A bleu cheese burger with bacon and grilled onions is only sometimes like a beautiful woman. The bleu cheese is a lovely dress. The bacon is the complement of experience. (It's like good ground beef knows its good by itself but also recognizes the achievement of combining with bacon.) The grilled onions are like a fine piece of jewelry that occupies that space elegantly alone and the burger is all of this while clearly and utterly unpretentious.
It is why we eat burgers. They're basic yet evolved. They are not good for us but they are good to us.
London Gastropub's Bleu Cheese Bacon Burger was good to me. It was just the right mix of elegance with its refined taste and fancy bun, and girl-next-door allure of the working class, (to which a burger inherently belongs.) The fries were less than unremarkable. They are, as one might expect at a gastropub, filler and a base for so much beer. It's hard to blame London for that, however. Still, some sautéed snap peas or something like that would be a welcome diversion from the well worn French fry path.
Ultimately I did not fall in love with London's Bleu Cheese burger. I did bask in the warmth of burger endorphin release however, for the hour we spent at London's eating, drinking, and talking about burgers, the women in our lives and the ones not in our lives, and all the things of our day. Burgers are really conducive to that.
London's Burger gets a 79 from me.
David's Review
Ok, I have to admit something. I experienced extreme writers block while trying to complete this review. Don’t know why, but I knew I had to do something to knock myself out of it. Drastic conditions call for drastic actions. How do you kick start a Burger-blog you ask? With a burger, of course. I needed a burger so bad that it would refocus my mind on the burger I had experienced at London Gastro pub. The name of the burger I had will remain mc-nameless, but it worked.
Atmosphere-London Gastro pub is one of what is considered the big 4 players on Myrtle. There is Sena on Myrtle, London Gastropub, T-Phillips Alehouse and 38 Degrees Alehouse. While 38 Degrees isn’t technically ON Myrtle it has to make this list. Being on that list comes with certain expectations and responsibilities. London is known as the young kid’s hangout. It tends to be louder, wilder and packed with those experiencing the wonders of beer for the first time. I remember those days fondly. I don’t say that as a bad thing. It's just you have to know what you’re getting into-that’s all.
We hit London on a Wednesday, and kind of early so it wasn’t too bad. I have tried to measure each establishment equally so I try to order the same burger at every place we hit. Secretly, I fricken love bacon and this could easily turn into “Dave’s food with BACON added” blog. I ordered “The Burger” and added bacon.
Presentation-Let me start off by saying I love the tacos here and it was hard not to order 3 of them. But, this is not the Monrovia Taco-blog, although that presents the opportunity for an interesting subplot! Anyway, back to the burger Blog. This is a good sized burger. It came on a platter and was presented nicely. It comes with “herb” fries. They call them Herb fries, but really I think they just sprinkle some parsley flakes on them and call them herb fries. They were good but nothing special.
Taste-I love it when life hands you little surprises. Like when you find that 5 dollar bill in the street? Score. When you ask that girl who you think you have no chance with out on a date and in a moment of sheer insanity she says yes? Score! When the test results come back negative? Score!!! Ok. This burger isn’t as good as any of those examples, but it was pretty tasty. I was expecting a run of the mill hamburger. You know. A frozen patty with that fresh out of the freezer taste. What I got was a fresh tasting, delicious bacon burger. Fresh lettuce tomato and pickles, bacon and a brioche bun round out this tasty burger. It is one of the better burgers I’ve had so far. I have to rate it 3rd best under 38 Degrees burger and about equal to Jakes roadhouse burger (without the Texas sausage, Jakes would have been an easy #2.) In the highly competitive Monrovia burger business, getting the Bronze medal is pretty respectable.
Overall rate: 66
