Byron – burger restaurant

A family-friendly restaurant chain, specialising in “proper” burgers, craft beers and extra thick milkshakes.

Byron has a pretty straightforward mission statement, which is simply to serve top quality burgers sourced from British beef.  This means that there really isn’t anywhere for them to hide – they live or die on how good their burgers are.  Luckily for them, this was certainly one of the better burgers that I’ve had.

“B-Rex” burger

The “B-Rex” burger is their current new flavour, and in addition to the burger patty itself, it consists of an onion ring, crispy bacon, “American” cheese, jalapenos peppers, BBQ sauce and mayonnaise.  The burger is served on its own with a large pickle (a lengthways quarter of a whole pickle) on the side.

At the end of the day, if you get the patty wrong, the burger will never recover – but Byron’s beef-burger was one of the best I’ve had in a while - cooked medium, it was still pink in the middle, and more importantly, was very juicy (nothing’s worse than a dried-out patty).  In contrast, the outside of the patty was nicely seared, so that you get that crisp, barbequed shell sealing in the juicy burger within – very mouth-watering!

The "B-Rex" burger

The rest of the burger complimented the patty perfectly – the “American” cheese (whatever that means?) was melted over the patty, but didn’t have that cloying texture that some “burger cheese” can have, while the jalapenos peppers still had a bit of crunch as well as adding a touch of heat to the burger.  The double portion of crispy bacon meant I certainly didn’t feel short changed, and the onion ring avoided the dual problems of either going soggy or being impossible to bite through (sometimes when you bite into an onion ring in a burger, and the whole thing comes out in the first bite!).

If I had one nit-pick (and it really is a nit-pick), it’s that the patty was so juicy already that it didn’t need quite as much mayo and BBQ sauce as it had, as the end result arguably made the burger a little too sloppy when you tried to eat it.  That said, I’m quite fond of “sloppy” burgers (as they’re much preferable to the dry burgers you get at the other end of the spectrum), so this wasn’t a problem for me.

The "B-Rex" burger & "Freddar" cheese fries

Presentationally, the dish did leave a little to be desired, as it was just a burger on a white plate with a pickle, but I guess they’re happy to let the food do the talking.  I ordered a side of Cheese Fries, which were fairly standard French fries topped with Byron’s “Freddar cheese”, which appeared to be cross between melted cheese and béchamel sauce.  It was nothing special, although it did add something to what would otherwise have been a pretty nondescript side dish.  The only downside was that the fries were served in a high-sided dish, meaning that the fries on the top were drenched in the cheese sauce, while the fries at the bottom were bone dry.

I washed the burger down with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Milkshake, which was as delicious as it sounds (assuming you like chocolate and peanut-butter as much as I do)!  A nice large portion served in a metal “cocktail shaker”, it served as a both a drink and a makeshift dessert!

“…Byron has decided to focus on one thing – but it does that one thing very well …”

As a restaurant chain, Byron has decided to focus on one thing – but it does that one thing very well.  In the burger hierarchy, I’d say this is a definite step up in terms of quality from the general American-style restaurants like TGI Fridays and Frankie & Benny’s, and it has a more pleasant ambience and “restaurant” feel than the no-frills, order-at-the-counter approach of Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  They just need to up their game on the side dishes...