Perk’d Up – Bacon Cheeseburger DIY

As the UK enters the second round of lockdown, I thought I’d do a quick search to see what new DIY kids might be out there and Perk’d Up appeared.  Always glad to see a new entry and after a tasting night at home, the family declared it a pretty good burger, and I declared it a pretty good price for a DIY kit.  Lots of cheese, lots of bacon, but could have used a little more beef.

The Bun: 16/20

A really good bun.   London clearly seems to prefer the brioche style as more and more of the top burger joints are using a very similar type of bun.  They came well packed, so none were squished, but they are not pre-cut.  Instructions called for light toasting, but next time I will try adding a little butter or steaming just to add a little more texture.  Maybe a tad too large for the size of the patties.

The Toppings: 7/10

Their instructions called for crispy onions, which are included in the kit.  I used to run a steakhouse that included similar ones as a garnish so like the flavour, but found putting them between the bacon and lettuce as instructed meant they fell out.  They also were just a tad strong taste wise compared to some of the other elements.  I made a second burger with raw onions instead and preferred it, but to each their own!  The kit obviously comes with bacon and it was good quality. Flavour of the bacon just not quite strong enough to compete with onions, but I was pleased it came with three half slices per burger, so the quantity was good.  And on the second burger I had without crispy onions the flavour balance was much better.

The Condiments: 6/10

The kit comes with Perk’d Up’s signature wagyunnaise sauce, and this is probably the most difficult element to score as the range of reactions went from “wow, that’s amazing” to “do I have to use it?”.   Not quite in the blue cheese “you either love it or hate it” sort of range, but there was a split.  Personally, I thought it was good, just not mind blowing.  A slightly earthy/savoury mayo that they recommended putting top and bottom.  I found the flavour lost to the onions as well.  For my second burger I added a dash of ketchup, and a dose of mustard and found the combo excellent.

The Cheese: 17/20

I think plain old American cheese is the ideal choice for burgers and kudos to Perk’d Up for providing two good quality slices per patty.  I think I just slightly over-melted it on my burgers, so lost a little to the griddle, and so maybe lost a little taste in relation to the onions.  But won’t penalise them for a chef’s mistake!

The Patty: 13/20

Again a bit of a range of reactions.  Perk’d Up uses ex-dairy beef which if you have had elsewhere you know has more flavour than traditional beef cattle.  So it just depends on whether you like that just slightly gamy flavour that comes from being grass fed.   My beef with the beef was the portion size.  The instructions called for 125g per patty but we had a slightly small portion at 478g so ended up just under 120g for each one.  They cooked well and had a nice juiciness, but I just ended up with an empty piece of bun at the end of each burger.

The Taste: 14/20

Good individual ingredients, and a very good cheeseburger, but not quite in my top tier.   The crispy onions and beef just sort of overwhelmed the bacon, cheese, and waguynnaise, but if you like those flavours than this could be a really great burger.    Maybe not the best we have had but if you want to check out the best our Hit List is full of ideas

Our Verdict: 73/100

Although some elements didn’t click perfectly for me, I do applaud the effort and comment them on the quality of the ingredients.  If you haven’t had crispy onions or dairy beef before, I certainly recommend giving them a try.  A kit for 4 is £30 so a better deal than some competitor’s products, and their chips (we added those to the order) were voted “best ever” by my very picky teenage son. A decent range of delivery days (others are one day a week) and well packed with easy instructions.

I look forward to this pandemic being over so I can pop into Perk’d Up and try them out in person, it is pretty clear they care about flavour.  I hope to try their Espresso Junkie burger at some point as “Espresso Plum Jam” has me intrigued.