Nearly 15 years ago, I had my first lunch in London at the Gaucho near Piccadilly Circus, and I have considered it a great spot for a steak ever since. However, I had not tried their burger and so when I so when I spotted them offering a cheeseburger DIY kit, I felt I had to try.
The Bun: 14/20
A pretty good brioche style bun that came individually wrapped, but unsliced. They were a tad on the hard side, and the instructions suggested an optional toasting that did little to soften the bun at all. Flavour was good, but they were just too dry and firm to be optimal. Next time I would fry in butter to soften and bring out the flavour even further.
The Toppings: 4/10
The kit comes with baby gem lettuce and chopped onions. The lettuce was ok, although the sections we got were a little brown and dry when they arrived. The onions were good and the portion size was decent. However, they were either slightly pickled or a few days old and starting to turn, so I ended up the only person to try as I like that flavour. Not ideal that we couldn’t be sure though!
The Condiments: 1/10
Standard condiments were mayonnaise and a cherry tomato jam, which sits somewhere between a topping and a condiment but I will include it here. The mayo was tangy, but liked the onions it felt like it was a few days old and it was starting to separate. The tomato jam was very lumpy and lacked interesting flavour. Was more like a cherry tomato paste than anything else and when you got a big lump in a bite it tended to overpower everything else. Those that tried it ended up scraping it off and using ketchup and mustard to perk up the flavour.
The Cheese: 6/20
I think we were supposed to get one slice of Monterey Jack cheese per burger but the kit came one short, which was disappointing. Even more disappointing was how thin the slices were, as you could literally see through them. They did melt well and tasted fine on its own, but was lost in the final product.
The Patty: 16/20
The kit comes with Argentinian 140g (5 oz) pre-formed patties and were the star of the show as you might expect from a steak house. They cooked easily with just a little splatter so didn’t shrink much at all. Moderate savoury flavour, but with no gaminess. They were nice and juicy even though cooked all the way through. Perhaps needed a little more fat for a fuller flavour as it did get washed out by the lumps of tomato jam in places, but pretty good once we re-configured without the jam.
The Taste: 10/20
Despite some good beef and a bun with potential, the other ingredients led to a disappointing cheeseburger. I have added a bonus point for the fries (see below) as they were really good, and have given them marks for being a decently filling burger. But the cheese, mayo and tomato jam just were not good enough for a restaurant of this calibre. Gaucho has not scored too highly in the taste department but Hawksmoor’s Big Matt flew to a position, you should check our review here
Our Verdict: 51/100
Our opinion was that Gaucho does not sell a lot of these kits, or else we would have expected fresher ingredients, not to mention getting all of them. The quality beef was just not matched by the other ingredients, although I must give them some kudos for other non-burger items we ordered. First off, the kit comes with “dirty slaw” to be served as a side dish, but we made one burger with that instead of the mayo and gem lettuce and liked it better. Second, we had also ordered some of their short rib kits and they were outstanding. Third, and most relevant here was the waffle fries that came in the kit. They were absolutely tremendous…they came pre-cooked and you just heat up in the oven and sprinkle a dose of thyme salt over them. Despite the mediocre score, I would actually buy the kit again for the fries, bun and beef. Steam or butter fry the bun, use the slaw along with a burger sauce or ketchup/mustard and add your own cheese and it would be an above average burger. Hopefully this review has not put you off trying Gaucho out, you can see their website here
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The Bun
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The Toppings
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The Condiments
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The Cheese
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The Patty
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The Taste
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Our Verdict
