The Meating Room – Norbury

THIS RESTAURANT HAS PERMANENTLY CLOSED DOWN!

After going strong for 18 months in the relatively upmarket spot of St. Albans, the brains, or should that be horns, behind The Meating Room (TMR) have decided to try their luck in the not-so-upmarket place of Norbury.

And what a place it is too, for when it comes to its interior design and theme, this burger joint takes the meaning of the word ‘rustic’ – what they call “industrial chic” – and stretches it to its limit.

We were told that this place was such “a labour of love” that it took three months to bring to fruition. And it must have taken a lot of thought and planning too to make something so rustically designed look aesthetically pleasing.

We don’t usually present pics of the interior of a place in the introductory paragraphs, but TMR has to stand as an exception.

You wouldn’t expect the inside to be the way it is given the outside, would you?

But, it’s this contrast in design that makes TMR… well, frankly a piece of art.

What other restaurant is bold enough, for instance, to put up a wall made up of artificially rusted corrugated metal panels (properly cured of course)?

Now, contrast this with the white wall opposite, with its intricate copper-pipe lighting design, and you can’t help but appreciate the consistency of theme.

Even the public toilets, which appear to be something straight out of the splatter film ‘SAW’, fit therein (and perfectly clean, in case you were wondering). Very clever and unique!

Grilled Halloumi £2.95, Calamari £3.95, Buffalo Wings £3.95

It’s Halloumi! It’s cheese! Not as strong as some we’ve had, but, for what it’s worth, well cooked, i.e. not dry, and with good colouration.

The Calamari though was excellent! A crispy batter coating a soft and succulent squid ring (not very easy to cook at the best of times).

As for the Buffalo Wings, then they were simply sublime! Freshly cooked and coated in a pungent chilli buffalo sauce with the perfect level of sour lemon running through the background. RECOMMENDED!

A nice little salad with a light dressing. Is what it is!

1. Chipotle, 2. Cranberry, 3. Mustard Mayo, 4. BBQ Chilli, 5. Burger, 6. Hermitage Red, 7. Aioli.

An interesting assortment of freshly made in-house sauces here. And a selection that created considerable debate over which one’s better than which. In the end, we’ve decided on presenting what three Lions concluded. Make of it what you will, but it seems like BBQ Chilli and Aioli seem to be the front runners for us:

Rosemary Salted £2.50, Sweet Potato £3.25, Fire Fries £2.95.

The chips were well made and crispy. Both the Rosemary Salted and the Fire Fries were perfectly seasoned and quite addictive to munch on. As for the Sweet Potatoes, then these were crisp and not too dissimilar to Brioche Burger’s (Pecking Order’s still stand unchallenged); perhaps slightly more crunchier.

Raspberry Leamonade, Strawberry & Rhubarb, Pear & Elderflower – £2.65 each

Having never tried these Lovely Posh Pops before, we were left pleasantly surprised.

In the end, we unanimously awarded Raspberry Lemonade 1st prize!

This was tart; this was lemony; this set the taste buds into ultra-tingle mode.

Very nice!

The Strawberry & Rhubarb was full of flavour with strawberry rightfully dominating over the rhubarb.

And finally, the Pear & Elderflower was subtle and refreshing.

Tahitian Vanilla, Strawberry & Cream, Salted Caramel – £3.95 each

These shakes (gotta love those jars ) were thick and quite delightful. Tahitian Vanilla was subtly flavoured allowing the taste of the milk to come through, while the Strawberry & Cream was velvety and smooth with both flavours complementing the other.

After Brioche Burger’s disappointing Salted Caramel, however, it was necessary that we try TMR’s. Glad we did too, because this is close to how a salted caramel shake ought to be with just the right amount of salt to offset the sweetness of the caramel. What made this especially satisfying were the addition of lovely little square bits of caramel to chew on. Yummy!

These are indeed “hand-crafted burgers” – patties that are made by hand and on the day thereby epitomising the definition of that coveted, though oft-abused, term: Gourmet. So far so good!

The Meating Room Burger (House Burger) £9.50

There was a slight oversight with this one in that it seemed more well done than the medium well done we ordered.

Having said that, however, the burger was a good’un with a solid flavour combo and a sauce that gave it an overall sweet taste.

The most important thing (as regular FtL readers will know all too well) is that there was, as you can see, a generous addition of BBQ sauce.

Tasty!

Kingsley Arms Burger (12oz Double burger) £12.95

Of the three burgers sampled, this was the plainest of the three.

Similar to the above, this too had an overriding sweet flavour to it owing to the cranberry relish sauce.

There was, however, one peculiar thing about it which we couldn’t quite put our finger on.

For some reason it had a strange metallic aftertaste?! A mystery which, alas, went unsolved.

Nonetheless, and in spite of the two hefty patties, this was a strangely satisfying eat.

Chef’s Special Burger

This final one was the unofficially titled Chef’s Special Burger. Unofficial because you won’t find it on the menu; the chef’s because, rather than take the menu option of “build[ing] your own burger”, we requested the chef build us his best burger. In the end, what we got was fairly simple: cheddar cheese, fried red onions (again not on the menu), burger sauce, and a few jalapenos.

Perhaps it was the simplicity of it all, but this burger really worked. Don’t be alarmed when we tell you this came medium rare because it turned out to be as moist and as succulent as anyone could ever hope for. With just enough jalapenos to give it that little kick of heat, along with the sweetness of the red onions, all brought together by the burger sauce, what we had here was a very tasty burger. In all then, what do we make of TMR’s burgers?

Well, the first and most important thing we picked up on was how lean and finely textured the beef patties were. This was later confirmed by the owner who revealed how these specially chosen patties tied in with TMR’s aim at promoting a particular style and brand of burger revolving around healthy eating. Apparently, the type of beef chosen for said patties contain far less fat than conventional beef patties, and are, thus, more healthier.

The Meating Room’s Lean Burgers in the Making

Now, as admirable as this approach is, what we concluded quite early on in our review, was that the apparent lack of fat did indeed impact on both the taste and quality of the beef patty. So, as good as these burgers were, and they were very good, it was obvious to us that these would only ever be so good, and never as good as their full fat cousins.

We also discovered that of the three burgers cooked: one medium rare; one medium well done; and one well done, the more well done they were, the less juicy and succulent. This, we believe, is most probably down to the fat content, or lack thereof. As such, what we’d strongly recommend is medium rare because this seems to be the only way such lean patties will retain the necessary succulency before beginning to dry out.