BURGERS are one of the UK’s most-loved takeaways and one crowned the “world’s best” is back on menus.
Hawksmoor’s viral “Big Matt” has made a return to all the chain’s 10 UK restaurants after three years.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker got to try the returning Big Matt[/caption]
The play on the Big Mac is back on menus after disappearing in 2022[/caption]
The posh take on the Big Mac is available as a lunchtime order until July.
The savoury bite, first launched in 2017, earned the title of “World’s Best Burger” in 2023, as ranked by the World’s Best Steak Restaurants.
But despite its cult following, it vanished from London menus in 2022, appearing only briefly in Edinburgh and Liverpool.
With it back temporarily, costing £19.50 alongside a side of beef-dripping chips, we went along to have a taste, to see if it was really deserving of its crown.
How did it taste?
The Big Matt was designed by Hawksmoor’s group executive chef Matt Brown in the Borough, central London, restaurant’s testing kitchen.
The burger consists of two dry-aged beef patties, double American cheese, shredded lettuce, onions, pickles and special sauce.
In a video posted to Hawksmoor’s Facebook page this month, Brown described the menu item as the chain’s “take on the world’s most iconic burger”, alluding to its similarity to the McDonald’s Big Mac.
He goes on to joke in the video: “If Ronald was alive today, deep down I know which one he’d prefer.”
I got a try of the burger at the same Borough restaurant where it was conceived, but how did it stand up? Decent, but not a world beater.
The burger is what it says it is – a souped up version of the world-renowned Big Mac, with a better quality of ingredients and taste.
The ingredients were all fresher, particularly the lettuce which is often damp as anything in a Big Mac.
Plus, the two beef patties were three or four times thicker than a Big Mac’s, with the meat more tender and flavourful.
There was a noticeably greater amount of sesame seeds on the bun as well.
At £19.50 with chips, it’s more than twice as expensive as a large Big Mac meal (with a drink), which costs as much as £8.39 in city locations.
However, given I ate Hawksmoor’s Big Matt and chips in central London (where most places are expensive), the quality was better and the ambience of a Hawksmoor restaurant is steps above my local McDonald’s, I’d say the burger is good value for money.
Whether I’d class it as the “World’s Best” is another thing. I can recall at least one other burger that beats it in terms of flavour – south-east London-based Mother Flipper’s “Candy Bacon Flipper”.
List of Hawksmoor restaurants
London
- Air Street, Piccadilly Circus
- Borough, London Bridge
- Guildhall, Bank
- Knightsbridge, South Kensington
- Seven Dials, Covent Garden
- Spitalfields, Shoreditch
- Wood Wharf, Canary Wharf
Liverpool
- India Buildings, Brunswick Street
Manchester
- 184-186 Deansgate
Edinburgh
- W Register Street
The restaurant’s burger, which comes with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, red onion, pickle, American cheese and candy bacon, costs £11.75, or £16.25 when combined with fries.
What else is new in the Hawksmoor menu?
The Big Matt is not the only new addition to Hawksmoor menus for the next six months.
Other specials include a 35-day aged rump steak and Café de Paris butter, served with beef-dripping fries and a steakhouse salad (£26).
There is also a charcoal roasted chicken, with roast garlic, lemon and parsley for £24 and a vegan option of charcoal roasted butternut squash, shiitake and oyster mushrooms with cashew ricotta for £10.
All of the new items can be found across all UK Hawksmoor restaurants.
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