Henry Burgers Review

March 31, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

Henry Burgers Review

I have been training hard in the gym this week. Ok, I know what your thinking, what a strange opening line for a food review, and I do run the risk of loosing the interest of many a reader by beginning this way! Oh but come on, you didn’t think I was always hanging out in bars and restaurants? Although as tempting as it is, just imagine, I would be the size of a house if I didn’t spend a little time on the treadmill.

Hitting the gym after a long day at work does take motivation, but what better motivation than the expectation of an indulgent chow down at the weekend. ‘But you will un-do all that hard work’ I hear the personal trainers cry! But isn’t that the whole reason any respected foodie would frequent such a place, it’s a balancing act right? You gotta take the rough with the smooth. If you were expecting the sort of gourmet weekend I had planned, a few hours in the gym was the least I could do in an effort to limit the expansion of my waistline.

Come on come on, this is not a fitness lecture, so on to the food! We all love a good burger right? I mean, I love fancy fine dining and all that, but there is something quite special about sinking your chops in to a good ol’ juicy burger and a cold beer. You must have been living with goat herders in Mongolia not to have noticed the ‘dude food’ revolution over the past couple of years? (By the way, no offence to Mongolian goat herders, I am sure you guys lead a great life, but have you ever devoured a truly gourmet burger, I thought not, and I do have an issue with goats, particularly their cheese, buts that’s another story for another time!)

Gone are the days when the best burger in town was an un-inspiring mystery meat burger from the golden arches. There has been increase in good proper burger joints, doing it right, in cool funky surroundings, normally run by bearded hipsters! Southend is no exception to this. Henry burgers was the first such place to open in Southend, and has grown from strength to strength; of course now doing very well in Leigh also.

Louisa and I where well overdue a catch up with some good friends, and we thought where better place to go than Henry Burgers for some good old natter over burgers and beer. Henry Burgers gets busy, so we decided to book. We called Henry’s a few weeks before, as our friends have a social diary to envy the most elite of London socialites, so we got the date firmed up early!

Those of you who don’t know, Henry Burgers in Southend is located where the Sun Rooms used to be, a pretty cool watering hole. You remember the place, the one with the incredibly tall bar, and you resembled a chad (Wot No…) when ordering a drink! Thankfully, this has now become an equally cool burger joint. This tiny area of Southend is foodie central in my eyes, with Legend Deli located just a few doors up (soon to be reviewed folks!) its going places, so if you ever find yourself wandering Southend high street hankering after a good lunch, struggling with heavy shopping bags, get your ass round here.

We all arrived, and our table for four awaited. As soon as you walk in it becomes apparent this is a cool modern eatery. Exposed brickwork, wooden floors, young hip staff, its got it all. We were seated, and it would appear we may had arrived at the wrong time, the table was not set, nor were they forthcoming with menus…..oh no! What’s going on! They soon redeemed themselves though, the menus arrived and we ordered a drink; Phew I was getting worried then!

Cocktails and craft beer are the order of the day here. Brooklyn Lager, Anchor Liberty Ale, Kona Fire Rock pale ale, to name but a few. These all went down well. Louisa decided to have one of their very tempting alcoholic milkshakes, it was called something like dirty monkey (my memory is awful, I should take notes!) it was a sweet chocolaty number with Amaretto, not normally my cup of tea, but it tasted great!

The menu is not overwhelming, burgers and hotdogs that’s it! Well you wouldn’t expect more from a restaurant called Henry Burgers, would you? I ordered the basic burger with extra bacon and cheddar. Now I refer to the burger as ‘basic’ but it is far from that. This is 100% free range, grass fed, 28 day dry aged British beef, so errm, not really that basic! Lou had the smoke house burger. This burger has bacon, cheddar, onion ring and smokey BBQ sauce. Our friends, oh hang on! How terribly rude of me, I haven’t introduced Guy and Sarah, our wonderful friends joining us for lunch! Anyway, Guy had a Smoke House, the same as Lou, and Sarah opted for the veggie burger. This bears no resemblance to a Linda McCartney’s so called veggie burger you may find lingering at the back of your freezer; remember, the one left over from last summers bbq when you had to cater for your mates vegetarian girlfriend! NO, this was how a veggie burger should be; Squash, rocket and a great sounding relish. Wonderful!

Any sides? You can pick all sorts here, for the table we ordered skin on fries, bone marrow chilli cheese fries and a mac and cheese. Not forgetting another round of craft beers!

The burgers soon arrived, and straight away you realise, these are proper burgers, all of them. Even the veggie burger was huge, and looked great, coming from me, a self confessed carnivore. They looked perfect, and had everything a good burger should have, right down to the obligatory gherkin. Oh come on, surely we have all got over that gherkin phobia the high street chains have left us with since childhood. Come to think of it, I may start a campaign ‘Justice For Gherkins’ yeah that’s one for twitter #justiceforgherkins, lets get that trending! As you would expect, Henry’s give you a gherkin like it should be; a perfect accompaniment to a burger, agreed?

Just to say, all the burgers are served slightly pink. Please don’t worry about this, if we where talking a Birdseye ‘cook from frozen’ treat, yes the toilet would soon become your best friend, but people we are talking quality meat ground on the premises, so its the only way to serve it. Needless to say, the burgers where incredibly tasty and juicy, my only criticism (and after all I am a critique don’t you know!) Being the roll. It was a little dry, which meant it fell apart as I ate it. But that was my only issue, and hey, you expect to get messy when eating a great burger, and a little ketchup dribbling down your chin and hands is a small price to pay.

The sides; mac and cheese, superbly cheesy what’s more to say. Chilli cheese fries, pretty decadent, the chilli is not your shop bought minced beef but actual slow cooked beef in a rich spicy sauce, topped with cheese, smothering the fries, these where amazing. Not forgetting the skin on fries which were crispy and salty, yummy!

Henry has some great desserts, brownies with salted caramel sauce and ice cream is enough temptation alone. But after those huge burgers and sides none of us had any room, and we wanted to save enough room for some more wonderful beer. We hailed one of the waiting staff and asked for the bill, it arrived and at £47 a couple, some may think this is a little steep for burger and chips, BUT, this place aint Maccy D’s or Burger King. These are pure bred gourmet burgers just as you find in all those ‘on trend’ pop up joints springing up all over the cooler parts of London, and remember the superb craft beer and cocktails.

So if you are looking for a great place to schmooze over a romantic burger for two, or have a relaxed lunch with some good mates, Henry can cater very well for both. Remember, you can also just pop in for a beer or cocktail at the bar (the bar which is like a sawn in half tree, go check it out). If you haven’t given Henry a try, I encourage you too, when you need to satisfy that burger craving, and we all get that craving, it doesn’t get much better than this.