People like to make grandiose statements like ‘burgers are overrated’, or ‘Trump for president’; both of those statements show poor judgement and a cynicism for society that is, quite frankly, rude. Not only are burgers are great, The National Burger Awards tipped Cut + Grind for a top gong, thus making it (also) rude not to see what all the fuss it about.
The Venue
Cut + Grind is just on the other side of Granary Square. If you walk on past Dishoom and further down canal walk, you’ll find it. Not right in the centre of Kings Cross' little menagerie of eateries and bars, but not too further afield. The interiors feel something akin to if your fancy, local butcher were to expand into a burger joint. There’s huge cuts of meat hanging in glass-front fridges, the shiny metal grinder can be found on display in the open kitchen and the walls are decorated in glossy white tiles with tables arranged in a grid-like layout. It’s an informal hangout which beckons a bit of American diner-esque style, and it makes us totally at ease for the patty stacks we're about to scoff.
A space where the industrial meets the down right delicious.
The Food and Drink
Slicker than your average burger, the concept for Cut + Grind is, just like the name suggests, to create the ultimate patty with a collaboration of different meat cuts. These are ground together with their in-house grinder to bring you an ultimately unique flavour every day of the week.
The menu is simple and easy to get on board with - ideal for a burger place where you don’t want to much fuss or faff.
You can choose to go ‘Juicy’ for a “deep beef flavour, using well-marbled cuts” or ‘Skinny’ for “leaner cuts with a lighter taste”. We ordered both (to see if we could taste the difference), house style complete with bernaise, cheddar, pickles, red onion and maple bacon (£11). These came with truffle parmesan fries (£5), with us also opting for a portion of halloumi fries (£5). While not the best halloumi fries i’ve ever had and the chips boasting more parmesan than truffle, the burgers were pretty on point. Not only did we find a subtle difference to the burgers, staying true to their description and concept, these were hunking treats that reminded us why the humble burger still has room to shine.
For dessert we chose their Oreo milkshake and a Mars bar milkshake - which was described as ‘heaven’ by my partner. Worth noting they have soy milk as an alternative too.
Drinks wise, their wine collection is pretty limited (but refreshingly simple) with one bottle of white and red, so we kept it classic with a pint. But, when beer is the perfect match for a burger dinner anyway, you don’t really care about the wine collection. There’s a good selection of local bottled beers to try too, if you fancy keeping it London bound.
We came for the patty stacks, and that's what we got.
Summary
With the beast that is Byron experiencing financial hardship, and the underdogs from Honest rising to be godfathers of the burger world, this just shows that the patty pendulum swings in favour of something homegrown and original. If you don’t believe me, the National Burger Awards 2018 has crowned Cut + Grind’s very own ‘Juicy’ burger the best in Britain. See for yourself.
