Is there a part of you that often fancies or craves a burger…no matter how healthy you want to make it (skinny, only eat half the bun…)? If this is you, then we have something in common.
There’s just something about those yummy, delicious, mouth-watering fillings between a nice soft bun which entices me! Even the veggie burgers are heavenly!! Yes, Alex does moan at me sometimes if we go to a burger place and I order veggie :P
Perhaps it’s the number of burger restaurants which now line the streets of London which makes them so desirable… So how do you choose which one to go to?
I’m already a HUGE fan of GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen), and loved my first ever Five Guys, but I do like to try new places, and I’m now on a bid to try more burger restaurants!
I recently went for a burger treat at The Diner, the shoreditch branch of the chain, with a friend of mine. We popped along after work one friday to start the weekend with some good food, a couple drinks and a laugh – one of the best ways to end a stressful week and The Diner sure didn’t disappoint.
As it was only about 6pm when we arrived at The Diner to feast it wasn’t too busy apart from a party along the back so we were seated straight away by the host. He kindly asked whether we’d prefer the driving seats or the booth – we chose to be sat facing each other in the booth but when asked we did say we didn’t mind sharing if needed later on- He then explained the menu and service to us before going off to seat the next people.
I think The Diner is well laid out with American style booths making most of the seating. Music isn’t too loud so it’s a good place for a catch-up. Lighting also isn’t too bright creating a nice warm atmosphere (although not amazing for photography, sorry guys!).
There were numerous burger options and I can tell you I was struggling to decide between a couple (take a look for yourselves!). Finally settling for The Mexican – a hamburger topped with chilli con carne, cheese and red jalapeño chillies – even though I knew I’d most probably get extremely messy, and my friend The Arch Burger - a hamburger topped with pulled pork, cheese, coleslaw and dill pickle – and a side portion of sweet potato fries to share. We also ordered cocktails – how could you not when you see their menu? – and started getting a little too excited.
My Cherry Pie cockatil – Amaretto, berry tea and morello puree – nice and sweet, great combination of flavours, absolutely to die for. Highly recommended! Great start to my Diner experience.
Although they started getting busy service wasn’t too slow – the food came reasonably quickly – and when it came out I couldn’t wait to devour what was in my american style diner tray, it looked incredible! I only just managed to resist long enough to snap a picture!
The Mexican burger, served with top off. You can tell it’s going to be a messy one, but worth every saucy finger! The thought to eat with a knife and fork crossed my mind for all of two seconds – I decided to cut the burger in half and attempt to not get it all over my chin.
The mixture of the hamburger and the chilli con carne and jalapenos with the cheese = amazing! I’d never had a burger with chilli in before and this was such a delicious combination. It’s really made me think about trying weird and wonderful creations, even if a messy meal! – That’s what the sinks in the toilets are for after :) Just maybe not on a first date!
Our Sweet potato fries to share were nice and crispy, SO tasty and definietly big enough to share. I can’t tell you if they’re the best sweet potato fries I’ve ever tried – I do make some damn good ones myself, just to blow my own trumpet – but they sure are good! A great side to choose.
I like to think we ate our burgers gracefully and very lady like, however I’m sure we didn’t on a Friday evening, both so hungry our tummies were rumbling, eager to indulge after a stressful week – it was probably more of a stuffing the face kind of experience. Both burgers and the sweet potato fries were devoured – we did manage to get some chatting in too, not completely silent, so we can’t have had hamster mouths the whole time.
When we finished our table was cleared and we were asked if we’d like more drinks or desserts. We awaited the menu at which point we did have to start sharing our booth however the booths are so big we really didn’t mind!
The menu was once again delivered and we considered our cocktail options, a little too full for an entire dessert, and got extremely tempted by the hard shakes (milkshakes with alcohol…sound good huh?). Seeing how big the cocktails were we decided to share one and ordered The Kraken – Kraken Rum, banana icecream, maple syrup and malt. As we were sharing they actually served it into two glasses to save us drinking from one glass with two straws, which I thought was fab, and they were still pretty big, think of a sundae glass size! But it was so good you just didn’t want to leave any, you could really taste the rum too – such a great way to finish a meal!
We then asked for the bill and paid up before leaving. The service charge is added to bill – which was well deserved – and it still only came to about £25 each (For two cocktails and a big meal I think that’s pretty good!).
We then squeezed past the others on our booth and headed off, having started our weekend well and feeling extremely satisfied.
Overall I think The Diner is fab burger restaurant, delicious food, great service and amazing cocktails and milk shakes. I wonder where I’ll try next and if their burgers will beat this or GBK…hmmm….
Where would you recommend?
Chloe xx
