Gourmet Burger Kitchen

My final stop at what had previously been something of an ordeal around Glasgow’s new “burger corner” was at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I was hopeful that it would be better than the distinctly disappointing Five Guys and Handmade Burger Company.

The interior has a similar cage-work and industrial lighting design to Handmade. It works slightly better, though, as it feels more integrated and thought through. It’s far from my taste, though, and profoundly lacks originality.

I stuck to the same dishes as with the other two places, ordering a cheeseburger and skinny fries. The same silly “order at the counter” thing was in operation, but queuing was handled quite efficiently, then table service swung into operation.

My items were soon with me. The fries were extremely skinny and came with something called hei hei salt. It was a mysterious orange dust that looked like fine Ruskoline, but it did actually taste quite good.

And sing alleluia the burger was actually good! They’d mentioned it would be cooked pink and medium, which it wasn’t, but it was juicy and tasted of beefy beef. The sesame bun needed work, but it was a very respectable effort all things considered, and light years better, as well as a little cheaper, than its near neighbours.

So overall, the Gourmet Burger Kitchen is both quite a nice place to go, with a genuinely attentive team of waiters and waitresses, and is serving decently good food. It’s the clear winner of the “burger corner” challenge, although that’s something of a hollow victory. I’m not convinced the unrelenting Glasgow burger invasion is really doing anyone any good. Seek out the good independent places (James vs Burger is handy resource for this) and leave this corner of burger gloom alone.

I ate: classic cheeseburger; skinny fries

I drank: water

I wore: splashed trousers

Total bill: £9.60