Gourmet Burger Kitchen — Restaurant in Birmingham

Ever since the GBK in Liverpool closed so abruptly in the summer, I have had to go without my monthly onion rings. This has made me sad, for GBK has possibly the best onion rings I’ve yet found. This is a chain that has been sadly reducing in numbers over the years as well, so they have been getting harder and harder to find.

Imagine my delight then, on realising I had to visit Birmingham, to discover that this GBK in Brindley Place remains open and thriving – in olden days, I would usually have visited the GBK in the Mailbox, which is also on the list of the fallen. This GBK is tucked away just around the corner from the big pub on Broad Street as you enter Brindley Place – it was next door to Pizza Express for a long time but I see that has also gone and been replaced. Change is a constant; and the world of hospitality has no room for nostalgia it seems.

Anyway, visiting at 5:30 on a Wednesday, I was pretty much guaranteed to get a seat and so it proved to be, a nice round table. I like the way you order in here – they have little tablets on the table and you can use that to put in your order – it’s very customisable food, you see, so it gives you time to fiddle around with what you want. There was also a 30% off food offer on, which you like to see. GBK used to do an App, which let you get free burgers – that doesn’t seem to be working any longer though.

For the meal ,I opted for a Taxi Driver, which is burger with a big onion ring in it (of course) – I added cheddar cheese to this and removed the salad, for the latter makes it wet. With the burger, skinny fries and, of course, the onion ring pole. The burger was excellent, well cooked to a medium rare as requested and fresh – the onion rings hot and crispy, abundant in number and golden in colour. A small pot of Baconnaise on the side sealed the deal. The baconnaise pot has shrunk over the years though.. 😃

To accompany my meal, a pint of Manchester’s finest Cuzcampo lager – I wouldn’t normally have a beer with this, but it was very cold outside and it seemed appropriate.

Service was quick and there was a good atmosphere in the restaurant, I hope this one continues to go the distance. A firm recommendation....

Great location just off the canal route. Staff were friendly, attentive and helpful and I can't fault them.

Order needs to be placed via a tablet on your table. I'm not a big fan of this concept but went with it. I found it quite difficult to order what I had seen on the menu as the two didn't appear to match completely, but that could have been down to my use of the app. Another issue I have with the Tablet order and pay system is I have to instantly decide on my level of tip ... Before I have even seen my food or had a complete service. This seems a bit silly to me.

Food came and the fries were fabulous. I can't help but be disappointed by the chicken burger and onion rings. Burger was very small for the price and was essentially a piece of fried chicken breast, with some over chewy and crispy areas. Onion rings were hard and too crispy and some of the onion was a bit rough.

I had a coke with my meal, the choice of alcoholic drinks was very limited, I think there was only Cruz Campo available (wouldn't swear to this).

Overall for a meal which cost me £31.19 including a service charge of 12.5%, other than the excellent fries I would probably prefer a chicken burger from McDonald's or Burger King. This could be just down to personal preference, but I am giving an honest appraisal of my meal and experience here.

Again staff were 5 ⭐, but meal and overall experience...

I went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen with my girlfriend for lunch, and we felt very invited by a nearby server who greeted us and told us to sit anywhere we wanted. We sat at a corner booth next to the window seeing how it was relatively quiet. We found the lunch menu to be well priced, and we especially liked the option to upgrade the burger to a 6oz for £1.50 (if you're hungry, I recommend the upgrade.) The picture attached is cheeseburger that I ordered (my girlfriend got the same thing but different cheese) and a chocolate milkshake. We went to order, and we found the server at the till to be very cold and emotionless during the entire encounter. It seemed as though she did not want to be there and just wanted to clock out as soon as possible. After paying (and deciding amongst ourselves that the food was pretty well priced in the lunch menu) we headed back to our table and waited for our food, which is said to take 15 minutes or less, which it did! We received our burgers, but no milkshakes. We calmly asked the friendly waitress for them and a few moments later, we received them! Burger was delicious, fries were nice. Atmosphere was good, music was at a good volume, and enjoyable all around. The only downside from our encounter was the not very friendly server working the till and staff never checked in throughout our meal. Service could've been better,...