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GBK - Gourmet Burger Kitchen

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Liam Hetherington
Liam Hetherington
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35) Gourmet Burger Kitchen - Home of the Kiwiburger

35) Gourmet Burger Kitchen - Home of the Kiwiburger

New Zealand - 11/06/09

A blessed sunny day, so I’ll meet you at, erm, Deansgate. The Spinningfields area is a new development of offices and eateries sandwiched between Deansgate and the River Irwell. They are obviously trying to create some sort of metropolitan cosmopolitan vibe around here, though it still strikes me as somewhat soulless. However, with it being summer it seemed the obvious place to go for a burger.

Now, when I say a burger, I don’t mean a Big Mac / Whopper / lowest common denominator meat pattie between pre-sliced buns. Gourmet Burger Kitchen, as one might suppose from its name, positions itself at the premium end of the market. Though you can take food away it is not a fast-food restaurant. Food is cooked fresh, and it has a proper restaurant area in which to dine. In the case of the Spinningfields branch this is a light glassy area overlooking the Irwell across to Salford. Images of local footballing icons from the ‘70s grace the walls – primarily George Best for United fans and Malcolm Allison for those of a sky blue disposition.

None of this is hence very redolent of New Zealand. However, Gourmet Burger Kitchen (or ‘GBK’ for short) is a New Zealand chain, with a menu put together by ‘celebrity New Zealand chef, Peter Gordon’ according to their website. And they do a ‘Kiwiburger’. So that was enough incentive for us.

For this meal Paul and I were joined by a new friend, Rebecca. She had spent quite some time in New Zealand and was excited by the prospect of a Kiwiburger, of which she had fond memories. Mind you, she didn’t actually order one. New Zealand is probably most famous in the UK for its lamb, and she ordered a Greek Lamb Burger (£7.75), where the lamb burger was topped with hummous, cucumber raita, salad and chilli sauce. Paul took the chilli up to the next level with a Habanero Burger (£7.65) – Aberdeen Angus Scotch beef burger, mozzarella, salad, and hot & spicy sauce. Though it was marked in the menu with a burning ‘hot’ flame, the actual chilli spiciness did blindside him a little and left him spluttering into his red berry smoothie (£2.95).

I was man enough to take on the challenge of the Kiwiburger (£7.95). From the menu this is a frankly bizarre collection of ingerdients. Aberdeen Angus Scotch beef burger, okay. Salad and cheese, fine. Relish and mayonnaise only to be expected (though I asked for it with no mayo). Pineapple. Beetroot. And an entire fried egg. This is apparently the norm for this Antipodean delicacy. It came as a towering burger held together by a skewer. It was of quite jaw-aching size. And of course, after the first bite it started to collapse, relish and egg yolk dripping on to the plate, shreds of lettuce, beetroot and pineapple ring plopping out to join it. The strange thing was, taste-wise it all worked. The sweetness of pineapple and beetroot gave another layer to the flavour, and the fried egg added a creamy texture to the contents. I washed this all down with a bottle of New Zeland-brewed lager by the name of Mac’s Gold.

GBK has an intriguing concept – elevating the humble burger to a full restaurant meal. There are still a few small elements of the fast food experience that I found a bit annoying. For instance though a waitress lead us to a table, provided us with menus, and took our first drinks order, we were expected to go to the counter to order and pay for our meal. And I thought the burgers were on the expensive side at between seven and eight pounds each (thankfully I had a discount card that got us 50% off the food bill, meaning that the three of us dined and drank for under £20.00). But the nosh is high quality, inventive spins on the burger, freshly cooked for you.

(Gourmet Burger Kitchen has another outlet in Manchester, on Wilmslow Road in East Didsbury. If you want to go a bit further out there is another branch in Wilmslow itself, Cheshire.)

From journal Around the World in 80 Meals! (part 4)

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