cardiff a run for their money.
When we were voting, all we really had to go on was the menu, but what a menu it is.
We knew that the meat on the menu was Halal, so there would be no bacon atop our burgers. I have to admit to being a bit disappointed by that, but how would the burgers fair without it?
The menu had a few burgers that had me struggling to decide on what I’d have to eat. Two of them were The Big Cwtch and The Juicy Lucy, and for Valentine’s Day, they announced a limited edition combo. The Juicy Cwtch.
For those of you that don’t have a Welsh connection, let me explain something. Cwtch is Welsh for hug. So to call your burger a Juicy Cwtch is a statement. The name is more than a little risqué, at least it is in my head. In fact, when I think about it, it sounds pretty sexual.
Imran took our orders and passed them through to Medhat and Eduardo, who we could see in the kitchen, and they set about their business of cooking our mountains of meaty goodness.
As we waited, we watched our milkshakes being made. I’d ordered the Peanut Butter & Jelly (Jam) shake. As a kid, my sandwich of choice was crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam. I would quite happily have lived on just them, and burgers, for the rest of my life. You know how people talk about songs that would make the soundtrack of their life? Well, if I had the food equivalent, a foodtrack if you will, then this milkshake would be my early years. It was superb. I didn’t want it to end.
I’ve been lucky enough to get into the kitchens of some of the places I’ve reviewed, and BBK were more than happy to give me the tour to show me where the magic happened.
Like burger making ninjas they attended to the sizzling beef, adding the oils and flipping them on the hotplate and spooning their home-made relish on the buns, and I got to watch them.
Before I knew it, the burgers were ready and the sides were being added to the baskets and ready for the tables. I took my place with the other Super Burger Bros and waited for the fun to begin.
My Juicy Cwtch sat before me like a, well, imagine any normal burger that’s been on steroids. It was like that. I probably shouldn’t have doubled up, but there are sayings about hindsight, but I’m still not sorry I did.
So here is the menu description of the two burgers that combined to make my meal.
Gourmet beef patty topped with incredibly moist and succulent, slow cooked pulled lamb & homemade relish.
Oozing with gooey deliciousness! Gourmet beef patty, stuffed with cheese and topped with homemade relish.
This was a marriage made in burger heaven.
I didn’t really get to hear too much about how the boys got on with their burgers as I was busy trying to hold mine together as the uber-juicy burgers went about unloading on the unsuspecting super-soft brioche buns that had tried to contain this monster and failed.
It was a bit of a fight to keep everything together for the duration of this burger’s lifetime, but I have to admit that if I’d not pretty much inhaled it, it would have been one of the messiest burger experiences ever. It was beautiful, and cooked how I like it, with perfect pinkness in there and a smokey, caramelisation on the outside.
So, I don’t want to be overly critical, but if I could either have a slightly less juicy burger, a more robust bun or something that slowed the transfer of said moisture, then I would be as happy as the proverbial pig in poo poo.
That being said, this burger was one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted and the overall experience in BBK (that’s what us cool kids call it…..or not) was one that I know that no burger chain could ever provide. I guess that’s one of the biggest weapons in an independent restaurant’s armoury, and these guys blew us away. Imran even joined us to eat his burger and chat with us about the restaurant.
I need to say something about the lamb. It was full of flavour and I’d happily have had a roll or wrap fully loaded with just that pulled lamb, the fact it was balanced perfectly up there on my burgers, made it a savoury icing on a beefy cake.
I also ordered some onion rings. In my not so humble opinion, these onion rings were unworthy of sharing the same table as the burger and shake that they came with. Don’t get me wrong, they were fine. If a chain restaurant served you them, you wouldn’t think anything of it, but my sights had been set higher. But let’s give them a break here I guess, they have only been open a month and a bit.
So, if I haven’t convinced you to get your butt down to The Bagel & Burger Kitchen, then I don’t know what will. Maybe some threats or something? Oh, wait, the price. The prices were just as tasty as the burgers!!! When I say cheap, you say “how cheap?”…….not as cheap at MacDonalds or Burger King, but it was cheap and so so so so so much better.
Bagel & Burger Kitchen your sexy, Juicy Cwtch gets a 4.7 out of 5. See you soon for your salt beef bagels too, and thanks for the t-shirt.
*The rating of this burger was not unfairly prejudiced by the friendliness of the guys here or the free t-shirt, it was all about the beef, baby!
superburgerbros 
Pingback: BBK Special (Frank!?!?!) – The Bagel & Burger Kitchen (Cardiff) | superburgerbros