Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger

Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger Review

What they say:

Succulent steak burger with truffle flavoured mayo, topped with red onion marmalade, Cheddar cheese, streaky bacon and tomato. Served in a sesame seed bun with a side of skinny fries and coleslaw.

Price: £13.49.

Calories: 1,226 kcal.

Beefeater have got a (relatively) new Christmas special out called the Festive Truffled Steak Burger.

Now, I’m not one to frequent Beefeater on a regular basis, but it is that time of year where you pop out with colleagues for a bit of festive cheer and Beefeater was on the (very) short list.

Vast percentages of the UK population are lucky – they have access to funky independents or (at least) the ever-growing contingent of fast casual chains on the High Street.

[at one of the sites I work at] I have neither…

Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger

OK, so last time I visited Beefeater I wasn’t particularly enamoured with their burger – that is still ranked as one of our all-time lowest scoring reviews.

So why go back? And get a burger?

Simple answer(s) – lack of choice (in the area) and a 40% off voucher.

So how was it?

Firstly, this was like pensioner central.

We were easily the youngest diners in here which could be an alarming trend for (parent company) Whitbread.

Staff seemed pretty reasonable to deal with – they let us pick where we sat, explained the ordering process (at the bar) and made us feel welcome.

With our 40% voucher this actually came to £8.09 which isn’t too bad really. But, if (like mentioned above) you have access to a wider choice of QSRs, I would struggle to comprehend why you would go for this option.

Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger

The burger arrived and didn’t look shockingly terrible or exceptionally brilliant – just middle of the road pub restaurant.

When ordering, I was offered fries or chips. I opted for fries but I can assure you these are not skinny fries as in the description above.

These were pretty anaemic and served with a reasonable looking coleslaw. What I would highlight is the range of sauces available from the sauce/cutlery station.

Beefeater really need to drag their selection of sauces available into the 21st century – it’s not 1987 anymore!

On offer, were Ketchup, Salad Cream, HP Sauce and Mustard. Even Wetherspoon gives you the option of Cholula these days!

The Festive Truffled Steak Burger is certainly an improvement on my last visit.

The major flaw is (again) the beef – tightly packed, grill-steak texture.

For the uninitiated, this may appear meaty and juicy but it doesn’t compare to other independent burger joints offering a similarly priced patty.

Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger

The bun they use is fairly decent, although to its determent, it suffers from a couple of shades over black from being toasted too heavily.

The truffle flavoured mayo offered glimpses of that unique and rich flavour it promises.

This one needed to be ramped up though. Nowhere near the luxurious levels found on the Truffle Shuffle we sampled at Meat59 in Torquay.

Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger

I enjoyed the red onion marmalade – the build needed more on it but it certainly delivered a satisfying sweetness to the palate. A decent contrast to the truffle mayo.

The Cheddar was glutinous and creamy but suffered from being slightly too mild which resulted in it being tricky to pick out.

What else did we have?

Streaky bacon – average. Not very flavoursome and needed to be crispier to provide a different dimension in texture.

I ate the burger and approximately two thirds into it removed the tomato. It wasn’t particularly due to the taste either. I found it slightly slimy with no real benefit to the build.

The new Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger is not overly bad – it’s just not overly good either.

I would say it is a definite improvement on our prior visit and with the 40% off voucher offered a decent enough lunch when you have little or no other options.

For me, the best ingredient/topping would have to go to the red onion marmalade, but the grill-steak-type beef patty and the truffle-lacking truffle flavoured mayo contributed to its overall downfall.

Beefeater Festive Truffled Steak Burger

Burger Lad®

Website: https://www.beefeater.co.uk/homepage.html

Festive Truffled Steak Burger

£13.49
4.2

Flavour

4.0/10

Presentation

4.5/10

Quality

4.0/10

Hot

  • Improved after last visit
  • Red onion marmalade
  • 40% off voucher

Not

  • Beef texture
  • Mayo let down
  • Blackened bun