Honest Burgers (Soho)

Tucked away in olde-worlde Meard St, literally just one minute from Old Compton St, this second branch of Honest Burger serves an outstanding specimen, with sourced beef (original suppliers = The Ginger Pig), hand-rolled and cooked almost rare if you plead with them ('health and safety') and automatically served with hot and tasty rosemary-salted fries (they have their own potato farm), though you now have to specify that you want them properly salted. Portions are good, and all for a relatively low price. A commitment to beef from regenerative farms kicks off in 2022 (initially at certain branches). There are two types of modern-day high-quality burgers — clean (from extra-lean beef) and greasy — and Honest serves the former. The reassuringly tidy and focused menu includes a chicken option, a veggie burger ('fritter') and optional gluten-free buns. Plus daily specials, left-field beers and other quality beverages. No desserts and no reservations, which is no longer a problem since the 2017 expansion into the basement. Decor is generic rustic rather than aggressively trendy, though the new tables and chairs that accompanied the expansion have a corporate and plasticky feel that is at odds with the perceived Honest ethos. Opened in August 2012 by three Anglo male foodies, a year after their still-popular debut in a tiny outlet in south-of-the-river Brixton. Expansion picked up in 2013, with dozens of outlets as of 2022, including Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool. The Southwark St space near London Bridge is particularly pleasing. In short, really, really good – and located diagonally opposite 15 Meard Street, whose exterior served as the home occupied by TV characters played by Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi (as two longtime gay partners) in the worthwhile 2013–16 ITV sitcom VICIOUS. A cosier branch can be found minutes away at 84 Brewer St.