Almost Famous I’m Crack-ed Baby

Review of Almost Famous, Manchester – I’m Crack-ed Baby

Website: http://almostfamousburgers.com/

What they say:

Now with 22% more crack (jalapeño mustard). Cheese, chorizo, garlic salt shoestring fries, Cholula, salt & vinegar crisps, blue cheese sauce, jalapeno mustard.

Price: £9.00.

Calories: Unknown.

Almost Famous again. I think perhaps they should just set up a bed for me at the base of the gorilla. Particularly with breakfast heaven Home Sweet Home opening next door.

I shan’t trouble you with a waffly preamble discussing the place – done that many times before and you can read all about it in earlier reviews – just click here.

Suffice it to say, it’s just as fantastic as ever, but now with the added thrill of table service.

There’s no prizes for guessing which one of AF’s bosses came up with the name of this little number. But despite the seemingly endless list of outlandish toppings, don’t forget this burger is built around the very best burger patty in the business. Not the leanest, by a long stretch, but the tastiest by far.

I’m Crack-ed Baby…

With the crisps, garlic salt, shoestring fries and chorizo, I’m expecting something quite salty, but that’s not going to be a problem with a pint of Danger and Mayhem at the side.

When it arrived, the usual presentation in a basket with a wooden skewer. Although there are quite a number of equally wacky fries options from which to choose, fries aren’t included in the price of the burger at Almost Famous.

I’m gloopy Baby…

First things first, and I wonder if these Almost Famous burgers are getting smaller. Not shorter, certainly, but the diameter seems less these days. It’s a pretty sensible size anyway, allowing for all manner of craziness without busting the waistline.

But as ever, the presentation sets it off wonderfully. A shiny bun, a double whammy of beefy perfection and all the glorious gloopy mess of the world’s best burger money shot.

At Almost Famous you don’t just get the sauce dribbling out of your burger, you get it in absolutely the perfect consistency, with just the right amount of colours and Instagram-friendly shine. They think of everything!

I’m hot and cold Baby…

In fact, there are no bad burgers at Almost Famous. There’s bound to be some that you like more than others, but that’s as far as it goes.

This one (named I’m Crack-ed Baby), with the crisps and shoestring fries and sauce sticking out all over the place, looked like it had been stuffed with leftovers from a student party. But students could only dream of conceiving something like this.

For all the wacky sauces and toppings, let’s not forget this also had chorizo in it. And I don’t mean the insipid thin slices you get on pizza, but proper thick chunks of the stuff. This was a proper contender for the bacon crown.

The chorizo MADE this burger. It populated the spectrum of textures and flavours with its wonderful unique savoury saltiness, and sat absolutely perfectly with the medium cooked patty.

But the stuff of dreams didn’t end there. There’s always something new to discover with the next bite in this burger. The soft sponginess of the bun was juxtaposed by the harsh crispness of the crisps (duh) and slightly less so by the shoestring fries. While the chorizo was obviously a harder bite than the dreamy soft beef. This burger had the full range of textures going on.

I’m crunchy Baby…

And as for flavour, the stand-out union is that of the hot(ish) jalapeño mustard vs. the soothing cool blue cheese. Of course the concept of using hot and cold in this way isn’t original, but it certainly works and the proportions of each seem to be very well thought out.

As for that blue cheese, you might be forgiven for thinking that does the business as far as a cheeseburger is concerned, but no- there are also two slices of American cheese in here, one on top of each patty. And for those inclined to take photos of their food, the combination of the blue cheese sauce and the jalapeño mustard does look, at first glance, like an egg has been stuck in here too.

So yet another burger from Almost Famous that’s easy on the eye and even easier on the taste buds. That combined with friendly table service, the trademark fun and silliness, means that AF remains at the very top of the burger tree, and I can wholeheartedly recommend their I’m Crack-ed Baby, one of the newest additions to the menu.

I’m downright tasty Baby…

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