Burger & Co – Newport, Wales

With large prominent signage that one isn’t likely to miss in the late evening, Burger & Co is a fairly large establishment located on Commercial Street.

Going by the motto: “Eat meat, drink, repeat,” the decor inside is clean and modern, with plenty of red giving this place an American diner feel and look.

Having launched in early 2017, this fully Halal restaurant is spaciously set out, with comfortable cushioned seating for around 40 customers, and in a prime location opposite one mosque and around the corner to another.

Burger & Co says its “aim is to provide a range of creative burger ideas as well as unique side orders to the people of Newport”.

Milkshakes – Wispa Gold, Mango – £3.50 each; Nutterly Butterly £4.00

The best of these trio of premium milkshakes was undoubtedly the Nutterly Butterly, with a decently thick consistency and a strong peanut butter taste-overload which made this a pleasure to slurp on.

The next best was the semi-thick Mango shake, which had a good fruity taste coming through; followed by the fairly watery, and thus rather insipid, Wispa Gold.

In all, the shakes were inconsistant in terms of their texture, which was a pity, since these were, we were told, supposed to be thick.

Cheesy Garlic Bread (4pc), £2.99

Okay so this portion of Cheesy Garlic Bread may not look like much by way of presentation, but neither will appearances turn out to be deceptive in this case, because these were just poor!

It appears that the bread wasn’t so much toasted as it was seared and scorched. As a result, once the oil from the copious amounts of cheddar cheese began to soak through, we were left with soggy and floppy pieces. Not much more to say after that is there?

Loaded Keema Cheese Fries, £3.99

And though these Loaded Keema Fries were flavourous, thanks to the addition of Central Asian spices coupled with the jalapenos, that oily cheddar cheese made the entire dish just far too greasy and slimy for its own good.

As such, you might want to scrape away the excess cheese in a hurry to enjoy this properly.

Sticky Fries £3.00

These freshly made fries were doused and drenched, before being drowned, in a glistening sweet and sour sauce, which not only made these somewhat sticky in nature, but a difficult eat as a result.

BBQ, B&CO Special, Tandoori, Peri Peri (6 for £3.50, mixed platter of 12 for £6.50

An assortment of fairly well grilled and simply marinated chicken wings which, given their less than generous sizes, you’ll be able to polish off before you know it.

The best ones for us were the BBQ and Tandoori flavours, respectively.

The God Father – with Chipotle Sauce, Onion Rings, Gherkins, Double Mozzarella Cheese, Cucumber & Lettuce, £7.00

With two 6oz and 4oz patties making up this impressive looking 10 ouncer, there’s a reason why they call this The God Father.

However, if The God Father was a burger aficionado, someone would be “sleeping with the fishes” for cooking the two patties well done (and we do mean well done).

Consequently, what we were served were overly dense pieces of meat that lacked any real taste.

The only saving grace here was the onion ring dipped in plenty of quite delicious inhouse chipolata sauce, which managed to add something to an otherwise poorly executed burger.

Lahori Tikka Burger – Authentically marinated chicken with ChilliMint Yoghurt, Cucumbers, Cheddar Cheese, Onions, Tomatoes & Lettuce, £5.50

In contrast to the above, the Lahori Tikka Burger at least had some flavour to speak of.

The shortcoming this time round, was that if you’re going to overload any burger with so many other condiments, in this case a thick tomato and cucumber juxtaposed with two slices of red onion rings resting atop a bed of lettuce, you need the patty to be of sufficient size to help maintain balance.

Here, the slender cut of the chicken, and in spite of its chilli marination, simply couldn’t live against the salad therein.

B&Co Tikki Tikki – with Chilli Mint Yoghurt, Onions, Cucumber, Tomatoes & Lettuce, £4.50

The same failure of the above chicken burger was repeated with their signature veggie B&Co Tikki Tikki.

The ratio of salads to patty was off kilter, except that in this case, the latter was a homemade potato-based one which, though fairly well made in its own right, with a touch of spice and good seasoning, wasn’t nearly as flavourful as the aforementioned chicken; and was, therefore, lost in translation.

And what made matters worse was the conspicuous lack of the chilli mint yoghurt sauce. The whole thing was far too flat for our collective liking.

Chocolate Filled Mini Churros (6 pcs) with Ice Cream, £2.99

Freshly fried crispy Churros filled with hot chocolate, and served with cold vanilla ice cream and an assortment of dips, is always going to go down well enough.

Choc Chip Cookie Dough Collision Cheesecake, £2.99

As for the standard Choc Chip Cookie Dough Collision Cheesecake, then this was sweet, with the peculiar crunch of raw sugar therein, and served again with vanilla ice cream. Nothing that special to be honest.