BYRON excited a lot of people when its opening was announced.
Remember in 2013 in Britain, as with rats, you’re never further than six feet away from a burger.
People had slipped into one of the twenty-nine London venues and found them to be very fine. On the Confidential rants people gushed and swooned over the news that Byron was coming north.
I’d never sampled the joys of Byron myself, but my recent visit to the recently opened Deansgate restaurant showed that the company is onto a good thing in Manchester.
Smoking busyI glanced up after ordering my food and at 1.15pm on a Wednesday lunchtime there was a twenty strong muncher mob busting the door down, all trying to grab an elusive table. The queue was around the corner.
The faces of the barely-coping staff were as red as the flesh in the medium rare burgers, steam was rising from the chefs in the open kitchen as they flipped burgers like robots in Westworld.
The place was being worked so hard paint had fallen from the walls and the concrete had started to crumble, exposed wires in the ceiling hinted at impending catastrophe.
It's distressed chic
Or maybe not.
The distressed interior is all part of the design. It says, ‘Hey look at us, we’re so genuine and authentic, we’re so free of fuss and frills, we’ve not even decorated the place’.
The website stresses the straightforward too.
Tom Byng who came up with 'the concept' writes: ‘During a four year stint in America my favourite diner was the Silver Top in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. I would end up there, late at night, frequently a little worse for wear, with two or three friends. We always ordered hamburgers. They were simple, tasty things – a bit messy, but made with good quality meat and only the classic adornments; some lettuce, tomato, red onion, and maybe a slice of cheese or bacon. The ultimate comfort food and so satisfying in their simplicity. Hamburgers the way they should be.’
This is exactly what Byron delivers. But not much more.
After some excellent and juicy olives for £2.75, I had the Byron burger at a steepish £9.25 which contained bacon, mature Cheddar, lettuce, tomato, red onion and ‘a Byron sauce’. Instead of chips I had courgette fries for £3.25.
Winning olives
It was all fine. Fine is the right word.
Mr Bang is byng-on in his description. There was an elegant simplicity to the food although the Byron sauce was very reticent – was it there, what is it, hello?
The meat defined the burger. This was perfectly cooked medium rare Scottish beef, friable but moist. You can order a 'skinny' with a side salad but no bun for the carb conscious consumer at £7.50. I'm not so bothered about the carbs but that's an attractive deal given the quality of the meat.
Lovely meat madam
The courgette fries were a decent distraction from the obligatory spud fries, sweet and crunchy at the same time. As a side there’s also macaroni cheese, one of the world’s great food horrors. At £3.50 this might be your thing, but honestly I'd run a mile.
Courgettes fried yet still supple
A chicken burger (£8.75) with chargrilled breast, baby spinach, tomato, red onion and tomato mayonnaise was unspectacular and functional. My dining companion said, “This is a healthy burger.” An oxymoron surely?
There are a range of salads. The classic cobb at £10.75 looks the part: chicken, crispy bacon, avocado, blue cheese, tomato, free range egg, iceberg and house dressing.
A new concept, the healthy burger
The Eton Mess dessert was a bad'un.
At £4.95 it was characterless, thin in flavours. Weak. If it were in a Dickens' novel it'd be Tiny Tim.
Eton Messy
But a real bonus was the sharp little drinks menu with a sharp list of wines rising to a maximum of £22.95. Best of all on the drinks menu is the range of eleven craft ales. I had the Byron Pale Ale (£4.25), it was a hoppy treat. They also do Thornbridge Jaipur, yum.
Good beer
I enjoyed Byron.
It didn’t thrill me but it did hold true to Tom Byng’s principles. It was ‘simple and tasty’ food.
But is that enough?
Remember in 2013 in Britain, as with rats, you’re never further than six feet away from a burger.
So while I liked Byron I prefer the dash and flair of Almost Famous, Gorilla, Solita and Common.
In our list of Best of Manchester Burgers the only way Byron might make it is because the meat filling was beautifully delivered without a hint of being scorched, shrivelled or overdone - the burger’s Achilles’ Heel.
Low key exterior
It also loses out to the Northern Quarter bars in terms of atmosphere. The crowd is different, the building exterior dull. Burgers demand a certain amount of funkiness to help them go beyond burger and become that elusive thing of the ‘occasion burger’, the special bun, a Mourinho of fast dining.
That said, Byron is a chain after all. It's quickly sped beyond the London original that apparently started out with edge, wit and verve.
It's now maturing having reached a decent scale with 34 restaurants and counting. Perhaps it's time to stop playing at being indie - although they should keep the cute toy cows strutting the ventilation. Certainly the location it's chosen in Manchester, wisely in terms of turnover, no longer fits the 'cool' aspiration of those Byron distressed interiors.
Still those burgers are definitely 'simple and tasty'.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield or connect via Google+
ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE.
Byron, 115 Deansgate, City, M32NW. 0161 832 1222.
Rating: 13.8/20
Food: 6.8/10 (olives 7.5, Byron burger 7.5, chicken burger 7, courgette fries 7, Eton Mess 5)
Service: 3.5
Ambience: 3.5
Levitating moo
Levitating moo too
Sparse interior
