MEATLiquor’s Dead Hippie

The Dead Hippie at MEATLiquor, Marylebone

I don’t know what I can say about this burger that hasn’t been said before.  I have already hailed it as the best burger in London and put it to the top of my Top 10 Burgers list.  And yet somehow I still find myself wanting to write more about its many charms.  It seems that I have a bit of a thing for the Dead Hippie.

My love affair with these burgers goes back quite a long way.  It began when I used to visit a small van on a Peckham industrial estate.  It then moved to the upstairs room of a closed-down pub in New Cross, the legendary #Meateasy, very convenient as I was studying just around the corner at Goldsmiths at the time.  A brief stint at The Rye in Peckham brought these burgers dangerously close to my house before they finally moved to the MEATLiquor site in Welbeck Street, Marylebone.  This journey was just the beginning as sites are opening all the time, from the second restaurant, MEATMission in Hoxton, to the most recent establishments in Leeds, Brighton and, imminently, Bristol.  MEATLiquor; part restaurant, part Berlin squat; remains my favourite.  Yes, it’s dark in there and the queues are long, but it’s fun and the drinks are strong.

And it’s around the corner from my office.

I have sampled most of what the menu has to offer, but always come back to the Dead Hippie.  When asked to describe it, I always say “imagine a really, really, REALLY good Big Mac,” but, of course, it is so much more than that.  It has two mustard-fried patties that manage to be both crisp on the outside and beautifully rare within.  The flavour on the patty, probably due to the mustard is one of the best I have ever had.  It comes with a blanket of melted American cheese and the closely guarded ‘special sauce’, iceberg lettuce and thickly cut pickles.  I seem to remember from the old days of the open kitchen, that they are a fan of ‘sealing’ everything under a metal bowl on the hot plate.  The bread is soft and soaks up all of the sauce but somehow doesn’t disintegrate.

I have nothing negative to say about this burger, for me it remains the best of the best.  I would also recommend a side of either the deep-fried pickles with blue cheese sauce, or the chilli cheese fries if you’re really hungry.  Did I mention the drinks were strong?

MEATLiquor, 74 Welbeck Street, London W1G 0BA.