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Pop art or car crash? Kimchi Burger is the latest London foodie fad

So soon after Nigella Lawson adopted gochujang as a must-have condiment, now the London foodie scene is embracing the kimchi burger. Hawksmoor, a swish new steak joint in Seven Dials, Covent Garden, has the broadsheet restaurant reviewers lining up to visit. First came the Indie, next the Grauniad. Finally the Times this week, blogger style, saved money by not actually going there but quoted from everyone else’s reviews instead. The signature dish that the Twittersphere is a-buzz with? The kimchi burger. Fifteen quid for a cheeseburger with a bit of fermented cabbage might seem a bit steep, but people seem to like it. Here’s what the Indie had to say:

It was pop-art in a roll, a collision of colourful, brash flavours that shouldn’t have worked together but absolutely did. The patty itself, exuding the heady whiff of beef marrow, held its own against the zingily hot kimchi, which fizzes through a range of flavours, from sweet to citric, leaving a smile on your face, and a chilli-induced trout pout on the lips. Having tasted it, I understood why it had got people all of a-Twitter; it wasn’t quite like anything else I’d ever eaten.

Not all reviewers were so complimentary though. The freesheet Metro had this to say

I don’t love the kimchi burger (from the bar menu) after all: the meat is good but it lacks cohesion, falling apart into a squelchy, vaguely Korean cabbage-flavoured car crash.

For those in the know, although the kimchi burger is only available on the bar menu, apparently you can order it in the restaurant as well. I’ll certainly be trying it out as soon as I can in the New Year.

HT to MW for the tip-off.

Links:

Image of the Hawksmoor burger (unfortunately not the kimchi burger) is from the Hawksmoor Flickr account. Hawksmoor Seven Dials is at 11 Langley St London WC2H 9JG Tel 020 7856 2154

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