Sunday 13 November 2011

An Underwhelming Feeling @ Meat Liquor


To say we were underwhelmed by our first impression of Meat Liquor would be an understatement. After reading for such a long time about the God like status of the Meat Wagon in South London, I was expecting some really good stuff from the now stationary place in Marylebone.


Unfortunately we left with a feeling of “What is all the fuss about”. But on the other hand there were many plus points and really only a couple of negative things I have about the place. This are to get them out of the way now.

  1. The lighting is too low and the menu is in such fine print that it is really very difficult to read. There is sometimes being cool is just not practical.
  2. The hour wait for 2 burgers, fries and onions rings is taking the piss a bit. In Spanish they say “El Chef esta rascandose las pelotas” I think they were doing that here also. Although I hope not.
I understand that the reputation of the Meat Wagon was built around this long fabled wait, but really, it does not take an hour to cook a burger. I hope to god he sorts this out, otherwise people in this part of London are gonna get pissed off pretty quickly. Once they may let it slide, twice, they will be having second thoughts about returning. Anyhows onto the food. We ordered a cheese, bacon burger and a chilli burger, chilli fries and onion rings and 4 Meatjitos. I think we would have ordered some more food, but we had trouble reading the non readable menu over a small candle.


The burgers were good, but not the best I’ve had in London. That so far still goes to the Lucky Chip Burger Van close to Broadway Market. 


They were both were well cooked, but I don’t think they warrant the mythical status they have achieved in the London blogosphere. But then again after 2 hours of waiting for a burger, and drinking a lot of booze in between, its understandable that the food will taste unbelievable.


The chilli fries needed a bit more heat in the chilli, and a tad more seasoning. But thankfully they never contained beans. Phew. That would have sent me over the edge.
The onion rings were damn fine large fluffy rings of battered sweet onions. This is how an onion ring should be. Large, crispy on the outside with the sweet onion on the inside. I wish I’d had ordered more of these beauties. They were a delight.
The Meatjitos were served in jam jars and I kinda like that. Actually all the drinks we saw were served in these jars. They were a good balance of sweet from the sugar, sour from the lime and a knockout punch from the rum. Just how I like it.


If I could have read the menu in depth I would have ordered the House Grog as well. Reading it now it reads so well. Although I’m more keen on it because they say only 2 servings per person. May have to take them up on that next time.


The interior as I may have mentioned is dark. The interior designers have gone to town on the artwork. It resembles a 1980’s hard rock club, but without the filth and grime. The music is a good mix as well. I was particularly glad to hear Lemmy blaring out The Ace of Spades.


All in all Meat Liquor was a tad disappointing, but it had some plus points going for it. I will return to see if they were a one off, but if I have to wait an hour again for a burger then it will be shelved forever. C'mon guys sort it out. 

Meat Liquor on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. Shame to see you had bad service. We actually fared pretty well.

    Food came after about 20 mins - a couple of subsequent rounds of drinks were alittle slow and needed a nudge.

    Guess it was really busy when you were there, or teething problems? An hour for a burger is BS, cult status or not.

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  2. PT - It was pretty busy when we arrived and still busy when we left.
    I'm hoping it's a glitch they will overcome as ........

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  3. From the many that I've read, it seems that waiting forever seems to be the norm. I do wonder whether is it worth the wait?
    I'll have to see for myself but at the moment, do not have the pressing urge to head there immediately. =)

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  4. Teething problem- just been there for lunch. Seated in 2 minutes. Served in 5 meal in about 15.

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  5. Kay - If they could speed things up, then all will be good, especially with those cocktails.

    Anom - I think the more quieter lunchtime service is the way forward at the moment. I'm hoping it is only teething problems as I want more .....

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