Bokshop’s – Satay Night Fever

Eager to try this restaurant after finding them online I decided to try an extra Burger this weekend. A little off scope and a little out of my proverbial jurisdiction down in Brighton, Bokshop was a serendipitous wild card due to my essential travel today. The creative menu looked outrageous at first sight, Burgers made with Satay Sauce, Burgers made with Asian infused spices, and all based around free-range chicken. The wild card was firstly due to only offering Chicken and secondly being located in Brighton and not technically within my remit for Burger reviewing. I had to give this a go though! 

The Bun: 16/20

A simple brioche bun that was steamed to perfection. I do like seeing a little grill mark with a slightly crispy underbelly on brioche but the taste was good. The texture could have used some attention, adding some crisp underneath would have enabled the bun to have a better bread texture against the heaps of liquidity that was stacked inside the burger. As mentioned, the simple brioche was steamed well, kept the natural softness but didn’t quite have the premium taste that some of the big hitters have managed to pull out of the bag in their buns.

The Toppings: 5/10

As lettuce and cucumber can be, the toppings were okay. I did find the lettuce to be pretty fresh which is what racked up the average score in this category but the cucumbers, no. The cucumbers just drowned in the satay sauce turning them into a soggy mess that had no place in this stack. Quite disappointing, the idea is there with the chicken and fresh salad but I am afraid in this stack it just doesn’t work. The satay sauce is so thick and creamy causes all sorts of problems with the cucumber. The lettuce was cut thick enough to hold its own, so it still had a little identity which was pleasing.

The Condiments: 5/10

The Satay sauce and the Red Chilli Jam, the two did not go. Each bite of this Burger was confusing. The satay sauce tasted cheap and had no ‘crunch’ as was stated in their description. The Red Chilli Jam was an enigma in itself. I am under the impression that jam would have a sticky texture and be flavourful, most Burger Jams I have tried tend to be strong in taste. This Red Chilli Jam was more like a salsa with a watery consistency, definitely mostly tomato as I actually thought they had put raw tomatoes in the Burger.

The Cheese: 13/20

There is no cheese in this burger and so I am going to take an average scoring of our 4 main categories and add it to this section so the overall score is still reflective of the burger.

The Patty (Chicken Thigh): 12/20

Hugely disappointing for me. The very essence of Fried Chicken is a crispy batter, usually with a signature taste in the batter. I mean, KFC, you could eat that anywhere in the world and you would know it is KFC. Whether there is black pepper, paprika, just something in the batter, you taste it. I was disappointed with Bokshop because the chicken did not have any taste, it was bland. The thigh itself was cooked exceptionally well. It was moist, thick, meaty and had a brilliant internal texture which is really hard to do when you are frying chicken. It is just the blandness of the batter and the fact that the batter was not crispy which was disappointing for me. Perhaps it was not left out to crisp up after the cook, I am unsure, it just was not great.

The Taste: 12/20

Between the Red Chilli Jam and the Satay was a lot of confusion but the overall taste was not bad. I would like to try this burger without one of those two sauces which would probably give the burger a little more of a singular identity rather than two flavours competing with one another. The chicken, although well cooked, does not stand up to my expectation of a good fried chicken yet still played a role in the positives of the Satay Night Fever due to the internal texture being really good and anything but dry. We also reviewed McDonalds Chicken Big Mac why don’t you check it out here for comparison

With a creative and fun menu, the Bokshop guys just seemed to have fallen short. Being situated in a prime position in Brighton by the pier I hope they are able to work on their flavours because the menu is an eye-watering delight. I would have travelled a lot further than Brighton to try those Burgers based on the pictures and the ingredients on the menu. I think the complexity of the Burger is something that maybe lets it down as the flavour profiles needed to support white meat have got to be strong and need to have a singular identity. In the Red Chilli Jam or Satay, one needs to step up and be a protagonist in this Burger as the chicken is not a strong enough candidate, although cooked well. Fried Chicken, with no crunch, is a bad start. You can check out the Bokshop’s website here if you want to see more from them