Burger Review – The Elvis Burger (Hungry Horse)

Cheap eateries don’t always mean terrible food

Pub chains like “Hungry Horse”, “Beefeater” and “Fayre & Square” are common around the UK.  Family pubs, with big menus doing a variety of dishes, all of which are cooked fast and not necessarily of the highest quality.

That being said, you can often get plenty of food for your money, and from time to time there is a gem on the menu that’s worth a try.

The Elvis Burger

I was looking through the burger menu, as I’m inclined to do pretty much at every pub or restaurant we go to, and it was the usual “Bacon, Cheese, BBQ”, “Fried Chicken” etc.  All fine, and tried before.  Nothing outstanding, but acceptable and reasonably priced.

Then I saw “The Elvis Burger”.  Always one for a gimmick, I checked out the ingredients that set it apart from the other burgers on the menu:

• Beef Burger;
• Bacon;
• Spicy Peanut Sauce;
• Strawberry Jam;

Never one to shy away from a decent sweet/savoury combo, I had to try it!

As is always the case with these places, it gets busy, and presentation isn’t really a concern.  Cheap, fast food, delivered to your table.  Sometimes slapped on a plate and chucked at you at the table.  Whilst the presentation wasn’t great here, everything else was fine.

The thing I noticed straight away was that the Spicy Peanut Sauce and Jam were actually mixed together, so it didn’t look quite how I’d imagined.  It doesn’t really matter though, because it would taste the same regardless, right?

So, the patty was fine, it had flavour, it was actually seasoned and cooked to be about medium.  This is a big deal for these places, as I’ve often found the cheap meat to be bland, unseasoned and then usually over-cooked.  Strong start!

Bacon is standard.  I don’t really like the use of streaky bacon, over a nice thick-cut slice, but that’s how it comes, and the saltiness and texture added to the mouthfeel and taste nicely.

Then, the sauce………..Sweet, but not particularly spicy, it had the texture of a peanut butter, albeit a little runnier.  Sweet mush basically, with a hint of peanut.  It wasn’t awful though, it was pleasant, and the sweetness with the meats worked really well, as you would expect.

The bun was supposed to be a seeded brioche bun.  It wasn’t.  It was a sweet bread, so it was perhaps some kind of plain brioche-esque roll.  It was soft, and held everything together well, which is all it needed to do.  The taste was fine, it wasn’t dry, and it helped with the overall bite of the burger.

Worth a bite?

When you step into a place like this, you know what to expect when it comes to the food. It’s reasonably priced and there’s plenty to choose from, with ever-rotating menus throughout the year.

That being said, this was certainly one of the better burgers I’ve had at a chain pub for quite some time.  The patty itself is always the most important piece to me, and it was well cooked and seasoned.  Everything else is a bonus, and in this case, it was a tasty, sweet and meaty mouthful with every bite.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a well-priced, sweet and savoury course.