The Bar at The Dorchester Wagyu Burger
Review of The Bar at The Dorchester Wagyu Burger
Website: http://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/london/the-dorchester/restaurants-bars
What they say:
Wagyu burger, tomato relish and truffle mayonnaise.
Price: £29.00.
Calories: Unknown.
Against my better judgment, today’s burger will be had in The Dorchester.
If there’s anyone who doesn’t know what The Dorchester is, it’s a big fancy and crushingly expensive hotel on London’s Park Lane.
There’s usually a Bugatti or Rolls-Royce or Pagani parked outside. Today there is only a Range Rover and two BMWs.
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| Outside The Dorchester… |
It’s a fairly cosmopolitan place, particularly if you speak Russian or Arabic. I don’t speak either and I’m hoping to muddle through with English.
The Bar at The Dorchester is very shiny, well-appointed and at this particular moment, quite empty. The only other customer is American (family originally from Sicily, I gather from his loud conversation with the barman).
Anyway, I’ll bypass the Cognacs at several hundred pounds per glass and go straight for the burger and Pilsner.
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| Just some of the extensive drinks menu… |
It’s timeless and sedate in here, and nice and cool on a hot day. I put my order in.
After a short while the waiter reappears and drapes a crisp white napkin over my lap and tells me the chef is preparing my burger.
I was asked if it was to have cheese (yes) and how I want it cooked (medium). It arrived with a Jenga-style construct of chips. Just about the fattest I’ve ever seen. Nice though, and damn hot.
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| £29.00 of your English Pounds… |
The burger was very,very neat. Everything positioned perfectly. You wouldn’t expect anything less in here.
The meat is Wagyu beef which is a big deal. Just look at the price of this thing!
It’s certainly, very tasty and the juices squirt out the back as I take a bite. The lovely pink insides show themselves to me as I break through the outer crust.
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| The Wagyu Burger… |
The cheese, mayo and lettuce sing like a choir, well-trained and supporting the beef in every tasty way.
The bun is well chosen. The seeded top is easy on the eye and the base has a slight firmness to it, keeping all the juices and sauce in check.
The insides of the bun are also slightly toasted, which add a delightful, subtle crunch to each bite.
There’s no doubting the headline act here is the beef though.
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| Lifting the lid at The Dorchester… |
Take the patty out and eat it alone, it’s probably still fantastic. But in this burger it is glorious. It’s almost as if the development of this has gone into fine details like finding the perfect combination of flavours to complement the meat juice to create perfect harmony.
The sauce in question is truffle mayo, and that’s the mushroom type, not the chocolate one (although that’d be interesting).
So, The Dorchester’s Wagyu burger then. A bit of a gem in the unlikeliest of places.
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| Real men eat pink… |
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