The burger kings of London

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Hache: choose how your meat is cooked

Gourmet Burger Kitchen: cooked to order

Hamburger Union: uses organic and free range beef

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Just after Helen Mirren received the Best Actress Academy Award for her leading role in The Queen, she made it clear she also wanted an unregal reward - a burger.

Yet, yesterday, a day after she tucked in, Prince Charles made an attack on McDonald's. Speaking during a tour in the United Arab Emirates, he said banning the chain's fast food was the key to a healthy lifestyle.

Back in 2004, when Morgan Spurlock made a spirited attempt to super-size himself, it seemed that the quest for world domination by McDonald's was faltering.

A year previously the burger behemoth had slipped into the red for the first time in 50 years, partly due to rising concerns over obesity and lingering worries about BSE. But it wasn't alone, the whole of the UK burger industry was also feeling the pinch and between 2004 and 2006 the burger market declined.

Despite this, during 2006 burgers represented a pretty chunky £2.5 billion in the UK food market of which the 1,200 McDonald's restaurants got a decent share.

But the new trend is the rise of the high-end burger restaurants. When McDonald's opened its first UK restaurant in Woolwich during the early 1970s the British public had very little to compare the food with - the one exception being the newly opened Hard Rock Café.

For most of us burgers were flat, greasy items you could buy at a Wimpy bar; we were still amazed by frothy coffee, and the idea of eating without knives and forks was puzzling. Now we are seeing a development in the world of burgers with the advent of the premium burger restaurants.

These places are offering a more sophisticated and larger burger - the meat tends to come with better provenance, and the prices are higher, too. Burger joints are crossing the no-man's-land between fast food outlets and proper restaurants.

Here are some places where you can be sure of a really good burger in London.

THE CHAINS

Hachè *****
24 Inverness Street, NW1 (020 7485 9100)
Husband-and-wife team Berry and Sue Casey named their restaurant after the French term for "chopped" to distance themselves from fast food. You can choose how your meat is cooked, there are good chips and the buns are ciabatta rolls. Haché has the feel of a neighbourhood bistro. Its "au naturel" is a prime burger made with Scotch beef and costs £6.45.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen ****
44 Northcote Road, SW11 (020 7228 3309)
GBK has come a long way since it was founded by three New Zealand chums who called in famous chef Peter Gordon to help them concoct innovative burgers. Now part of the Clapham House Group there are 15 Gourmet Burger Kitchens in London, and additional branches open every month. Everything is cooked to order and the burgers range from the classic to stranger combos such as the Kiwi burger which adds beetroot, egg, pineapple and cheese. The Classic 100 per cent Aberdeen Angus Scotch Beef costs £5.45.

Black & Blue ***
215-217 Kensington Church Street, W8 (020 7727 0004)
A small chain of six steak houses that pride themselves on the quality of their Scottish beef. As well as the various steaks and main courses on the menu there is the classic burger which is well made and accurately cooked, plus a range of more adventurous burgers such as guacamole, foie gras and even a veggie burger. The chips are sound and the service friendly. The Classic burger costs £9.

Hamburger Union ***
4-6 Garrick Street, WC2 (020 7379 0412)
A good burger starts with good meat, and this outfit takes pains to source organic and free-range beef. Anywhere that gives a generous credit to the butcher is thinking along the right lines. There's a short menu, and the ordering system is a little involved, but cheerful staff make it work. Good chips, very good burgers. The Union Burger costs £3.95.

Ed's Easy Diner **
12 Moor Street, W1 (020 7434 4439)
Ed's probably shouldn't be on a list of elite burger places, but it does such a good job and never professes to be something it's not. Sit at the counter and have a large, juicy hamburger and a pot of cheesy chips; a real cholesterol-filled indulgence. Freshly cooked, good value and swift service. The Original burger costs £4.65.

BURGERS GRAND ENOUGH FOR PRINCE CHARLES

Boxwood Cafè
The Berkeley, SW1 (020 7235 1010)
Veal and foie gras burger, lettuce, Parmesan, chips, £22.50.

Eagle Bar Diner
3 Rathbone Place, W1 (020 7637 1418)
A range of alternative burgers: the Oz (kangaroo and red wine) the Intshe (ostrich and cranberry) and the Bok {venison and red wine). All £6.50.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
13-15 West Street, WC2 (08714 269494)
Pixie-sized beef-and-foie gras burgers served with lightlycaramelised bell peppers and the famous curly fries, £15.

Scott's
20 Mount Street, W1 (020 7495 7309)
Shrimp burger with spicy tartare sauce, £14.75.

Sketch
9 Conduit Street, W1 (0870 777 4488) Sketch burger in the "Glade" - lunch only - Simmental beef, minced steak with roast foie gras, "Sketchup" and Béarnaise sauces, Pont Neuf potatoes, £19.

The Wolseley
160 Piccadilly, W1 (020 7499 6996)
The hamburger at "London's smartest café" costs £9.50 and is plump but a manageable size. The French fries are hot, thin and crispy and served in a nifty silver beaker.

 

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