Food: Stax Diner

I've written at least twice about the proliferation of "style over substance" gourmet burger bars that have popped up all over London over the past couple of years. They seem designed purely with the dual purpose of a) giving haloodie bloggers everywhere something to gush about and take pictures of and b) convince Muslims with more money than taste buds to part with their hard earned in the name of treating their families (to things like obesity and heart disease). You can probably tell that I'm not impressed but as I'm not a) a haloodie or b) have any kids to fatten up I guess I'm not really the target market for these places anyway.

So it was with great trepidation that I sat down at Stax this evening. My initial expectation was to be greeted with something I had already had before, the identikit sandwich accompanied with the inevitable Ferrero milkshake, but this did start to change pretty soon after. I think the main difference I found was that this wasn't a place designed for and marketed to Muslims, but a burger restaurant that happened to serve Halal meat. That's significant in a world where Islam is increasingly being pimped out as a brand to be traded on and commoditised, as it means a seller has to focus on making a product universally good instead of just good enough to sell to Muslims who have no other options. Take for example how the server asked us how we wanted our meat cooked - something unheard of in other so called gourmet burger joints. That said, I did go for the medium so I suppose I'm hardly adventurous.

But anyway, food. It was good. Really good. I went for a double Insanity (you can pick up to five patties in your bun), which was supposed to be hot but wasn't really. But I didn't mind because the burger was really good (I may have mentioned that already). It was also really unhealthy - I don't think I've ever seen a burger dripping as much fat as the one I received today. But I didn't care because it was so good. Oh and I think we got some chips and a milkshake but I don't really remember much past the cow-in-a-bun.

Oh and I have to talk about the Stax Challenge: a five patty cheese burger with a family portion of chips and super sized milkshake is presented to the challenger, who is then timed to see how long they take to finish it all. There's even a hall of fame/shame - I was quite surprised at how long the list of failures were, until I saw how easily a colleague failed at his. I'll try it one day maybe.

Anyway if you haven't already figured it out, I loved this place and thoroughly recommend it, and am even happy to gush about it here on my blog. Be warned though: the place couldn't have had more than 30 or so covers and doesn't take bookings so make sure you plan ahead. Other than that I'm already planning my next visit.