Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Cambridge

Archived Maison Cupcake restaurant review published in 2010 remaining available for reference. Venue since permanently closed.

 

 

An attraction of eating in GBK if you have young children is that you order your food at the counter and tend to be served quickly.  Some branches (such as Lakeside) give out crayons and pictures to colour but generally the kids menu package here is sloppy compared to other chains. There are no free packs of pencils or activity packs here.


Some branches, like Cambridge or St Pauls in the City of London, do give out proper kids’ menus. Others, like Canary Wharf deny the existence of a kids menu across the whole chain.  If you are offered the kids’ menu, the deal is £4.95 for a small burger, lentil burger or chicken goujons with small portion of chips, a drink and a Fab ice lolly. The portions are generous and I never order my own chips as I know I can have some of Ted’s instead.


However, GBK have a bizarre practice of offering the kids’ menu yet from my experience (at least six occasions over 2 years), NEVER having any of the Fab lollies available. They seem to hope you will leave without asking for the lolly but if ask for it they apologise it’s not avaiable that day and produce sloppy “ice cream” which is actually from their milk shakes or on one surreal occasion, some polo mints.  I take issue that they are offer a set menu yet don’t have all items available. This has happened to me so many times I don’t believe they ever stock the lollies. Goodness knows where the polo mints came from.

The menu is less varied than Tootsies (sadly defunct chain previously owned by the same parent company) used to be. Apart from a couple of bulgar salads and felafel, there are only burgers to choose from although these do range from various combos of beef, chicken, lentil and lamb to more expensive wild boar and buffalo from the organic Laverstoke Farm.


If it’s a branch that skips the kids’ menu, you can order one of several burgers that comes in a smaller size but you won’t get the small portion of chips and it will work out more expensive even for the small burger and drink alone.


Before Ted would chew meat, I used to order him the spicy lentil burger (available in the smaller size). It’s not that spicy and we both liked it a lot. He also likes the retro ketchup bottles found on each table.

 

 

 

Another bone of contention for me with GBK is that unless you count milkshake they don’t really do desserts.  Some branches have had small tubs of ice cream in the past (Ben and Jerry’s even) but this practice seems to have been phased out.


So apart from my reasonable lamb burger, today’s offering at GBK was disappointing. As I’m casting my mind back to previous visits, I’m starting to notice a bit of a pattern of mediochre burgers salvaged only by the fact I’m paying half price for them with vouchers. One meal I have enjoyed at GBK was the bulgar salad with chicken and coleslaw on the side but given the hit and miss nature of their branches I am left wondering whether it would be as good if I ordered it elsewhere.