Fat Hippo Liverpool — Restaurant in Liverpool

Seen this chain before in a few places – York, Liverpool. The Liverpool one looked at bit off-putting previously as it seemed to just be big communal benches when you look in from outside. Anyway, thought I’d check it out and was pleasantly surprised to find they have normal tables as well further back – it’s a low and narrow space, but big enough. I think the kitchen must be on another floor, as the food arrives in a tiny lift to the left as you enter.

The menu, on closer inspection ,looked decent – burgers ,chips and fried things. Perfect. The portions are big, so I massively overordered.. 😃

Opted for the cheese balls to starts – these are deep fried lumps of cheese, hot from the fryer and coated in a spicy sauce. To follow, the ‘Swiss Tony’, a burger with bacon, Swiss cheese and mushrooms – this was decent, it wasn’t ridiculously tall and had good flavours. The burger came with chips, and I got an onion rings on the side – the chips were forgettable but the onion rings were huge – massive crispy rings with fluffy bits. Beautiful onion rings but so very big. Couldn’t finish them.

A couple of German lads at the table next to me ordered burgers that had onion rings inside. Now those were very tall…

There was some sort of Halloween promotion going on with a burger in a green bun. No to that!

The pudding options were limited to three different things with cookie dough. Cookie dough is a modern scourge and a lazy, no-effort, choice to offer for pudding. As you’d therefore imagine, no pudding this time – but that was fine, as I have overordered.. 😃

The beer choices were varied – the main draught was that Camden Hells lager which I find to be way too heavy, so I opted for a Pacifico. I like a Pacifico, decent and crisp.

Overall a decent choice for a place to eat – food is quick, tasty and good value. It’s not that original, but it is a good take on the American classics and I wasn’t disappointed with anything I ordered.

Seated without a booking – the place was busy on a Thursday night, but not too bad and didn’t see anyone having to wait too long to be seated or for their food. There was a staircase, so possibly there’s some more tables up there as well. Or possibly it’s just where the food is coming...

It was a very busy bank holiday weekend and there were lots of customers to serve, even so we received prompt, attentive and courteous service and our food arrived promptly, credit to the staff for this, they did really well managing a busy workload and credit to the business owners for being sure there are enough staff to cater to guests.

The food, well, it was ok.. Lots of vegan options which made my other half very happy (and my life much easier). My patty could have benefited from additional seasoning and the meat could have been laid to rest prior to serving as there was a literal puddle of grease to contend with but the quality of ingredients was good. I usually encourage cooking burgers a little pink in the middle but on this occasion it was a little too undercooked, it may be coincidence but (to put it politely) my stomach was not in the best shape the next day.. The chips, a little dry but ok and the sauce tasted like that very sharp and cheap mayonnaise that can be bought in massive bottles from bargain stores and rarely gets used

For the location and level of service I'd have been happy with the price point, the convenience of so many vegan options means we'll probably dine here again but on this occasion, for me, the finish of the food let this place...

This place came recommended to us, however we will not go back.

Slow service. Asked for all the food to come together food came massively spread out. When the food did arrive it was cold :(

Should have started this review with the fact the burger was massively undercooked. Whilst some places do serve medium rare burgers, my partner's burger was fully cooked so this isn't an excuse and they should ask you if they're planning on doing it so pink.

Would have raised this with the staff but couldn't get hold of anyone. Not even for drinks. Would love to say all this was because it was incredibly busy but it was 4pm on a Monday. Took one and a half hours for chicken wings and two burgers. 5 tables came in and left before we even got served.

After the mains just got brought the bill. We weren't offered desserts or anything. (we had heard from another table that the machine was broken so they couldn't do desserts, not that anyone actually told us).

Music kept cutting out for an Uber or deliveroo alert, every one know the sound of the ping for it. This isn't a complaint. It was just weird.

Felt very ill after this meal.

All in all, very disappointed. Hickorys in Chester or the Burger Shack win I'm...