The evening had not started well, after a punishing 8K run in the gym I was looking forward to catching up with the boys for a few beers and a bite to eat. However I hadn't counted on a signal failure taking out the whole Central Line. This meant there were 100's of people trying to get on my bus so I resigned myself to a long cold walk. By the time I met up with the others at the Prince Albert I was famished and thirsty. We had a quick couple of pints and headed up to "Lucky Seven" to see if fortune would smile on us and we would get a table.
I've been to Lucky Seven a few times over the years. The concept is quite simple, a typical US diner doing classic breakfasts and fast foods. The big problem with "Lucky 7" is it is tiny so getting a table is pot luck. We were lucky last night and got seated straight away. The menu is basic so Big Matt and Villa Steve had the bacon double cheeseburger and I went for the chilli cheeseburger. We washed these down with a selection of quite exhorbitant bottled beers (£4.50 each, ouch!).
I had always been a big fan of the burgers here but was interested to re-appraise it in view of the numerous specialist burger joints that have sprung up since it opened 7 or 8 years ago. My burger seemed smaller than I remember, it tasted OK but no fireworks. The last GBK I had was probably better. It came with a miserly portion of coleslaw, £7.95 well spent! We shared a side portion of good onion rings (6 rings in total, not very generous) and some decent french fries.
The bill came to about £16 each which for what we had was a bit toppy. I was still hungry when I left. The service was good, nice and informal. I do feel they have missed a trick with this place instead of expanding the diner next door they have created a tacky Mexican place (the food is cooked in the Lucky 7 kitchen as well) . I also was not terribly impressed with how near the toilets were to the kitchen. All in all I felt a little bit fleeced, this could be a lot better than it is and certainly the razzamatazz of when it first opened has faded.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
To confirm my low score I tried a takeaway burger from here through Deliveroo last year and it was predictably dire & expensive. Who wants raw onion in their burger?