The Beefy Boys – The Butty Back

Review of The Beefy Boys, Hereford – The Butty Back Burger

Website: http://www.thebeefyboys.com/

What they say:

All of our beef is sourced locally and freshly ground, every day. We along with our suppliers take every step to ensure our product is of the highest possible quality. The Butty Back – Beef Patty, American & Swiss Cheese, Bacon, Red Cabbage Slaw, Lettuce, Onion, 16 Hour Smoked & Pulled Beef Brisket, Butty Bach BBQ Sauce.

Price: £10.00.

Calories: Unknown.

Is there a better burger we could review for the official re-launch of the BURGER LAD® website?

Hereford-based The Beefy Boys recently opened up a brand new restaurant in The Old Market shopping centre after a number of years of doing pop-ups in and around the area.

This should be a good experience – their past accolades include winning a recent UK Burger Battle in Birmingham and prestigiously being crowned world’s best burger in the World Burger Championships in Las Vegas in 2014.

We made a two-hour round trip just to go and check out their swanky establishment for lunch on a Sunday. And I’m really very glad we arrived in the city when we did.

There was a queue just to get in the door and this was 5 minutes before it opened at 12:00. Inside we bagged a good window seat and watched as literally 30+ people snapped up all the remaining tables.

This is a prime location right in the heart of Hereford.

In the development you’ve got the usual High Street chains so it’s really very good to see an independent, local joint doing so well. The rent rates must be eye-watering but from what we witnessed today, The Beefy Boys don’t have to worry about attracting customers!

Inside this is your typical dirty burger joint with industrial-style lighting, cool artwork and a mixture of wood and corrugated iron.

It’s got a very good vibe to it and with outdoor seating this is going to be HUGELY popular in the warmer months. But like I said this place is going to continue packing customers in whatever the weather.

You know it’s going to be a messy burger affair when you see kitchen roll on your table. Service was friendly and efficient with staff using a slick tablet ordering system.

Sat inside with the tunes playing (think Rebirth of the Cool Phive) you get an almost “factory feeling” – this is where good burgers are made.

We were surprised not to see any milkshakes on the menu, but opted for a Coke and Sprite instead as you get one free refill on draft soft drinks. And despite how busy it was, after a relatively short wait I was presented with The Butty Back.

This arrived on a metal plate with a big side of WOW. This is a big burger and you won’t go hungry!

I’d seen some pictures on social media but none prepared me for this.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the biggest burger I’ve ever encountered, but it certainly looked an impressive, dirty stack of meat, cheese and more meat.

You need the kitchen roll to eat this! Not a shadow of a doubt. A big mouth will also come in handy…

The Butty Back is an impressive sized burger and is stacked with smoky brisket which is really very satisfying both in flavour and quality.

And quality is on offer in Hereford with The Beefy Boys using acclaimed local butcher, Neil Powell for their fresh, locally sourced 21 day aged Hereford beef.

Texture-wise the burger works wonders. You get the meaty goodness of that quality beef patty (cooked ever so slightly over medium) which is complimented by that brisket.

What makes this really enjoyable is the welcome crunch you get from the red cabbage slaw.

Afterwards I said this is the one topping I might have considered holding before writing about burgers but this was a really very clever and inspired combination.

From the taste of the slaw and subtle Butty Bach BBQ sauce it really made me feel like I was eating proper Carolinas-influenced barbecue. The patty is certainly up there with the best I’ve tried as well so I cannot recommend this enough.

If there isn’t enough meat on the burger for you (trust me there is!) you’ve also got a decent amount of bacon which is finished off with the two types of cheeses (very good!), lettuce and onion – although in retrospect the onion didn’t stand out to me and I don’t think the lettuce is actually required. I also expected a bit more “oomph” from the sauce.

We had some BBQ dipping sauce with the gorgeous skin-on fires which were incredible and I must say that BBQ sauce it the BEST I’ve ever experienced. I wanted more of it on the burger it was that outstanding.

To its upmost credit, the perfectly toasted sesame-seeded brioche (I’ve not seen many brioche with seeds) coped very admirably considering all that was placed on the heel of the bun.

Sides-wise, it was great to have the Ninja Wings too with it being quite novel not to eat them when not coated in super-hot sauce and turning it from enjoyment to challenge and then inevitable pain.

These had a delectable Asian-influenced marinade/sauce coating and the accompanying Sriracha Dip ensured you could add your own heat as required.

Good sides with good vibes indeed. And from the looks of the other fry options we saw on the day you can tell the lads have really put the research into what should go accompany a burger.

The Butty Back from The Beefy Boys is a very good burger. I can imagine some people baulking at the £10 price but you really do get what you pay for with this award-winning burger.

A super pimped up Bacon Cheeseburger using locally sourced quality beef is complimented with melt in your mouth beef brisket and a very good crunchy slaw to give you a true tasting American-style BBQ experience.

Knives and forks are strictly for show purposes only at The Meat Boutique in Hereford.

If you need it, put HR4 9HR in your Sat Nav, you won’t regret it!

Burger Lad®