Last week I helped a friend of mine move house, and in return he also let me buy him dinner .. He lives up near the Thomas Kemp and I hadn’t been there for a while so it was pretty much set in stone what I’d be eating.
From their menu description:
Thomas Kemp Beef Burger – £7.95
Our homemade beef burger with horseradish, gherkins, tomato & mixed leaves.
I can’t remember if the cheese and bacon was an added extra, but what was unexpected was a massive dollop of mayonnaise on the burger and a distinct lack of horseradish… it wasn’t entirely horrific, in fact it was quite a nice change as I never put mayonnaise on my burgers, that’s weird.
The ‘chips’ however were shit, especially compared to my mates deliciously soft and crispy fries, which I ended up eating most of as he wasn’t that hungry. The ones served with the burger were, probably ‘hand cut’ as that’s all the rage, chunks of potato, fried to the degree that they weren’t crispy in the slightest but were still incredibly greasy, which really defeated the point. It’s hard to get chips with their skin on right, and the Thomas Kemp didn’t. Compared to their other style of chip it was a real let down.
The cheese was deliciously melty and the bacon was fantastically bacony and the array of salad in the burger complimented it, rather than fell out, but I do have a gherkin fetish and have been adding more fresh tomato to my diet in recent weeks. Whilst I’m in no way pretending the addition of salad was healthy, it added to the overall taste and texture of each bite, which is the point.
The highlight of the burger was the bread, deliciously soft and crunchy ciabatta, the burger meat itself was also nice, the entire experience was thoroughly delicious but, due to the standard of pub burgers steadily increasing, not mind blowingly special. I would definitely eat it again though, but I’d prefer their other chips..