Handmade Burger Co

I visited last month with some friends. It was really busy inside and quite loud. There is no table service so you need to order at the tills at the front. There was a large queue but it was pretty busy. I felt that the burgers were just a bit overpriced however they do have a massive selection. My actual burger patty was overcooked and wasn’t great. Chips come separately which was fine as the portion was big enough for 2 to share.
Overall it was fine. I have definitely had better burgers.

Easter Saturday came and things brightened up with a very late lunch at HBC. Good choice of menu and we all had the usual sort of thing burgers, Denver chips, Caesar salad washed down with a Peroni, glass of Sauvignon Blanc and never-​ending Coca-​Cola
The food was really good; £47 for 3
Price was ok, buzzy place, friendly
Two things prevent a better score
First, if I’ve got to go through the menu, talk to a waiter about choices, I don’t really want to then get up, leave the table and friends etc and join a (how long?) queue at the counter to order and pay. Even more irritating when you have to do it again for the coffees… presumably every course. Sorry don’t need that so no return visit
Secondly, I’ve seen better carpets in the Dog & Duck in Wapping (apologies if there is such a place). It was disgusting. Your feet don’t just stick to the «carpet» they sink into the mire. Dreadful. Sort it out, really!

Literally the worst burger I’ve had in years. The only plus point was them still being open at 22.45 on a Friday night. The burger was by no means «handmade», having the smooth texture of a Farmfoods special. The buns on all 4 of our burgers were icy cold, rapidly cooling everything else. The dirty onions on my burger were inedible, being the onion directly from under the skin, so tough and leathery. The sides were similarly underwhelming. If the kitchen and wait staff didn’t want to give us good food and service, they should have just turned us away. Really regret spending money here on what was a woeful meal. AVOID.

Was ok, nothing special, nothing stood out and the food was just mediocre
I just went in for a quick meal with my sister and we can’t complain, it was good service, good place to enjoy a meal, it’s just didn’t blow us away

I’ve been to the Handmade Burger Co before, in various shopping centres around the country and it’s usually pretty darn good. I always go for the spicy bean burger, not due to vegetarianism, just it’s tasty. But this time, sitting in their swanky city centre restaurant which proudly displays all their ethical beef sources around the walls I figured, hey why not give it a go?
As in all of this chain, you order at the counter then the food is served at your table. We seemed to wait… forever! We were a large, 11 person table, so I understand everything not coming out at the same time, but some people were almost done by the time others got theirs.
I got the bacon, cheese, BBQ burger with Brioche bun and salt and rosemary chips, with a Banana milkshake.
I felt like I could really get into the first few bites but by the second half of the burger I was filled with such disappointment that I wrapped up the remaining meat and fed it to my dog.
The chips were highlighted in the menu as special new more expensive chips… totally not worth it.
The milkshake again started out as really tasty… but then large mushy chunks of banana kept getting stuck in my straw… not the most pleasant.
The space, décor and style was quite funky, trendy steampunki-​sh, dark wood, exposed fancy light bulbs, that sort of thing.
I’m not swearing off the company all together, but I think I’ll stick to the bean burger in one of their shopping centre stores.

After a few more meals here, I’m downgrading my review score by a star. The quality has gone downhill, and our last visit was mediocre. My partner’s mushroom and mozzarella stack was served with an entirely soaked and soggy bottom bun. The veggie skewers were undercooked. My burger was fine and the rosemary salt chips were the best part.
Service is still good, but the kitchen isn’t turning out the quality it once did. Shame!

Of all the burger joints in all of Glasgow… this is my favourite.
I’ll keep it simple — the staff are extremely friendly and helpful and offer genuine advice and recommendations (unlike Five Guys who just scream words every 20 seconds and look fed up) ;
The menu is extensive and mouthwatering and who DOESN’T like peanut butter on their burger?! ;
It has a gluten free menu;
Or you can just ask for no-​bun;
The milkshakes are filthy and make you feel fat AND ITS THE BEST FEELING EVER;
They do a loyalty card which rewards you with free meals;
It has a cinema room and meeting rooms you can hire for events;
Bottomless soft drinks.
I’ve left my review at 4 stars cos sadly every time I’ve gone to the loo, it smells strongly of wee.

The selling point for me is the 100% grass fed beef on all beef burgers. I’m one of those people who always check on the label for additives and GMOs. So happy was I to be at minds ease with their ingredients.
The menu is a lot of fun with many options. I would say its an American style approach to burgers, with all the trimmings they offer. I was delighted to see they had a list of shakes & sundaes. A lot of the menu items are fun and worth a try. Although the lamb burger and Hawaiian burger were enticing, I needed a try at that grass fed beef so went with the classic. I did taste more beefy flavour on their beef patty. It was more amped up in flavour without fillers. A side of Denver chips were ordered, which are house cut chips topped with melted cheese and slow roasted pork shreds drizzled with BBQ sauce. It got a ooh out of me, and funnily enough also satisfied my previous craving for ribs. Its like ribs and fries all in one!
It was a fun experience, just not a wow-​er. For burgers ranging £7−10, they are not amazing, nor that big, nor does it come with a side. Plain chips need be ordered separately (another 3 quid). Its a lazy diner type, but prices don’t reflect that. If you are going to do restaurant prices for a burger, I’m sorry but you need to offer more to sell it.
Good but can use a bit of work, but sure I can return. I don’t know how fast though.

Dear Chris (owner of Handmade Burger Co),
Ancient proverbs tell us that it is a brave man who puts his personal email address and phone number on every table in his restaurant. It is an even braver man who does it when the restaurant isn’t very good.
I’ve always been a firm believer in keeping things simple. Seat me, take my order, bring me a goddamn delicious burger, et voila — you have a happy customer. What I don’t want is to get up from my table, cross the restaurant and stand in a queue to place my order. Where did you come up with that idea? Is it really more efficient than getting your more than capable staff to just do table service? I mean, really, it’s a gimmick and I hate it.
Your menu is vast, and as a veggie i’m not used to being given such choice, so I salute you for that. That doesn’t, however, absolve you of your sins. Most burgers are £8/£9 and, of course, don’t come with chips, which set me back another £3.50. £2.35 extra got me three small dipping sauces, and you threw in a «side» of one gherkin cut into slices for another £1.65. Oh, and when I ordered a £2.70 diet coke the smiley man behind the till handed me an empty glass and told me that the self-​service machine was just «over there».
The point i’m trying to make, Chris, is that this is nonsense. Why should I memorise my entire table’s order, get out of my seat and stand for 10 minutes behind four other diners when you have a restaurant full of perfectly good staff? Is it because I should be delighted and in awe at you’re persistent reminders that every burger is made fresh and by hand? Because that really is the least I expect for an £8 burger. What next? Am I mean’t to be applauding you because you don’t water down the coke?
To be fair, the burger was quite nice. More than quite nice, it was good. But you know there’s something wrong when you’re sat in a gourmet burger restaurant and you can see two more through the window. I love Glasgow city centre, and I think that it deserves better than yet another gimmicky burger restaurant which charges crazy amounts for very average food. And that’s what you are, Chris — very average.
I’m sorry.
It’s not you, it’s me.
I just don’t think we’re right for each other.
I deserve better,
Hannah (hater of nonsense)

We wanted a quick meal before going through the abject hell of shopping for lady clothes — for her of course. Where better than a burger joint, and where even better than one with a voucher guy standing outside? We got seated and my immediate thought was that the tables were a bit too cosy, for example for a romantic, candlelit burger, but luckily I don’t feel very romantic before shopping, or over a burger. It’s a nice space though, an old bank, bright and high-​ceiling with a lot of seating.
We just went for the burgers with a shared side of Cajun fries and coke refills. My burger was the «Hot Chilli». It was okay, but it took a while to appear and the burger was pretty average, slightly dry and it wasn’t particularly spicy. It all stayed together though. The real disappointment was the fries. They were nicely made chips and tasty, but just not Cajun, the Cajun seasoning was just a powder thrown over them for an extra 20p!
No frills burgering, and not bad for that, but they don’t have to look far to check out the competition, and neither does anyone else.

My favourite burger place so far! As a vegetarian, finding good veggie burgers isn’t always easy, but Handmade Burger Co has a big, varied selection. They’ve really made an effort to cater toward vegetarians and vegans, which I love! The two veggie burgers I’ve tried were super delicious.
The service was really good, and the restaurant itself is beautiful and really atmospheric. The only thing I can complain about is that it’s pretty expensive, and that you don’t get chips with the burgers, but have to buy them separately (which makes it even more expensive…). Other than that, I love this place!

Thought I was doing good by using the O2 voucher — saved a measly 20p! It wasn’t worth the 20 minutes we waited for our order. Service very slow despite only a handful of people dining.
Food however as always is superb — the relish out of this world.
One of the party found an elastic band in her burger — the staff apologised profusely and gave a full refund on the spot which was really nice of them — they also offered to replace the burger. A very nice gesture.

Finally managing to get a seat somewhere for dinner, Carolyn E. and I were happy to sit down and get some burgers in our belly. The staff was lovely, and before she sat down she informed us it would be about a half hour wait for our dinner — which by this time we were happy to accept as we were hungry and glad to have found a place with some space for us.
The menu is quite extensive, and it was nice to see that they have bottomless drinks, albeit it for £2.70 (which is even more expensive than the £2.50 you pay at Nandos!). Unfortunately I was too hungry to pay the closest of attentions to the menu, all I wanted was a tasty burger with melty cheese that I could taste. As I know myself to having an issue with bread to meat ratios, I decided to go for the «Smaller Burger» option — «if you fancy something lighter …» and I went for the Classic Cheese Beef. When we had to go back to the front entrance to place our order, the waiter was super friendly and joked about how sincere I was with my request not to have any tomato on my burger. In hindsight, I should have really asked for the burger without relish or something instead of the relish, but I thought the relish would be more of a burger sauce than a relish, so I didn’t. I am not a big fan of relish at any given time, but when it turns out that the relish has raisins in it (spawn of the devil! — unless they’re covered in chocolate) it ruins it for me. To cut a long story short, I ended up scraping the relish off my burger.
On the whole, the smaller burger was more than decent in size and I will definitely continue to go for the «smaller» burger, because the normal sized burgers look massive!
However, I must admit that I was pretty disappointed. The patty was dry and was lacking seasoning. The bun to meat ratio was completely off, which is especially upsetting when it lacks flavour in the first place. The bun itself was a little dry and mine did not have sesame seeds on it, although the big burgers have seeds on the bun. The cheese, although melted, was impossible to taste. The relish, as previously mentioned, was not to my personal liking but I understand how some people would like it.
We also ordered the Cajun Onion Rings, upon Carolyn’s recommendation, and we opted for the Rosemary Salt Fries. When the waitress told us that the portions of the sides are adequate for two people to share, she wasn’t lying. Biting into the onion rings, I can’t decide whether they were too hot (temperature wise) or oily, but either way, they were decently tasty. The Rosemary Salt Fries, although smelling divine (I love myself some rosemary) lacked in taste, especially compared to the intense smell. Saying that, they were tasty enough but for me personally they lacked in salt.
The redeeming qualities of this burger join are that you don’t smell like it afterwards (as is the case with Bread Meats Bread, for example), the size of the menu with millions of different options, the friendliness of the staff, the décor (love the décor!) and that they pride themselves on hand-​making their burgers as well as only using the best, local ingredients.

Honestly, with so many burger joints in the city these days, it’s really hard to decipher which is which. What sets most of these places apart are the menus and the variety of choice. Handmade Burger Co. has loads of options, even for the veggies out there, which is surprising for a burger joint. This pace is great.
What I love most about Handmade Burger is that they advertise that they are hand made with the freshest ingredients, and display proudly where they get their ingredients local. On top of that, this particular Handmade Burger Co is housed in an amazing building in city centre with gorgeous tiling, a movie theatre and meeting rooms to boot. I could spend loads of time in here… if only I had the time.
One of my Unilocaler friends posted in a talk thread that Handmade Burger Co were doing a free burger night and my boyfriend and I hopped at the chance for a free burger in a restaurant that we love. The catch? Well, if you call it one, it was their Peanut Butter and Bacon burgers (both beef and chicken options) that were the freebies. No bother. We decided to check it out.
Expecting the place to be packed out (I mean, who doesn’t love free stuff), we got there relatively early after swinging by the flat to drop off our bags and to our surprise, we were seated almost immediately. Maybe the thought of Peanut Butter on a burger doesn’t tickle everyone’s fancy? We were well chuffed.
We were sat at a table and were reminded that this was a self order kind of place and that we were to head up to the bar/​reception area to place our orders. Because we’re not the cheapest couple in the world, aside from one chicken peanut butter and bacon burger, one beef peanut butter and bacon burger, we also ordered a side of cajun onion rings and a side of chips, along with some drinks. After a quick chat about the days we had, our food arrived.
To our surprise, and utter delight, the burgers were absolutely fab. We were half expecting (no, fully expecting) the burgers to be drowning in peanut butter, but they were not. In fact, there was just enough smeared on to give it a nice kick but not too much to be overwhelming. We split the burgers in half so we could both try each and to be honest, I was a bigger fan on the chicken burger. They were both really good and I would recommend the peanut butter and bacon burger to everyone without a peanut allergy. We were very happy diners. To top that off, the onion rings were huge and perfectly crispy and the chips were just as fresh. This will be a meal we order again!
After we finished, we were offered the menus back for dessert, but we passed and since we had already paid when we ordered, we were able to sit as long as we liked and leave when we wanted. It was a great night with great company and great food.
This is a burger joint you want to check out.

Just so disappointed in this place. With 5 Guys and Gourmet Burger across the road it has to really up it’s game if it wants to be a contender.
It was a quiet Sunday night and I went with two of my friends. We were seated upstairs pretty much straight away, our table was kinda squashed in between two other tables. It’s quite spacious I’m not sure why they cram the tables in like that.
Anyways we go down and order our food and despite being in a group and the servers knowing this we were given different numbers so when our food/​drinks came the staff were confused. We all got milkshakes but they came in different sizes. So mine wasn’t very full whereas another one was nearly spilling over. It was a fair wait about 20 mins plus before the food started arriving. My order was correct but twice they came back to say they eithet didn’t have any mozzarella cheese or sweet potato fries. My friends said just to replace them with ‘any cheese’ and ‘fries’ respectively. So the rest of the meals arrive and the chorizo on one of the burgers was quite burnt, also the kitched had put both brie and Swiss on the other burger. And a lot of it. She had to pull chunks of brie off it and by that point was close to a cheese overdose.
Just not a great visit. I begrudge paying £16.90 for a below average meal.
Save yourself the bother and go elsewhere.

I’d wanted to try this burger chain restaurant for a while as they’ve now gone from having one vegan burger to four (five, if you have the falafel without the raita). Fantastic service — we were asked if we’d been there before and we hadn’t, and when we said we were vegan the waitress recommended the falafel burger (but as vegans we often have falafel so I was keen to try something different). She brought out the allergen guide when we queried the chips and onion rings as both were marked ‘v’ for vegetarian, but not ‘vegan’. They were both fine. The food arrived quickly, and portions were a decent size.
We had opted for the sweet potato and bean burger, and the chickpea and quinoa burger. They were good. The best, freshest tasting burgers I’ve ever tasted? In my opinion, not exactly. But a good size, and you can mix and match burgers and sauces if you prefer. The cajun onion rings were tasty enough. The chips… man… get the chips! The burgers don’t automatically come with them but it is worth it to get them on the side. They tasted really fresh and were delicious.
No dairyfree dessert options. I did notice that they clearly label their wines which contain milk on their allergen guide, which is useful. On this occasion I had Fentiman’s Dandielion & Burdock, which is great as it means you’re not restricted to the bigger drinks companies.

We decided to pop in and grab a quick burger.
The place was really quiet and we soon told that they were doing table service, which I assume that this is not normal.
We ordered some drinks whilst we had a look over the menu, which has a good range of burgers, including quite a few tasty sounding vegetarian burgers.
We placed our order and, since we tried another of the other burger places in the area, we decided to get a portion of chips each. This was a bad decision as they were real chips and come in a decent size portion. So much so that we both had to leave most of them as we hadn’t planned on having so many.
The burgers were well put together, fresh and tasty.
We will definitely be back to try some of their other burgers, probably after a good day shopping so that we can truly appreciate everything on offer.

Very impressed with this place. Went in to take advantage of a free burger offer for their new place in st vincent street. They have set up shop in what used to be paparinos (not frankensteins as i originally thought, cheers to Alan D!!). Walked in and it is a very high ceiling complete with a balcony for upstairs and a to be finished projection cinema room and a variety of meeting rooms. Now onto the food!!! I ordered the classic beef burger which came with lettuce, tomato, red onion and relish. And it was delicious! The burger was meaty, well made and cooked, all the ingredients fresh. The relish is made by the owner as is all the salsas and relishes they sell, therefore if it doesnt meet with his approval then it doesnt get sold.
Another good thing that this company do is back local charities as one of the waitressess were telling me they plan to invite kids from yorkhill to the projection cinema and show them a movie which is excellent!
In a nutshell a really lovely plce with attentive friendly staff in a large area with good ethics and great food! Ill be back!

After a wee jaunt out to Edinburgh, we were strangely glad to be back in Glasgow town at dinner time, especially as there’s so many new burger places to try.
For a moment we stood on burger corner in somewhat of a dilemna… GBK, Handmade Burger Co or Five Guys or to take those extra steps to BMB (a bit of a favourite) or Bread Meats Bread.
In the end Handmade Burger co won out, due to the fact they had loads of different veggie burger options and it wasn’ t too busy. Its all high ceilings and muted colours and there’s some nice quirky features, movie posters on the walls, nice railings, you get the gist.
The server who took us to our seats was friendly and chatty and gave us a quick guide through the menu. It’s very similar to Nandos (in fact in could be the same chain?) but there’s a variety of burgers, beef, chicken, veggie, salads and skewers with sides including chips, salads, onion rings, jalapenos to name a few.
Each can be customised with different buns/​no buns and everything is charged separately. You can also opt for a smaller burger which appealed to me, and there’s a good selection of junior burgers for kids.
It was great to have a choice of veggie burger and some of the options included falafel, sweet potato, chickpea and quinoa and the bean and vegetable which I went for. My dining partner for the night went for the cheese and bacon burger and we both went for the brioche buns with some chips on the side and a bottomless Diet Coke. Ordering at the counter I was pleasantly surprised at the price: about £20 in total.
There was a fair number of staff floating about and I must admit there didn’t seem a whole lot of order to who was bringing the food out. Our meal seemed to take a bit longer than I’d expect to come, especially as it wasn’t that busy and I did clock burgers sitting ready to come out which seemed to be sitting there for a while whilst the rest of the meal was put together.
A minor quibble really as the burgers were really tasty. The brioche buns were light and sweet and although I’d opted for the smaller burger, it was a good size, packed full of flavour from the burger relish with some added tomato sauce… mmm. It really hit the spot! Mr H seemed to enjoy his burger too and struggled to finish it along with the hearty portion of chips.
All in all a good addition to the Glasgow burger bonanza, and somewhere I’ll definitely return after sampling some of the other new places to compare.

Where to begin.
Love Handmade Burger Co., and given I don’t have a car, I so rarely get to enjoy the delights in their Braehead and Silverburn branches. But now, I can chomp on down whenever I want! That is of course if I don’t get distracted by the other new gourmet burger joints within spitting distance in what appears to be the unofficial ‘burger quadrant’ of the city centre.
The good news for these guys is I have plenty of reasons to go here.
First of all, the burgers: they are amazing. But, they always pale in comparison to the exceptional sides. No visit is complete without their veg skewers for me, and it should be noted the portions are generous, including the chips.
Back to the burgers, the volume of options puts other burger joints to shame; the lamb and mint burger is kind of magical, for one thing.
As far as our first visit, on opening night goes, we were treated to exceptional service from start to finish (they had loads of staff on as well) with great ambience overall. We were also treated to a free dessert, complete with a photo opp for the website. It was that sort of special feeling on a first date, but I suspect it was a treat for being loyal customers: we got vouchers emailed to get a free burger, as part of their loyalty scheme. When two free burgers adds up to £20, you know how amazing their sides are.
Suckers.
It can tally up quickly in here, so it will be one of those ‘treat’ places for us. But, I am pleased to report they are doing things right in here and I look forward to going back.
Mega recommend.