If you pay Meatliquor a visit during lunch or dinner time then you’ll most likely be faced with a rather large queue. Such is the length of the queues that the bouncer (yes they have a bouncer) stamps your hand to avoid any annoying queue jumpers or pusher-inners. Even though all this seems rather daunting, I really do feel it’s worth the wait – bear in mind I’m the sort of person who once waited two and a half hours for Bubbledogs!
Once inside it’s a grungy cave filled with loud, and I mean loud, music and a general feeling of coolness. It’s not the sort of place I’d take my Granny, let’s put it like that. I’ve been a few times and each visit confirms my love for the place. It’s a dark and noisy pit of burger smelling loveliness.
The paper menu lists a simple selection of beef and chicken burgers, wings and the odd chilli dog thrown in for good measure. We decided to order a general mix of stuff which all arrived on a huge metal tray and it looked like a veritable feast.
The bacon cheeseburger (£7) which is a thick beef patty, lettuce, cheese, pickles and red onion with mustard and ketchup was its usual delicious self. It’s my favourite Meat Liquor burger, with its intense smokey meaty flavour. It’s wet and sloppy but it holds together perfectly.
The bingo wings (£6) were smothered in a spicy (possibly not spicy enough) sauce which was soothed by a pot of blue cheese dip. They weren’t stingy with the portion sizes as we had loads of chicken – which I gladly devoured. They didn’t beat the amazingness of the Patty&Bun chicken wings but they were still ruddy lovely.
As I’ve never tried one before I ordered the chili dog (£8) which was a heart attack in a bun – in a good way. The spicy greasy sausage was piled high with cheese, chili, and fried onions with a good squirt of mustard and was so filling even I (and I’m a pig) struggled to finish it – but I loved it.
The fries (£3) were salty and crispy – not the best I’ve ever had but they did the job. The real star of the show was the gigantic onion rings (£3). So large they could solve world hunger, each mouthful was pure bliss. And it was rather impressive how the batter kept its crunch – these onion rings were anything but soggy.
As always, Meat Liquor filled a very large hole and I left feeling full to the point of combustion. My only criticism would be that the staff are rather more trendy than they are friendly – they could smile a little bit more. That aside, I love Meatliquor, and if you like junk food then you will too.
8/10
