Fast food feast in Clapham

This review was published in June 2001

Travelling from the upper reaches of North London to Clapham for a burger could get me certified as culinarily insane. But in fairness, it turned out to be a Rolls Royce of a burger: a tottering turret of moist pink beef and thick sliced cheddar in a solid sourdough bun, interspersed with red onions, relish and crispy lettuce (top marks for round, not iceberg) - all of which defied gravity only with the help of an outsize cocktail stick skewering it to the plate.

In my friend's case, it was a slab of breaded chicken with more or less the same trimmings. Both were excellent, my only criticism being the cheese - which was so generously sliced it couldn't melt properly, and so remained an indigestible lump that had to be hauled out.

With crispy hand-cut chips, fresh mayonnaise and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, the bill came to £35 - which may sound a lot for a burger, but was actually splendid value for the quality and quantity of the food we consumed. Sensibly, there were no puddings on offer; that really would have been the third Shredded Wheat.

So, if Gourmet and Burger together sounded like a culinary oxy-moron, the owners of GBK have pulled it off. The idea of providing excellent food in burger form apparently comes from New Zealand, and to hone their menu (if we'd been more imaginative, we could have gone for Chorizo and Sweet Potato, Venison, or Portabella Mushroom burgers), the restaurant cannily employed the reigning Kiwi King Of Fusion Food, Peter Gordon, founder chef of the Sugar Club.

In fact, the only downside to a meal at GBK is the uninteresting atmosphere - staff are charming, but the venue is an unmemorable tunnel of plain white walls, wooden floors and not much else...