Nanny Bills – The Dalston Dip DIY

The French Dip is simple cold roast beef sandwich served on a baguette with a side of beef broth for dipping and is pretty commonplace on lunch menus at pubs and restaurants in North America.  I am a huge fan.  The broth dip softens the bread and warms the meat, bringing leftovers to life.  Even now if we are cooking a Sunday roast we will make extra and be sure to have baguettes on hand to make the ideal leftover lunch.  It never occurred to me at the time to try a cheeseburger “au jus”  or in gravy, and I was angry at myself for not putting that option together when the first burger spot here offered up the idea.  Now Nanny Bill’s is giving us an easy way to right that wrong with their Dalston Dip DIY.  Read on to see if the dip is worth the hype…

The Bun: 16/20

A very nice light brioche, with a lovely fluffy texture and perfectly cooked.  Covered in sesame seeds and uncut but those are both non-issues.  Turned out to be just a little bit too big for the patties, but with a double that isn’t awful.   Most importantly, it held together very well once dipped in the gravy.

The Toppings: 6/10

A French Dip doesn’t usually have lettuce or tomato, and neither does the Dalston Dip.  It does come with a batch of perfectly cooked caramelised onions.  I thought they were excellent when I had the burger “dry” but became a little overpowering once the burger had been dipped in the gravy.  

The Condiments: 8/10

The kit comes with gravy for dipping, a gherkin relish and burger sauce and each was very good in their own right.  The gravy was a thick version of the “jus” you get at pubs in North America which is traditionally very thin.  No flour so it must have been boiled down quite a bit, which concentrates the beef flavour and helps to create more of a coating on the burger when dipped then a soaked in liquid as you get with a French Dip.  As to the relish…in my house we have a split: dill pickle lovers who find traditional American relish too sweet, and relish lovers who find pickles too tart.  This was the first time both sides agreed.  I hope Nanny Bill’s offers it up for sale in grocery stores at some point.  The burger sauce is very good. Nothing too fancy, but lots of it.  As I said, on their own, each was very good  but our issue was that the flavours didn’t complement each other.  The gravy brought out the onions as I said above, but muted the other flavours.  While having chunks of gherkin in the burger sauce and a gherkin relish seems a little redundant.

The Cheese: 16/20

Really good American cheese.  Three slices for two patties is a weird amount but it certainly was enough for the burger.  Without the gravy, I thought the cheese was one of the stars, but once dipped it seemed like the cheese and gravy just didn’t mix terribly well.  French Dips usually don’t come with cheese but if they do its something more muted like Swiss.   

The Patty: 15/20

You get a big hunk of beef mince and need to make it into eight 100g patties.  I really like that it’s a double and the beef flavour is very good, but we found them very lean.  The good news is that really made them easier to cook as there was very little fat splatter, but also meant you needed to add oil to the grill to keep them from sticking.   Importantly though, they weren’t overly dry, and of course, if they were there is the gravy to moisten them back up.

The Taste: 12/20

Really good ingredients but just too many flavours in the end for our tastes.  French Dips work because the ingredients are plain and simple; it is the change in temperature and texture that make it better than a regular roast beef sandwich.  Here the cheeseburger is already warm, and the sauces and cheese already provide moisture and flavour, so the gravy has less impact.  Worse, it actually messed up the blend of flavours from some really good ingredients. Dipping simply overwhelmed what was a really good cheeseburger on its own, and made it hard to eat. If you like the look of Nanny Bills Dalston Dip then you should check out the Hot Box review here  

Our Verdict: 73/100 

I think if we had leftover patties in the fridge, then a gravy dip might be the perfect way to liven them up the next day.  Nanny Bill’s makes a great burger, we remain big fans, but for now we will keep our cheeseburgers and our French Dips separate. Nanny Bills are based out of London so if you fancy a peek then head on over to their website here