The Meating Room — Restaurant in St Albans

SUMMARY

Excellent flavours, great service, amazing meat. This is a great new burger joint and well worth a visit.

THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

Date: 7 June 2014 Location: The Meating Room, St Albans Burger: Cheesburger (Emmental) Burger Price: £7.95 Overall Score: 8/10

Bun: 8/10

Sweet but light, seeded brioche bun. Normally I don't like too sweet a bun but this had a lovely sweet contrast to the tasty patty and was a good compliment to the overall flavour. It's a great choice of bun.

Sauce: 7/10

The sauce was good, but a little light for my taste. It would have been great to have an American mustard to lift it but unfortunately they only had English would would have been a little too powerful. American mustard would lift the overall flavour and give a more rounded sauce, especially given the fantastic taste of the patty.

Patty: 9/10

This is the centrepiece of the whole meal. I thought I was eating a piece of steak at times, it was that good. The owner tells me that they use a secret blend of cuts, including topside, and they buy direct from the abertoir. The grain of the mince was excellent and it is clear that the patty has not been overworked, keeping it tender and moist.

Flavour wise, this was a sublime piece of meat. Well done chaps. Amazing job. The only reason it wasn't a 10/10 for me was because the burger was still incredibly moist when it arrived which caused it to drip a lot, saturating the bum. Perhaps it hadn't rested for quite long enough, it would have been a flawless 10 otherwise (and since when was a juicy burger a bad thing anyway!!).

Garnish and Construction: 7/10

A nicely put together burger with the patty and cheese sitting atop the salad garnish. Sauce is only applied to the top bun (which is sensible because the bottom bun is at serious risk of flooding with a burger this juicy.

For me (and this is personal) but a burger isn't a burger without a pickle and there wasn't a ghurkin in the house, sadly. My plea to the owners is please give us the option. The taste of a pickle dipped in burger sauce is the essence of burger-flavour (try this experiement at home, it works) so please let us add one to your fantastic burger if we want. Otherwise, great! The garnish was excellent. Too often we see limp and lifeless ingredients lurking under the patty but not so here - buoyant, vibrant salad with good crunch and colour. Try the tomato on its own. It has flavour. Who would have thought that was possible in the UK these days.

Service: 9/10

Warm, fast, super friendly and extremely knowledgable. These guys really care about their customers and are happy to have a chat too. This is the great value of independent restaurants. They aren't filled with salaried employees supplicating to a stock-market-listed corporate deity. They are sparsely decorated with human beings with passion, interest and a genuine desire to see people enjoy the fruit of their labour. Long may it continue.

Decor: 8/10

Despite being small they have brought an interesting industrial twist to their dining room which works well. From the tiled opening that looks straight onto the grill, through to the network of shiny copper trunking linking the glowing filaments of their incandescent bulbs the whole concept works well and makes for interesting viewing whilst you wait for a...

Objective, In-depth review:

This place has great burgers which are succulent and juicy throughout. Some of the best burgers I have had the pleasure of eating. They have a small refined menu. The signature 'Meating Room' burger is the standout burger, with premium high quality fresh ingredients used. All burgers are cooked to your preference, which makes it a great appeal. I can advise getting the west county beef patty cooked to a medium well. Although smashed burgers with american cheese are my all-time favourite, the 'Meating Room' was up there amongst the greatest burgers. The choice of applewood smoked cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, beef tomato, addition of turkey bacon and aioli mayo also give it the class. Staff pay great attention to detail, and service along with the time for food to arrive is great! Quick turnaround. I think we were served by 3 members of staff within the space of 5 minutes. Food came within 8 minutes of sitting down. There were over 4 people working in the open kitchen alone. Clearly a family and friends run small business, which I love to support.

The side chips, both fire and sweet potato fries were a delight. Crunchy and full of flavour. The strawberry milkshake had a subtle but rich creamy taste, which was a standout. The selection of soft drinks are also fantastic. I chose the sour cherry cola, which was lovely.

The place is also very popular with locals, and it can get really busy. Some lunchtimes, it can get very difficult to find a table as they operate limited hours on weekdays. Thus, I advise booking in advance. The restaurant is very small and so space is limited. It can get very cramped, especially when people are trying to place takeaway orders and forming a queue. This is because they do a very good lunch deal - burger, chips and drink for £5.95. Parking nearby is available - most roads have an hour free parking.

The downside for me were the wings. We got the chipotle wings, which had a slightly old feel and taste. They had a crunch but lacked flavour. The chipotle glaze just did not work for me here. Similarly, the BBQ chilli wings were just too sweet and not a hint of chilli in sight. It would be best to just call them Sticky BBQ wings. It almost feels as though their burgers are so good, stealing the show, that they have neglected their wings. With the Batchwood Burger, the patty is just too small and thin. Not as big as the beef. Would advise getting a double, both fried or grilled, if chicken is your preference. However, my wife did say it tasted great. A shame she was still hungry afterwards.

Some tweaks, but I shall be back to try the Lamb special burger. Left very satisfied. A gem of a...

My wife and I called to around 9.15 to see if they can sit us and we were told that as long as we can get there and order before 10 they’ll sit us. So we drove from Watford and got to the restaurant at 9.40. We walk in and ask for a table and we’re told they’re doing takeaway only, baring in mind it’s a Saturday and they’re advertised as open till 11pm. We then told the girl at the front we spoke to them on the phone and told her about the conversation to which the girl told us nope takeaway only. When trying to ask her why they said they would sit us before 10 she had an attitude and just said do you want takeaway or not and this was in front of other customers. I don’t see how she could misunderstand us asking for a table for 2 for us asking for takeaway. How does a business stop sitting customers at 9.40 on a Saturday? Especially when you’re advertised as open till 11 and had 5 people in the kitchen. The milkshake which we used to go for regularly isn’t what it used to be and the last time we went my wife found a hair in her burger. So I definitely won’t be going back which is a shame as I’ve been going since they...