Meat Liquor
On Wednesday night I went to Meat Liquor with my colleague Sarah and our friend Jess.
This is the third time that I’ve visited Oxford Street’s slice of East London. The queue is as notorious as the burgers – they don’t accept bookings – and when we arrived at 6.45 we were pleasantly surprised to find no queue.
This did not last.
As Jess had arranged to meet us at 7pm, Sarah and I lingered outside having a post-work chat. By the time she had arrived a healthy queue had formed and it was a 30 minute wait to get it.
So if you’re planning a trip I would recommend that you get there before 7pm. Earlier if it’s a Thursday or Friday.
Fast forward. We’re in, we’re at the bar. Jess gets an ale, Sarah a cider and myself a Silver Angel cocktail. And then in a flash, the waitress calls out “Doria” – which is me apparently – and we’re in our booth.
The bigger the group the better your food experience, as all the starters and the sides are share size. Also the traditional food boundary of a plate is discarded as your entire table is served on one tray.
Sarah and Jess shared the deep-fried pickles and we all shared ravaged on the chicken wings. Pictured above in all its delicious messy glory.
Dinner is served! That beast in the top right is mine and that is a buffalo chicken burger. I’m ashamed to say it defeated me, but it was an entire chicken (practically). The fries were salty and comforting but nothing special and the onion rings were fluffy and surprisingly not greasy. NB – there is kitchen roll on the table for how much you need to wipe your hands/mouth.
A closer look at my everest.
The burger was delicious, the chicken was tender and the skin was crispy and the sauce was wonderfully spicy. Although it is practically the big brother of the chicken wings, but it was worth it.
Unfortunately I only managed half of it, my stomach is a total party pooper.
Even after my gastro-defeat, the ladies and I shared a Quack Pie (previously called Crack Pie) which was served in traditional American diner style served with a boozy ice cream.
In summary
I fear that Meat Liquor may get destroyed by its own hype, not because it doesn’t deserve it but the eventual backlash is going to happen. There were some ghastly people in the queue, who I got the feeling were there because it’s fashionable rather than it being their kind of ‘joint’.
However, for the quality of food and the location is is remarkably good value. We had 1 cocktail, 3 beers, 1 cider, (a bucket of) chicken wings, deep fried pickles, 3 burgers, fries, onion rings and a pie for SIXTY POUNDS. Down the road, you’d be looking at half that for just the drinks alone.
And who cares about the queue? If you’re with the right people, it shouldn’t matter.
