Byron Burgers Byronissimo

Review of Byron Burgers Byronissimo

Website: http://www.byronhamburgers.com/

What they say:

A Byron take on a hamburger with an Italian accent, featuring a 6oz patty with melting Fontina cheese, crispy pancetta and slow-cooked tomato relish, plus classic toppings of pickled red onion, tomato, shredded iceberg and mayonnaise – all inside our classic glazed bun.

Price: £9.95 for the burger only.

Calories: Unknown.

To put it bluntly I very much like Byron. I only had my first burger there in January 2015 when I had the impressive Flaming Iceberg for my birthday lunch.

This was followed up by a trip to Bristol again to sample the B-Rex which is definitely in my top 10 of all time!

And now we’re back again to try the recently released Byronissimo (with a name like that I’m glad for copy and paste).

I love the concept of the Byron Burger Club – so far this has got me a bottle of hot sauce and a free B-Rex (as part of their awesome exclusive preview tastings).

Unfortunately, we were unable to make it on the Monday, otherwise I would have blatantly scored one of their 3,000 hamburgers they give away on such evenings.

But never mind… on the first available evening we had we took the 90+ mile round-trip down to Byron at their ‘The Triangle’ location. Yes you read that right… 90+ mile round-trip… why would you drive that far just for a burger you ask yourselves…? Read on…

Byron Burgers Byronissimo
Byron Byronissimo…

Above is a picture of Chef Fred’s latest creation – The Byronissimo. After a recent trip to Milan it seems the creative Gods that work at the Byron development kitchen decided to bestow us with an Italian-style hamburger and as you can see from the picture above it looks very good!

Now before we talk more in-depth about the burger let’s just discuss the staff. I don’t believe I have been anywhere where the staff are so good. Friendly, chatty and really passionate about their food and brand and a special mention goes to Dara – absolutely amazing and a true gent. Thank you!

Anyway… let’s get back to the Byronissimo.

Byron Burgers Byronissimo
Quality presentation…

Presentation-wise this was once again spot on. The burgers at Byron are always presented exquisitely and tonight was no exception. I’m not a fan of cutting burgers in half but I did cause I wanted to get a cross-section shot for the photos and the Vine video. And as you can see it was cooked perfectly medium with generous amounts of pink.

Byron Burgers Byronissimo
Perfect pink patty…

I do like the beef patties at Byron and you can tell they let the meat do the talking.

The menu is quite limited and doesn’t have endless “gimmicky” burgers adorning its pages i.e. they don’t need vast amounts of ingredients to mask poor quality patties (PQP).

In my notes I described this as creamy, buttery beef with a flame-grilled favour and in retrospect I was spot-on in my analysis.

The Byronissimo is by all accounts a Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe… or “Delice” if you prefer? And the elements used to achieve this are the pancetta and Fontina cheese.

Firstly, the pancetta – this is seductively salty with a generous amount of moderately crispy slices on-board. The cheese is very creamy, not stringy like Mozzarella, but is quite firm, holds together well and has a delicate flavour.

Byron Burgers Byronissimo
Delissio…

When in Rome do as the Romans do and indulge in the delight of the tomato relish Byron have developed. This is fresh, tasty and again not really strong in terms of flavour but subtle, enabling all the other ingredients to meld together to create a taste of Italy.

In fact, this “sauce” would not be out of place smothered over a bed of pasta served up in some rustic Italian eatery. Miss Milkshake® commented that she could not get over the tomato sauce and just how “Italian” it tastes. And that it was so good to see someone create an Italian burger and use a cheese other than Mozzarella.

The remainder of the Byronissimo is made-up of pickled red onions (not your jarred variety) which were tangy and slightly sharp, tomato (I didn’t even take mine out it worked that well) and lettuce and mayo.

Now I personally don’t think mayo is required on here as it pushed the creamy level up just a bit too far for me. I’d ordered a Byron Sauce (a mayo-based Big Mac style sauce) for my fries so was actually glad of the Hot Sauce to cut through and give me a hit of spice.

Byron Burgers Byronissimo
Creamy, subtle Fontina cheese…

Overall though, you’ve got a great combination of tastes giving your senses a bit of everything. You’ve got the sourness of the onions, sweetness of the tomato relish, saltiness of the pancetta and creaminess of the cheese.

Personally, if I had to choose between this and my two previous visits this would probably be my third choice but that is only because of the esteemed company it is in. Those looking for an Italian inspired burger will do no wrong with this…

In terms of flavour this is altissimo… Bravissimo to Byron!

The Byronissimo is very enjoyable and a breath of fresh air in terms of an Italian take on a hamburger.

If this was inspired by a trip to Milan then this is definitely the leader in terms of fashion compared to the tired attempts of Mozzarella, Pesto and Tomato.

Get your Vespa out today and get down to Byron to try this latest limited time special.

The Byronissimo is available at all Byron restaurants until 25th May 2015.

Byron Burgers Byronissimo
The Byronissimo…

Burger Lad®