Just occasionally a restaurant eschews a fancy name, and says what it serves… Burger & Lobster, part of the Goodman steak chain, does exactly that. Its menu has proved so popular that the restaurant is now moving nearly two tons of lobster a week – and as the lobsters are roughly a 1kg each, that’s nearly two thousand lobsters every seven days.
In order to ensure a consistent supply, Burger & Lobster are taking delivery twice a week from Nova Scotia into their three tiered holding tank in the basement, holding around 900kg of lobster at any one time*. It’s the biggest lobster tank in the UK, and they think perhaps Europe…
Charlotte and I decided we had to see this phenomenon for ourselves, so we headed on over to Mayfair in warm clothes, ready for the inevitable wait – Burger Lobster doesn’t take reservations, so service is strictly on a first come first served basis. It took us about twenty minutes to grab a table, but the waitress did offer us either a low one, or one on the high chairs. I twisted Charlotte’s arm and headed for the low table. We had arrived at 1.15 pm, bang in the middle of service, so it’s no surprise it was heaving. The clientele is an utterly eclectic mix of local hedge fund types, tourists, groovy bohemians etc, and we even had a couple of elderly ladies who lunch who are clearly regulars.
There are only three choices on the menu, and I’m sure you’ve already worked most of those out. You can have a beef burger in a brioche bun; a whole lobster either steamed, or steamed and finished on a chargrill; or a lobster roll, which is a brioche roll, large piece of lobster and mayonnaise. Everything costs £20 regardless of your choice, and comes with salad and chips.
While we made our choices we had a Mint Tom Collins, which though incredibly potent, actually came in a much smaller measure than it looks. This isn’t a complaint, merely an observation – if you’re used to drinking water with your meal, your going to go through these drinks in record time.
We were slightly anxious about having a whole lobster as there seemed to be a lot of claw cracking implements flying around the room. The waitress assured us the kitchen sent out the claws already cracked and joked that this was as much about diners feeling they needed the right equipment as anything else. Suitably calmed, we both ordered the grilled lobster with garlic butter sauce. Our instruments duly arrived, along with some Hellman’s mayonnaise, Heinz tomato ketchup, a couple of bibs displaying the house logo and some hand-wipes.
I’m not usually a bib wearing type, but Charlotte has much better trans-Atlantic sensibilities than me and promptly donned hers – she was right – I’m glad we did!
Burger & Lobster
29 Clarges Street
London W1J 8EF