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Byron, City, cramped & unisex toilets

ou know how I was all complementary about Byron Beak St in one of my recent reviews? and this signalled that I had seen the light about this burger chain? Well that changed when I popped into their branch at New Change. I was out with some old uni friends and I had been angling to try the new burger & lobster near there. However after a few scoops the chaps could only think burger so off we went to Byron. It’s up on the first floor of that development. It’s impressive enough as you walk in, big glass frontage, open kitchen at the rear. Seating is a collection of booths, shared tables. They were busy when we wandered in but they found room for us on one of the shared table. We ordered the usual mixture of burgers and beers. The beers were all bottled from the usual craft breweries which was fine. I did miss the draft flights from Beak St though.

Onto the food and here is where it fell down. Whereas in the West End the burger came freshly cooked and warm all the way through these most certainly weren’t. Nothing ruins a burger like a luke warm patty. Really very disappointing and it felt to me that with it being busy they weren’t necessarily cooking to order but cooking up burgers ahead. My courgette fries were less than crispy, cooked in fresh oil but limp. The boilermakers we had with our beers were good though they did take the wind out of one guy’s sails. However what really got me were the toilets. Obviously space was at a premium here so they had stuck them down a corridor and they were unisex. This meant each tiny cubicle had a wash basin which made it even smaller inside. I could barely fit in, really really poor restaurant design. I know this is only a burger joint but please proper toilets.

So there you go a pretty poor Byron, lacking the charm of the Beak St branch perhaps that’s the exceptional one or perhaps with city punters they make less effort. I wish we had gone elsewhere.

Tuesday, July 09, 2013
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 4

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