HAM Holy Burger

As others have mentioned, the iPad ordering system seems odd when the waiter hangs around the entire time and spends a significant amount of time explaining how it works. But whatever, it’s quite a fun little gimmick and I’ve experienced this in other places so wasn’t that thrown by it. My bf and I went for lunch and needing a mid-​afternoon pick me up I ordered a cappucino. Lovely, no complaints there. I ordered the Xmas special burger while my bf ordered the lounge burger, with grilled veg and the almighty chips for sides. I thought my burger was good, though the flavours weren’t particularly distinct, but my bf wouldn’t even let me try his, and described it as «similar to a Big Mac». Not good! When the food first arrived, we were also told they were out of chips, and were offered the French fries as an alternative. Firstly, I think it’s strange the waitress waited until the rest of our food was ready before telling us this. Secondly, after agreeing on the French fries, they never appeared! Then to top it off, when we asked for the bill and requested they take off the non-​existent fries, our waiter disappeared and then came back with a doggie bag of fries with ketchup and mayo (I thought that was meant to be 5 sauces?!) and charged us anyway. I did not want to be walking around shopping with a bag of smelly fries for the rest of the day, hence the request to cancel the order! Oh, and the fries themselves were underdone and under seasoned.
I really wanted to like this place, but unfortunately I won’t be back.

A group of Unilocalers headed to HAM Holy Burger for an edition of BurgerQuest. Andrew mentioned that it was getting good reviews (apparently), so he was excited to try it. It’s oddly located inside of a department store, and to be honest, it’s kind of what you would expect shopping center food to be like: average and boring.
I ordered the MarvelBurger that had courgette slices, pecarino cheese, rocket, basil pesto and goat’s cheese cream. I added bacon and onion. Because I love bacon and onion. They do bring iPads to the table so you can just order things when you’re ready, and you get that lovely ability to dine without any personal service! Well you get a bit, as they have to explain to you how to use the iPad, but honestly, after that, you really don’t need to interact with them except to receive your food and ask for the bill. What a great modern marvel.
My partner and I were the second group to order on the iPads, so we were the second set of burgers to come out of the kitchen. When the first came out, the waiter kept saying «cooked medium» and I mentioned that I didn’t know I could get it cooked medium rare. He said you can’t. So they only do medium. Although the burger had zero pink in it, so they were not medium to any standard I had ever heard of. The patties were also a bit small. I have a feeling (and it’s just a feeling so I don’t know), that they a) get their burgers frozen which is why they can’t cook them to anything below well done (their definition of medium), b) pre-​cook all the burgers so there’s just a pile of burgers waiting in the back for you to order (and I’m guessing this because the burgers came out EXTREMELY fast) or c) both.
The toppings were interesting, but the dry, overcooked meat had pretty much no flavor. And come on, it’s a burger, which means you should have some tasty meat. I don’t understand this whole trend toward interesting toppings so you can use really crappy and un-​flavorful meat. It just makes no sense to me. The burger should be delicious. My partner looked at me and said, «Yeah, this is exactly what I would expect to get at a place in John Lewis, and if I were shopping here, I suppose I’d be okay coming here to get something to eat.» I looked at him and told him that there are far superior burger places within walking distance that I would go to before every going back to this place.
We also ordered the almighty chips (that come with five dipping sauces) and the crisps (home made British-​style crisps). They were reasonable, but nothing special. Three of the dipping sauces basically tasted the same. Some sort of mayonnaise mixed with something that didn’t really add any flavor. And basically since the burgers are pretty much over a tenner each, and the sides are between £3−5, you’re looking at a minimum of £15 per person. For a mediocre, overcooked burger and chips. Not impressed.
The wine was also average at best. So really, there’s no reason to come here. And I’ve definitely had better. And you can too.

Same night, same test, same grade.
RossoPomodoro (yes the chain, the one where they make bad pizza pretending is a good one) opened this new franchise. Italian gourmet burgers is something came up in the last ten years, it’s actually a good idea: we have at least two races of good cows (tuscanian chianina & piemontais fassone), and then it’s just a matter of putting in a bun everything italy can produce: cheese, vegetables, salami, everything! It can be good or excellent, but if you have good italian products it can’t be bad.
And that’s where i put this burger. On the low side of the good-​excellent rating.
Read Alex S for info about the place and other stuff, I’m here to speak about the burger. Now, we start with a serious problem: no under medium cooking, and what they call medium it’s more on the well done side. That’s bad. No that’s not only bad, that’s terrible. Now, sometimes the waiter tells me that it’s because of a law, but there are several places where I can get my rare burger (even blue), so I really can’t understand… But one thing that I know of is that I want my damn burger rare, and if I don’t get it, I’m lowering the rating. Shame on you.
Other than the cooking level of the meat, the bun is good, the ingredients are excellent (at least the ones I tried), parmesan, parma ham, rucola, everything is so good that I’d rather have all the ingredients spread open on a plate rather than in a bun. Also because the result makes the bun to be a bit dry, as (and that would be a positive thing) very few sauces are used. If only the meat would have been a bit more moist it’d have been great.
Almighty fries (bad name for a good thing) are delicious, just try them!
Strong, really strong plus for the beer selection: leaving behind the usual italian beers (nastro azzurro, moretti, perona, blabla) they have baladin (one of the most famous italian craft beers), that alone is enough to make you visit this place at least once.
In the end… It’s an average place, which deserves a try for the beer and for the ingredients, but they really have to let you choose the meat cooking level, otherwise the burger is just too dry.

I was so excited to try Ham Holy burger after hearing some buzz about them. Unfortunately I was disappointed.
According to their website, this beef is the «pride of Italy» as it is not genetically modified, nothing is added to it, and the cattle are reared naturally in traditional methods. I really appreciate eating wholesome food so this was right up my alley.
We were given an iPad to order from yet the waiter still floated around our table to explain things. If it takes that much effort to explain the process, why can’t we just skip that and order in the traditional fashion? Especially since the side of fries I wanted wasn’t offered on the iPad menu and had to order those directly to the waiter. What? Pointless.
Definitely not a fan of only being able to order the burger medium but my Holy burger wasn’t too dry. That could be because of the ‘holy’ sauce which was really good, so good I think it made up for the medium patty. I also liked the bun but really for a burger restaurant the best thing should be the meat, not the bun or toppings.
Some of the sides were also a bit confusing. They offer crisps, chips, and fries. If you want «french fries» or American-​like thin chips you have to specify that to the waiter. The Almighty chips on the menu are very thick wedge fries. Both come with the same five dipping sauces. None of the sauces were described. From taste alone I know one is like a BBQ sauce, one was tomato based, and three were sort of indistinguishable; they all seemed to be mayo. The fries themselves were just okay. The ones I ordered were too greasy and too soft. The thick cut Almighty chips were much much better although even those I thought could be improved by cutting into smaller wedges.
Not particularly cheap and a bit too expensive for what you are getting. I agree with Grant, you can get much better burgers in the area.

When you click on the three stars in a Unilocal review, it gives you the clarification that at this rating, everything is simply, «A-​OK.» Neither amazing, nor terrible, straight down the middle. This couldn’t describe my HAM Holy Burger experience better.
I’d never actually heard of this burger joint but we went with a group of Unilocalers, including burger fiend Andrew M who knows all the new spots.
Apparently, a gourmet Italian burger joint, using only meats and cheese from Italy, opened in John Lewis. Yes, the store. And so we went to go check it out.
To find this place, go into John Lewis, passed all the overpriced items, and up to the third floor. There you can’t miss it, a giant neon sign welcomes you to HAM Holy Burger. Take a seat, your waiter will be with you soon.
Or, your waiter will at least be there to show you how to order on the iPad. You choose whatever you want and order it digitally… or at least, most of what you want. If, for say, you want normal French Fries, you still for some reason have to order from actually from your waiter. Do not be taken in by the crisps that have a little illustration next to them that look like French Fries as the first item on the menu, those are actual crisps. They also have Almighty Fries, which are also not fries, but giant potato wedges. Not confusing at all.
Those sides do come with five different dipping sauces though, which is pretty neat.
As for the main burger, they are not kidding when they say these come straight from Italy. In between those two buns, complete with meat, you’ll find items like Scamorza cheese, oregano seasoned aubergine carpaccio, Doppia Corona Parma ham, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese frico and more. I got the PRIMEBurger, which was again, good. The Parma Ham was a nice touch and the hard cheese made it the most interesting texture I’ve ever had in a burger (you seriously had to bite down to get through it.) Interesting is not always good or bad though, it’s just interesting.
A little annoyed at the end of the meal when we got one giant bill all together, despite all ordering separately on the iPad, and then had to work to split it. Blarg. There was also a mix-​up because they wanted us to include tip separately than the price of the meal when paying by card, which was a little strange and caused bill shenanigans with our waiter.
I usually have trouble writing those three star reviews, since I’m usually a guy who loves or hates something. But here. Well. It was simply A-​OK.

A last minute change of plans had me heading to the John Lewis department store over on Oxford Street to meet up with Alex S. and a group of Unilocalers to check out HAM Holy Burgers. The location almost put me off, but the lure of trying out a new place and hanging out with fun people had me making the trek.
Ordering from the iPad was fun, but side note — if you want French fries you had to order them from the waiter because they’re not on the menu. The crisps (which have a misleading picture next to them that looks like fries) are like kettle chips but not as good. I like mine to be crunchier and these were a little under cooked for me. The Almighty Chips are like steak fries or potato wedges that come with four dipping sauce — nothing special, but a decent sized serving.
I ordered the HOLY burger — their basic burger, because one, it was the smallest, and two, I think all burger places should be able to make amazing basic burgers before trying to attempt fancy shamancy ones. The burger was simple, the patty a little dry, but I enjoyed the sauce.
Overall, it didn’t do much for me –if I happened to be shopping in John Lewis and keeling over from hunger then I might go back, but otherwise, there are so many better burger joints in town.