Gourmet Burger Kitchen Bourbon Street

Review of Gourmet Burger Kitchen Bourbon Street Burger

What they say:

Mustard grilled beef, jalapenos, mature Cheddar, bourbon glazed mushrooms, sriracha mayo, salad.

Price: £8.85.

Calories: Unknown.

Our latest burger adventure saw us in the regency town of Leamington Spa to check out one of the new burgers on the summer menu at GBK.

We had been invited to an exclusive preview of the summer menu as part of a “Burger Off” event last week in London, but disappointingly we couldn’t make it.

And having seen the images and descriptions of the new burgers I made it my number one priority to get to GBK ASAP to sample the new Bourbon Street special.

This was my first visit to Leamington’s GBK which is easily accessible to the town centre and immaculate inside.

It was fairly tranquil while dining today and there was only a couple of other people in the restaurant. As this was a late lunch on a Tuesday this was fairly expected.

It didn’t take me long to decide what to order. Well I knew EXACTLY what I was having before I stepped through the door – the mustard grilled beef Bourbon Street.

For those of you that don’t know, this is not a new concept. US-based In-N-Out Burger chain have famously been doing mustard grilled patties – dubbed “Animal Style” on their not so secret menu for a number of years now.

Although not the authentic In-N-Out experience I was looking forward to this nonetheless.

After a relative short waiting time the Bourbon Street special landed on the table looking and smelling very good indeed.

Visually, the build looked pretty impressive with thick, gooey mature cheddar lavishly melted all over its beef host.

On top of the cheese you could see the strategically placed bourbon glazed mushrooms – not everybody’s cup of tea I appreciate, but as a ‘shroom lover I was set to dive on in.

And my goodness this was good. Maybe it was because I was so hungry but I devoured this so quickly it made note-taking extremely difficult!

First up, the beef. Really quite impressive today with a good, flame-grilled taste going on with plenty of chargrilled marks to infuse the flavour of the meat.

I wasn’t actually prepared to be asked how I wanted my burger cooked with all the confusion over serving pink patties at the moment, so when presented with the option of medium I was more than up for it.

It was cooked slightly over medium with a few flecks of pink running throughout but I was more than happy with it. The mustard isn’t strong but certainly presents a noticeable difference to the normal GBK patty and is tasty.

As I made my way through the Bourbon Street I re-visited this synopsis and have to say that this is an incredibly respectable GBK special and certainly recommended.

After the impact of the flame and mustard-grilled beef your senses are flooded with, at first the pickled jalapeños and then the Sriracha mayo.

Honestly, it’s almost like someone has decided to extract all my favourite ingredients from my head and put them together on a burger.

There’s only a small amount of jalapeños on-board but enough… and they make themselves known within the first bite or two – yeah liking this. Liking it a bit too much at the speed I plough through eating it.

The Sriracha mayo is brilliant and works wonderfully bringing everything together in uniformity while also allowing the other ingredients to shine.

If I could recommend one burger I’ve had recently it would certainly have to be the GBK Bourbon Street (and having reviewed a plethora of burgers I rarely have one a second time but I’d get amongst this again).

The sauce isn’t overly hot… and complimenting the jalapeños gives you a warm, but suitable glow. Really nice. Then you’ve got that really thick cheese, quite creamy and distinct but melding all the components into one.

Again not a strong flavour but certainly decent and a respectable amount which is also perfectly melted.

Then you’ve got the earthiness from the bold, thick mushrooms.

If you’re not a fan I’m afraid you will not be converted, but if like me, you do enjoy them you’re in for a real treat.

Personally, I couldn’t distinguish much of a bourbon glaze (definitely slightly tipsy as opposed to being completely sloshed) but they work wonderfully in tandem with the mustard-grilled beef. Texture-wise these are far from slimy and are a mandatory component to enjoy this build.

The Bourbon Street is finished with the standard GBK salad components of lettuce, red onion and tomato.

I’m pleased to report I ate the entire burger with the tomato intact – it’s more thinly sliced here so not as offensive on my palate compared to thicker sliced ones I’ve encountered recently.

My only minor quibble is that I’d like to get more red onion which I think would have improved it just a bit more.

The slightly toasted sesame seeded bun on this occasion was certainly better than previous visits so maybe they or their suppliers have tweaked the recipe.

Overall, the Gourmet Burger Kitchen Bourbon Street is a good burger.

It’s definitely one of their better specials that I have sampled and a welcome addition to the summer menu.

You get a subtle, pleasurable heat coming from the jalapeños and Sriracha mayo which is complimented by the rich thick cut, earthy mushrooms.

The base of the Bourbon Street is the commendable mustard-grilled beef patty which certainly makes for a very enjoyable promo from GBK and is thoroughly recommended.

Burger Lad®