MEATliquor, hoxton
MEATliquor, hoxton (£)
There’s something really naughty about a meatliquor burger…something that just screams oh you shouldn’t (but in actuality you really should). Walking in, if you couldn’t see that this particular MeatLiquor is housed in an ex-Christian mission then the wording alone plastered across their menu will help cement that - my favourite being “…to subside all your sinful needs”. However, style, decor, and theming aside, MeatLiquor excel at serving some of the best burgers in London, including a Big Mac sauce on steroids - their Dead Hippie sauce.
As mentioned, the theming of meatliquor is a massive part of their identity. Everywhere you look you’re greeted with a sticker or stained glass window to remind you you’re not in a normal burger joint. Maybe it’s just fun, maybe it’s a slight nudge to buy the litre beer stein over the half-litre, but you’re guaranteed a great atmosphere. Talking of the beer steins, it seems right to start with the drinks - and the selection is great. Equally naughty drinks to match the food, the drinks menu has a wide-range of cocktails, shots, beers, and pickle-juice chasers. Today we went light, only ordering the grapefruit radler and a clwb tropical IPA shandy, trying to offset those bold burger flavours early with some slightly fruitier choices.
Before we knew it, our tray of food arrived. Again, in rock-n-roll fashion here you don’t get any plates or napkins - it’s trays and kitchen roll only. For two of us we ordered the dead hippie burger, green chilli cheese burger, Nashville fries, dead hippie fries (can you tell we like the dead hippie sauce?), and fried pickles. I’ll start with the burgers, because that’s what you’re all here for anyway… the green chilli cheese burger was the perfect level of spice, a bit of heat to get your brow sweating, but at no point did it overpower the burger.
Pick up any Meatliquor burger and give it a ‘lil squeeze, and you’ll see just how juicy the burger is; I had no regrets having the chilli butter soak through the bun and onto my fingers… a little gross sure, but so naughty. The dead hippie burger was just like the first, juicy, full of flavour, with the cheese melted and gooey over the smashed patties.
This is the section we finally talk about the dead hippie sauce. As I said before, it’s like Big Mac sauce on steroids - it’s big on flavours, with a little bit of sweetness against the main ‘tang of the sauce. We like it so much we also had it get poured all over one of our fries. The fries themselves, an obvious side dish to a burger, were crispy on the outside and perfectly fluffy within. They were seasoned well (not perfectly, but well), but it doesn’t matter as much when every bite is covered in sauce. The other portion of fries we got were the Nashville fries, generously dusted with in hot dust. Not too spicy, or at least not as spicy as the chilli burger, these were a great way to cut through some of the tang of the dead hippie sauce. Our final side dish was another classic here, the fried pickles. These battered and fried pickles were like little mouthfuls of joy. Crispy on the outside, but bursting with pickley-juicy-joy - these were fun and tasty.
The brilliant thing about meatliquor is you can go for some many different reasons, you can go like I did for a quick meal, or you can go for a party. You can spend not too much (like I did), or go all out. One thing that will stay the same though is the quality of the food, and that’s why people come back and back. Go for the dead hippie sauce, and then go again the next time because you enjoyed the experience.