Saucy Burger

Saucy Burger, Timber Beach Road, Sunderland
http://www.thesaucyburger.com/

         

The Cook’s Review (August 2017)

Alright, now this looked more like it! A menu that seemed more about eating experience than simply doing ‘meat, meat and more meat’ with some dessert options that appeared to have solved the Achilles’ Heel of the meat shack world: pudding.

The place itself is a little out of the way, stuck between a Premier Inn and a gym, on the outskirts of Sunderland, but the decor and the ambience is nice and quirky, if a little dark for my liking (I like to see my food!). The serving staff were smiling and pleasant and we were quickly seated in a big square slightly sunken troughing table. This was a good call as it really allowed us all to spread out and share the food. That would be necessary!

There was a set menu ‘Saucy Special’ on for £12.95 which looked too good to be true, so we dived into it. I ordered nachos (a staple tester in my opinion), the Burger with Attitude – maxed out with two more meat patties for a small fee – and the chunky chips, as well as a pint of Diet Pepsi. The nachos, burger, chips and drink were all in the special. Great value. A mound of chicken wings and some flatbreads with dips were also ordered for the table.

OK, the chicken wings – holy hell were they good! Big, meaty wings, lathered in sticky rich sweet-and-spicy sauce with meat that fell off the bone. They are, absolutely, the best wings I have had in the North East, nudging those from the Hop and Cleaver into second place. I would happily return just to explore more of the sauces on them.

The nachos were also good – well, as good as nachos can be. I have a thing about places that don’t layer their nachos and just pile everything on top. Bad practice in my opinion. I want every scoop of chip to have some sauce and cheese. Saucy Burger do them properly. Big thumbs up. I also heard general gushing around the table for the massive halloumi skewer and the popcorn chicken. The starters were excellent and really set us off well.

The Burger With Attitude was described on the menu as ‘7oz beef patty, low and slow BBQ pulled pig, our signature sweet and sticky rib glaze, a slice of cheese, iceberg lettuce and tomato and accompanied with smoky BBQ sauce, coleslaw and pickles in a brioche bun.’ – that’s a whole lot of words for a cheeseburger with pulled pork! It was however, a very good cheeseburger with pulled pork. The burgers were meaty and tasty and the pulled pork was sweet and rather nice. All in all, a nice big meaty mouthful.

The chips however, were utterly vile and I simply couldn’t stomach more than a couple. Mushy, oily horrible nastiness. Probably the worst chips I have ever had. Rank.

And then the puddings. Well … what can I say? Freakshakes. Massive ice cream milkshakes with … stuff on top. The image above is a real menu item with a slice of chocolate fudge cake on top of the shake. Seriously. I had the Oreo one and it was lovely, although I had dessert envy over the fudge cake one!

So what were the downsides? The chips, as mentioned, were vile but that’s easily solved by choosing the skinny fries instead. There was a distinct lack of sauces at the table, which is always a bad thing. We were offered some generic BBQ sauce but its not the same.

All told I had a great night at Saucy Burger and left utterly stuffed with food for about £27 in total. The venue was nice (if dark), the staff were pleasant and the vast majority of the food was excellent. We are already planning another visit to explore the menu more – which says everything. Chips and sauces let them down…

 

Mr Quality’s Lunch Review (August 2017)

Both my companion and I ordered from the £12.95 set lunchtime menu. I had mac & cheese, buttermilk chicken burger (+£2 supplement), skin on fries and a lemonade. My companion had posh garlic mushrooms, a cheeseburger with fries and Lemonade, just under £28 for lunch.

The star of the meal for me was the posh garlic mushrooms, which were delicious, though my companion though they were too garlic-y (Which I take the classic Ronseal advert approach too). The mac & cheese was a pretty dire joyless affair once you broke through the top crust. Good value for money in terms of portion sizes on both starters admittedly

After a sizable waiting time, which wasn’t impressive given that there was only two tables (including ours) with guests on in the place, the burgers arrived. They were adequate affairs. My companion was un-impressed by the quality of the meat in her burgers, and I was similarly unimpressed on the whole with the very bog-standard chicken burger I’d recieved. The menu makes these sound like gastronomic burger treats, and the reality is unfortunately far below that. Much better chicken burgers to be had for the same money at places like Man vs Food.

The service was poor. As mentioned there was just two tables of guests and the table service was poor quality. Our main meals took an age to arrive and service with a smile it was not. I didn’t leave a tip. I couldn’t advise this to anyone as either a cheap, good, or value for money lunchtime menu. Far better lunchtime options, and set menus, are around at very decent other places like Red’s or Man vs Food for similar money.