Burger Week Part 2 - Byron, Finchley Road, Sun 3rd Feb

Regular readers will be aware of my imminent departure from this green and pleasant land for another green (and brown) pleasant land. As such I'll be vacating my rented penthouse (1-bed top floor) flat in leafy Maida Vale at the end of April. In the two and a half years that I'll have lived there, a few minor maintenance issues have arisen and I'll need to fix them before I leave.

My landlord used to own an independent lighting shop just round the corner from the flat, but it's now closed down. I hope I'm not their only source of income. When the flat was last renovated, well before my tenure from the look of things, most of the rooms were fitted with recessed halogen ceiling lights and dimmer switches. Very modern, which sadly doesn't match the rest of the flat and decor.

Anyway many moons ago the dimmer switch in the bedroom started to emit a plume of smoke with a wonderfully acrid burning electrical smell. After promptly diagnosing the situation (the switch had blown) I swapped it for the underused one in the living room. I like all good North Westerners only turn on the 'Big light' in the living room for special occasions, eschewing it's solar intensity for the mood lighting of floor standing or side table lamps. This stop gap measure was perfectly fine by me, but would be markedly less fine for the letting agent who'll determine how much of my deposit I get back.

Using Sunday morning for contemplation on how best to resolve this issue, I decided to make a trip to my nearest big box DIY emporium, a Homebase just off Finchley Road, to purchase the necessary parts. I'd prefer to go to a small independent, however as my closest (the landlord's) had closed, and that the incumbent switches had a much larger 400W capacity then the standard 250W, I felt it was safest to go to somewhere with more choice and that I knew would be open on a Sunday.

This voyage to Homebase off Finchley Road opened up a world of possibilities. Foremost in my mind was a trip to the pictures, in this case a Vue cinema. Stoker, the first Hollywood film by acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-Wook with a black book listed script (that's usually a good sign) from Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller, had recently opened and had been on my watch list for a while.

Given the pedigree, I was quite looking forward to this film, so it is with a sad heart that I have difficulty in recommending this film to most people. I enjoyed it, it was well directed, well-acted, and incredibly well shot. The characterisation and dialogue, whilst better than most, was disappointing. Nicole Kidman, the most famous of the acting talent was good, but her role was a difficult sell, Matthew Goode was excellent and a markedly different role to the one he had in the recent, respectable Stephen Poliakoff BBC drama, Dancing on the Edge. If you want to watch a Park Chan-Wook film I highly recommend Oldboy. It'll be one of the most difficult and horrific films you'll ever see though.

The earliest showing of Stoker was 12.30pm and I could happily complete my shopping after watching this film. As such I needed to find an establishment for lunch to enjoy before I would sequester myself in a cinema screen for a couple of hours. The food choices at the O2 centre on Finchley Road have always been reasonable chains and my staple choice has been Nando’s. I was delighted to find that the stock 'x Burger y, but not quite as good as a Gourmet Burger Kitchen' had been replaced by the ever expanding Byron empire.

I still fondly remember my first visit to a Byron establishment in Covent Garden about a year ago as it was my introduction to true quality burgers, however the side orders where a bit underwhelming. That said I've enjoyed many very good burgers at various Byron restaurants over the past 12 months. I'm impressed by how they've managed to keep the quality the same as the business has fairly rapidly expanded.

So to the Byron Finchley Road experience. I got there quite quickly after opening at 12pm, with only a few tables taken. After arriving the place filled up quickly due to the nearby Vue spitting out the morning Kids Club film full of mum's with strollers. Thankfully my aura of non-proximity was in full effect so I had a healthy one table exclusion zone from any of the new entrants.

Reasonably quickly my waitress arrived to take my order, and I went for my usual Byron order of the Byron burger (Cheddar and Bacon with 'Byron' sauce) with Jalapenos as an extra. I decided to mix it up with courgette fries (long strips of courgette lightly coated in batter and deep fried) and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. My waitress seemed to be a bit flustered by my succinct and efficient order and we entered into a limited conversation about how she was trying to be neater and tidier in writing customers' orders, but had failed massively at the first order of the day, from me. Upon viewing her handwriting I couldn't see what the problem was, but every teacher I've had has recommended a career as a doctor for me due to my poor handwriting ability.

Reverting to my latest e-book for entertainment I awaited my order. The beer and a wonderfully frozen glass to put it in came promptly. A little later my food order arrived. The courgette fries were much better than the first and last time I had them. I would happily order them again if they came like that. As I was working my way through them I was mindful of the time and the fullness of my stomach. 

The Byron Burger with additional Jalapenos was superb, and exactly the same as previous orders of the same burger. I can't commend Byron enough in the excellent consistency and quality that they provide in their ever expanding number of establishments. Their burgers are only very slightly behind what you get from the premier independent establishments, but as mentioned the fact that this high consistency can be made in multiple venues is admirable and praiseworthy.

Before leaving and at the point of paying my bill, a possible explanation of my waitress's flustering was revealed as she believed I was a returning customer / stalker from the previous weekend. So not only do I have a name doppelganger, but also a body one, possibly living relatively nearby.

All in all another good 4 out of 5 experience, would recommend and return. I know everything I've reviewed so far has the same 4 out of 5 rating, but I won't change to a 10 point scale. All are on a par for overall experience and all should be tried at least once.

Burger Week Part 3 to be continued in Patty and Bun, James Street, Tues 5th Feb

P.S. After thankfully avoiding any 'Is there anything I can help you with?' questions in Homebase, I made my necessary purchases and installed my new brushed chrome, seemingly screw less, dimmer switch in the living room. Works perfectly after I inadvertently found out that there were two lighting circuits in my flat. Electrical screwdrivers are lifesavers.