I am not a huge consumer of content on Itsagramaaaazing for reasons mainly linked to the “hype” in blog post title (why I call it “Istagramaaaaazing” and never go anywhere near Tik Tok) and also because I am innately suspicious of people who appear to be inordinately happy all the time as seems to be the case online with a lot of Influenzas (who tend to absolutely love to death every place they visit). A case of:

“Got to tell you all about this hidden gem Swiss place that my guys have got me an #invite to, which apparently has a totally sick alpine vibe, for what they have told me will be a once in a lifetime experience. OMG I am tots excited, as it is suppose to be literally to die for. It is called Dignitas, which is such a drop dead gorgeous name. Will tell you all how heavenly it is once I’ve been!”).”

They will be queuing around the block for those viral “croaked madame ou monsieur”, “filled croffins“, “hot crossed over buns”and, depending on whether you have been naughty or nice, “meet an Angel/Demon cake” I shouldn’t wonder!

Anyways, a while back, the almighty algorithm starting filling my feed with an awful lot of posts as to a burger joint called Hanbaagaasuuteeki (my dyspraxic brain is having an almighty job trying to process how to pronounce that, with my first stab being “ShouldIjustgotobleecker?”). I put it in the memory bank (where stuff goes to die) and promptly forgot all about it. A trip up to London (I use to go up all the time with work, but rarely do so these days as post the plague everything is done on Teams) to see the old man had it randomly popping back into the cerebral cortex and I thought let’s give it a go (needing to fuel up as I crossed London West to East)  whilst I am up there (all hail the algorithm).

I have to say it is quite a bold move to locate just down the road from Bleecker (who have won a not insignificant plaudit recently – their burgers are good but the “Best in the World” does seem a bit of a stretch to be honest), but they certainly seem to have a somewhat different USP.

The fusion Americana – pan Asian style at [unpronounceable name] is not really something I tend to f(l)avour, but if it tastes good then what the hell (actually no, for certain things just do it properly or don’t do it at all). I decided in for a dime in for dong/won and it is always interesting to test something as against the unrelenting “It was to die for, insanely good, OMG, next level, I wont lie to you it honestly blew my mind, I am properly obsessed” Itsagramaaaaazing guff.

Looking at the menu I was drawn to the basic bitch “Another Double Cheese Burger“, but thought I can get that anywhere (i.e. just down the road at Bleecker).

There was also a special on,

which did sound quite interesting.

I fought my traditionalist/boring old fart instincts and (possibly against my better judgement) went for the frankly odd sounding Shrimp Kong Bāgā burger (£14), a surf and turf affair (instead of the Szechuan chicken bāgā, which had initially caught my eye). The seeming addition of (American) cheese to a part seafood dish raised my eyebrows somewhat (and that is some heavy lifting and thus no mean feat, I can tell you).

Now I have always been slightly suspicious of surf and turf combos, thinking it odd to had the robust flavours of charred meat potentially drowning out the more delicate flavour of seafood.  I mean, how the hell do you pair a wine with surf and turf (big boy, oaky, chardonnay or a pinot noir, probably, but seems to me to require a compromise on both counts)?

Also S&T often has that American Phsyco business card pissing contest “I am having the most expensive steak on the menu, well I having that steak, a lobster and a bottle of DRC (you penniless pleb), well I’m going to hack you to death with an axe” vibe to it.

As such I was a tad sceptical as to what my beef patty and battered prawn combo in a bun would be like.

What arrived was an interesting looking number,

with a very, very smashed ( I would go as far as to rename it a smeared) patty.

Under the lid there seemed to be 3 battered prawns on top of the beef patty (so the reference to a mountain of them in the menu description was a bit of an overstatement – a Pen y Fan here rather than a K2).

So what did I think? Well whilst the beef, when you could taste it, had a good flavour of dry aged beef (slightly nutty with that hit of umani), it was kind of overpowered by the lashings of cocktail-esque sauce (which was quite sweet and had a backburner chilli heat to it). To me this sauce smothered (literally and flavour wise) both the beef and the prawns, with the latter really only bringing a slightly odd chewy textural contrast to the party/patty (any crispness from the batter encasing the prawns had been extinquished by being drowned in the copious sauce).  As such I didn’t really understand why the prawns were there. All remnants of prawn flavour (usually quite delicate at the best of times) were “battered” into utter submission by that sauce!

In terms of the smeared beef patty, I would be surprised if there was much more than a ounce (25g ) of actual beef to it which makes it a pretty pricey beef burger at £14. I really do think the wafer thin patty craze has rather run its course, as the benefits (crisp filigree and, in theory, a flavour boost from a robust malliard reaction) do not, to my mind, beat a nicely crusted, juicy, pink, thicker patty.

There were some interesting flavours in there, with the nori seaweed flakes amping up the umami of the beef (the rare times it manage to rear its head above sauce tsunami) and a back note of fiery gochugang in the ever present sauce which started quite benignly and then steadily built even after I had departed, but I thought it was just trying a touch too hard to be different and as a result it sort of failed in it main favour aims. Basically it was a prawn and beef burger that didn’t really taste at all of prawn and only occasionally of beef.  As for the cheese in there my palate couldn’t really discern it, but with seafood in the mix this was probably no bad thing.

Perhaps (no perhaps about it) I am just a bit boring, but it made we yearn for a basic bitch burger (basically a Bleecker cheese burger from just across the road to this place). It certainly hasn’t changed my view as to the purported benefits (or lack of them) of a surf and turf combo or a smeared burger patty

What I did very much like were the miso fries (£7) that I ordered with my burger.

A big portion of nicely crispy (even though well loaded), well seasoned, fries was topped with nori flakes, togaragashi, an umami rich miso infused mayo (but not too much of it)  and (best of all) tonnes of shredded pickled ginger.

The latter was a inspired rift on a trad. vinegar condiment, with just a slight kick of spicey heat on top of an abundance of sharp tanginess.

Eating chips with the supplied chopstick (I consider myself a dab hand having been taught how to use them by a Japanese au pair as a child eons ago) was a novel experience. Turns out they are exceedingly well suited to the task.

I note they do takeaways as well, but how the hell you would eat the burger and fries I had on the hoof I have no idea (I used/abused about 10 napkins eating it at a table). I would end up wearing most of it!

Booze wise they do pet nat, of course they do, which is the wine equivalent of “Felix, with the pompadour skin fade, from Dalston. Oh you know him, he use to have a topknot and do hot yoga and that sauna – ice bath thing before it went mainstream. Oh you mean the nob that wears a kilt and rides a Brompton everywhere“. It is often said (as with natural wine) that the fun of pet nat is its unpredictability, which I take as meaning it can vary from being a bit shxte to unbelievably shxte (so “pet crap“). Each to their own I suppose, but in terms of “Well, you know it is suppose to taste like that” brigade my reaction is generally “Oh so you are suppose to pour it straight down the sink then?” In fairness I am sure some pet nat wines are very nice, just none of the ones I have tasted to date.

They also do slushies, which looked  “interesting” flavour wise, but were quite small. Lady sat next to me had one and just looking at it made my teeth hurt.

I wanted a Sapporo (it was either that or Asahi beer wise), but they didn’t have any so Asahi (£5) it was.

It was cold and wet and not much else, to be honest, but provided the necessary lubrication without adding much flavour wise.

The verdict

Not sure I get the hype about this place (it is absolute catnip for Influenzas apparently). I thought my burger was OK, but I really didn’t think that the prawns bought much if anything to the party and there was way too much of the sauce which drown out pretty much everything else . For the £14 price tag, therefore, I though it a pretty average burger.  Perhaps the (discounted by me in favour of the shrimp number) Szechuan chicken bāgā number would have been more to my tastes.

What I did really like were the pickled ginger loaded miso fries  Another plus was they had Cuban jazz playing, of which I am a big fan (bit of Felix in all of us it seems).

It is certainly a well oiled machine, with every one well drilled,

and it needs to be with  hordes of people they must serve everyday. My wait, despite it being absolutely rammed, for my food was perfectly acceptable.

So in summary a bit hit and miss for me, but it is wildly popular with me only just managing to bag the last seat inside at 15.20 before hordes more people arrived and thus I appear to be in the minority in not really getting it (not an unusual state of affairs to be honest). Can’t imagine how busy it gets at peak times.

Looking at Bleecker (somewhat wistfully), as I walked back to the tube station,

this place seemed a fair bit busier🤷.

So in summary a little overhyped but not unpronounceable tripe.  Tad pricey for what was no more than an average (and a bit weird) burger, I thought, which certainly wasn’t worth the £14 price tag.  I would, however, pay £7 again any day for the miso fries (which surprises me a bit as I am not usually a loaded fries fan).

The details

Address: 36 Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, London, SW1W 0RE

Website: https://hanbaagaasuuteeki.com/

Opening hours: