The Burger Joint in North Street, Southville in Bristol - Review

Posted on: 2015-03-05

Our rating:

The Burger Joint is a a lively, buzzy venue dishing up extremely generous portions of magnificently tasty food, and served with a smile by warm, attentive and friendly staff.


 

Throw a stone in any direction around Bristol and chances are you'll hit one of the burgeoning proliferation of burger emporiums luring in the punters with its promise of meaty awesomeness.

With burger and Dude Food mania hitting epic proportions in the city, any carnivore-friendly venue had better deliver the goods, something special, something tasty, an awesome attack on the taste buds you won't forget for a long time. Bit of luck The Burger Joint on North Street in Southville confidently hits all those marks then. 

When The Burger Joint first opened in 2009, owner Dan Bekhradnia got the area's meat lovers effusively salivating by giving away free burgers to publicize the restaurant, put the kitchen and operating system through its paces, and prove just how lip-smackingly delicious the food is. Interest went stratospheric. And the rest is history, with the venue effortlessly and exponentially going from strength to strength. 

There's another Burger Joint on Whiteladies Road, but we headed to the Southville restaurant to try out the tucker. It's a small but perfectly formed dining area, with long pine tables, dark red walls and tiles and enamel factory lamps.

The ordering system is different from other places too. When you're shown to your table there's a handful of pencils and tick-box ordering forms you fill out to choose what burger, toppings and sauces you want. It's a neat variation on the ordering theme and worked well. 

After a few of minutes of perplexed head-scratching deciding what to go for, I opted for bruschetta (£3.95) to start and the combination of Welsh lamb and mint burger with Monterey Jack cheese and burger relish for mains. (£7.95). The cost of the burger also includes a free side dish such as fries or chips and two free sauces if you want them, with extra toppings clocking in at a very reasonable 80p each.  

My bruschetta was outstanding, lightly toasted crostini with an extremely generous slathering of finely chopped, rhapsodically sweet tomatoes mixed with herbs and pesto. My brother went for the small BBQ chicken wings (£3.95), which were beautifully cooked with caramilsed sweet barbie que chilli sauce, and the meat was soft and juicy and just slid off the wing bones. 

My burger was a mouthwateringly meaty mecca, perfectly cooked, and the juicy, succulent burger exquisitely fusing the lamb and mint flavours and nestled between two lightly toasted baps with lettuce, red onion and tomato. The accompanying mountainous colossal of chips were equally faultless, thin, crispy and delicious.  

My brother plumped for the burger combination of wild boar, Monterey Jack, streaky bacon, chilli sauce with the somewhat unorthodox addition of peanut butter. (He'd seen it on Man versus Food and been itching to try it ever since.). He couldn't sing its praises highly enough. The wild boar was the best he'd tasted, moist with a slightly gamey flavour and the combination of Monterey Jack, streaky bacon, chilli sauce and peanut butter proved uniquely delicious. The accompanying sweet potato fries had wonderfully charred skins and a lovely sweet flesh much like a parsnip.

I just about managed three scoops of heavenly Marshfield ice cream (£3.95) - a scoop each of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry - while my brother washed down his gastronomic indulgences with a double espresso (£2.00).  

We were there for a good few hours on a mid-week evening and the place was continuously busy to the point they had to frequently ask people to come back in an hour or so, presumably many of them who had eaten here before. This is clearly testament to the popularity of the place, and it's easy to see why. It's a lively, buzzy venue with a spirited, vibrant atmosphere, extremely generous portions of magnificently tasty food, and served with a smile by warm, attentive and friendly staff. 

As Arnold Schwarzenegger might intone: I'll definitely be back.  

5/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol - the leading events and entertainment website for Bristol

Website: www.theburgerjoint.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/burgerjointbristol

Twitter: @DanBurgerJoint



Article by:

James Anderson

Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.