Farm Fresh’s – American Burger

Hidden away by Kingston University inside the middle of a row of houses is Farm Fresh Burgers. Having driven past the restaurant multiple times I have probably overlooked them as a potential review spot for Cheeseburgerme. Having made the conscious effort today to try a restaurant in Kingston Google threw up Farm Fresh into the mix. I chose the American Burger, seemed quite fitting given the review of Honest’s Tribute scoring so highly and this being an almost identical burger. Read on to see how it went…

The Bun: 16/20

A pretty good bun here at Farm Fresh. On first view I did think that it looked a little bread’y for me. Before I took the first bite I halved the burger to share with the wife and looking at the crown of the bun which looked heavy set with bread I figured it was not going to be a good day in the office. The standard of buns has gone through the roof with Burger and Beyond setting the bar presently. The brioche at Farm Fresh is decent, soft to the bite and held really well against the toppings and condiments. Not outstanding but certainly no complaints on my side.

The Toppings: 8/10

The American Burger came with just two simple toppings, lettuce and Turkey Bacon. Turkey Bacon is not something I am a huge fan of, for some reason the consistency is just not an ample replacement for good old pork. However, hold on a second, this is probably the best turkey bacon I have ever had. The flavour had a nice light smoke, consistency, although thin, was pretty pleasing. The lettuce was super fresh and made for a nice textural break up in the stack. How you can really score lettuce is usually an issue for me but I was surprised how much I liked it in this particular burger. Hats off to the water eating crew!

Condiments: 2/10

Ok, so the first real drop in performance here for the American Burger. My assumption is that they have used French’s Mustard here as the menu just says American Mustard but the taste was exceptionally familiar. Usually, mustard in a burger is a plus; for the Farm Fresh burger it was a huge negative. The stack had been absolutely slathered with this mustard, so much so that even a scrape could not get rid of the amount that had saturated the crown of the bun.  A real shame as things were going quite well but the overpowering of such a huge flavour is just a crime. For those that like mustard I apologise but surely you would concur that overdoing the mustard can cause a real unpleasant experience in a burger.

The Cheese: 10/20

The American Cheese was well layered, looked the part and cascaded the side of the patty the way you want to see in a burger. The taste? The taste (s), were few and far between. Tasted good when you got relief from the overpowering mustard that had been placed in the stack. Unfortunate mistake in such a high scoring category.

The Patty: 13/20

The menu states a “Grass Fed, Free Range, outdoor reared Beef from Oxfordshire“. Sounds like a mouthful to me, that cow must have been living the dream. As it goes, the beef was okay. Tasted pretty nice but the texture was not, in my opinion, brilliant. Coarse grind meant for a slight unpleasant, rough to the tongue experience. As mentioned, the flavour was ok, not sure how much difference the grass fed, free range sunbathing cow is supposed to make but was slightly above average by our standards. I like a juicy burger that is teetering on undercooked which picks the temp up after the cook and just gives you a messy full of flavour patty. Farm Fresh didn’t deliver on that today.

The Taste: 12/20

Despite the mess of mustard that had me wincing every now and then the components were strong enough to score above average in this category. The beef had okay flavour, coupled a decent bacon and decent bun it was enough to say this is a burger I would try again. If we ever try Farm Fresh again, I will definitely be stating the amount of sauce and ask for a little less cook time on the coarse ground beef!

Our Verdict: 61/100

I would definitely try Farm Fresh again. Maybe I would be tempted to go for another one of their burgers as they have a good selection there. I have suspicions that, being local to the university, they are geared up for a younger, more fast food (ish) type of customer. Irrespective of their target demographic they have a decent offering as a burger restaurant with some easy wins to make for a more enjoyable burger I believe. Have to mention also their brilliant burger box. Four holes in the top of the box to allow for breathing and stop the burger sweating in its heat. Also the box opens up to almost a plate which can then easily be folded back into the box like some takeaway transformer. Brilliant!

Another mention is that Farm Fresh is Halal, hence the Turkey Bacon!