With the sad collapse into administration of Meat Liquor being testimony to how hard the environment is for hospitality, I genuinely love their Dead Hippy burger, I thought a visit to a stalwart of the Cardiff burger scene was in order.

Said stalwart is Got Beef, which has been going since 2014.

Bearing in mind all that has happened since 2014 that is no mean feat.

The fact that they have recently updated their menu further encouraged the visit.

There were also some specials

which I can’t say really floated my boat at the time (although on looking again the brisket bao does appear to be rather good value).

My aversion to too many toppings disapplied some elements of the menu, I just don’t get pulled pork or brisket, tater tot et al in a burger ensemble I am afraid, but to me it seemed the use of toppings here is far more restrained than some places (regrettably I do see a “fxck off” frazzle in there).

My inclination burger wise tends to side with the simple and thus the obvious go to was the Welsh Black (the cheapest burger at £9.10 and still so if you add streaky bacon for an extra 75p).

I rather liked the sound of the double patty Animal Style (assumed to be a mustard fried beef patty) which was comparably priced to the burger I recently had from Sharkbite (before you add the Platform delivery fee for the latter), but for a lunch visit it seemed a bit too much with 2 x 5oz patties, plus 2x cheese slices (and the chips under the lid put me off a bit)

So the Welsh Black it was, with me adding bacon to the mix (making it £9.85 in total). I also ordered a portion of fries (£2.60).

As the weather was set fair I was able to sit out in their beer garden

which was rather nice as it is a bit of a sun trap. Cracking when the evening start to really draw out, I would imagine

My burger arrived fairly quickly (it was quite quiet)

and I was quite happy that it was not of the smashed variety (being a decent disc depth wise).

Nice flavour to the meat patty (the most important element of any burger), with a good yielding texture, nice fat to lean ratio to the blend and a pleasing juiciness (oft lacking in an uber thin smashed patty). The bacon had a decent crispness to the fat, without being nuked and another plus point was a nicely tangy burger sauce.

On the negative side, I am not a huge fan of the brioche bun (find it too sweet) and the American cheese (has to be cheap, tawdry, Yankie cheese on a burger) here could have done with being a lot more melted (its gooeyness is its primary selling point to my mind).

Whilst the patty had a good flavour, with a  nice level of seasoning, a tad more of a crisp caramelisation crust on the exterior wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Finally, I do like a bit of pink in my non smashed burger patty, but understand why here it was not present as it would no doubt have resulted in H&S stormtroopers rappelling down the walls to arrest anyone serving anything remotely pink (Barbie, your days are numbered) here. Can’t imagine why this place in Pontyclun hasn’t been nuked from orbit by said stormtroopers to be honest (if I had the codes I would do so merely for use in the name of the word “Bougie“)!

All in all, though, I enjoyed this burger for what was under a tenner.

The side order of  fries was very nice.

Piping hot, straight from the fryer without being greasy, with a good level of well distributed seasoning and an excellent crunch to the exterior and a fluffy interior. Good portion size too for £2.60. My only quibble was ketchup was the only condiment provided. I could have asked for my preferred mayo, but was outside and too lazy to get off my fat arse to go inside to do so! I put a small exploratory blob of ketchup on a chip and immediately regretted it as the sweetness hit me.

Drinks wise there is a small selection of booze and some soft drinks

with some specials.

Despite being genuinely curious as to how bad the Heineken alcohol free (taking the booze out of something whose one and only redeeming quality is it is alcoholic is a bold move in my opinion) must be, with there being some genuinely good non/low alcoholic beers around (I actually quite like Guinness Zero and would drink it over most mainstream lagers anyday), I decided to go soft and cold with the locally made Bon Homie (£2.50).

Really nice drink this, with a good level of citrus sour and a nice spritz making it very refreshing. Worked well in cutting through the richness of the burger.

I would have enjoyed it much more had I not inadvertantly placed the glass so it tilted into the bench gap resulting in me losing a good 1/4 of it, but hey ho (perils of being a clumsy oaf).

The verdict

I compared my Great White burger at Sharkbite (slightly unfavourably) to the pretty much equivalently priced (actually a bit cheaper all in) Bleecker bacon cheese burger I had had in London a few weeks prior to my visit there but arguably a more equivalent comparison would be this Got Beef Welsh Black number.

Discounting location and convenience as a factor, pound for pound I thought the Welsh Black bested the Great White. Nigh on £2 difference for ostensibly the same thing (a one patty bacon cheese burger) is a lot (over 16% less or 19% more depending on which way you look at it) and when you factor in the better and cheaper (over £1 less) Got Beef chips the overall saving becomes quite compelling.

Was this Got Beef effort better than the Bleecker burger? No, as the Bleecker number had more exterior crunch and caramelisation and melted cheese. Got Beef is a fair bit cheaper though and Bleecker is a high bar.

Does that mean I would always choose Got Beef over Sharkbite? Actually no, as there is the convenience factor with Sharkbite being handily placed down the Bay by the train station in terms of a quick bite to eat before a Mystere Wine club tasting and Whitchurch Road can be an absolute bitch to park on.

We (me included) oft forget the old stagers, but there is usually good reason for their longevity in what is a brutal market place. Shiny and new is nice, but it is often those  “burnished over time” places that have that enduring appeal and thus can shine just that bit brighter.

All got to start somewhere though.

Details

Address: 85 Whitchurch Road, Cardiff, CF14 3JP.

Website: can’t see one, but they are on Istaamaaaaazingram under gotbeefco.

Opening hours: