Funk, Fat & a Bougie Burger at Burger & Beyond, Soho

There are some restaurants where you clock the menu first. At Burger & Beyond Soho, it’s the music that gets you.

I’m perched on a window stool on a warm Soho afternoon, the kind where the light turns honeyed somewhere between lunch and dinner, and Tom Misch’s Before Paris drifts through the speakers. Then Eddie Kendricks. Then D’Angelo’s Chicken Grease, all bassline and silk and slow-burn groove.

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Not that I know what I’m listening to, until I fumble for my phone to Shazam it. Wikipedia calls it neo-soul, acid jazz. Fuck me, I like it. You could lose hours to it.

From that stool, Soho looks cinematic. The outside world carries on, but inside Burger & Beyond, everything feels softened at the edges. A little magical.

The music set the mood, but does the food live up to it?

Quick info on Burger & Beyond Soho

• Restaurant: Burger & Beyond
• Location: Soho, London
• Vibe: messy burgers, excellent soundtrack
• Must order: The Bougie Burger, corn ribs with vegan nduja
• Skip: bone marrow gravy fries
• Halal: chicken is halal; halal beef available at Soho

Find out more in the full Burger & Beyond review below.

Joyful corn ribs

The corn ribs and vegan nduja are fantastic. 

They arrive as great golden arcs of curled corn, charred at the edges and glossed in (vegan) nduja butter. I squeeze lime over them with unnecessary enthusiasm and dive in.

They’re salty and sweet at once, with that deep caramelised corn flavour that transports you to summer barbecues and blackened cobs. The nduja butter brings gentle heat and the citrus keeps it bright.

There’s something about them that fits the music, being slow, generous and indulgent without trying too hard. I feel myself easing into the afternoon, carried away on waves of funky soul.

The gravy fries are a let down

We come crashing back down to earth with the bone marrow gravy fries, which sound fabulous on paper but are anything but. 

And for £8, they need to be perfect. These are not.

The gravy itself is rich and savoury, but it is, at the end of the day, gravy. 

It’s the fries themselves that are the culprit. They’re pale, anaemic, floppy. Lacking the deep golden crunch that should be standard.

At this price point, they should shatter when bitten into, softening only in the gravy. Instead, they’re perfunctory.

It’s disappointing. 

The Bougie Burger is the star of the show

The list of burgers looks great, and I’m still undecided when the waiter comes back to take my order. He says their signature burger is The Bougie. It’s messy, I’m warned.

Challenge accepted. 

The Bougie Burger arrives tall, the patties swathed in molten cheese, the bun glossy and studded with sesame seeds, sitting in a pool of it’s own gravy.

It’s a beast of a thing, with two thick patties of 40-day dry-aged beef, molten American cheese, steak sauce, marrownaise, and beef fat onions layered unapologetically between them.

The beef blend (short rib, brisket, rib cap and chuck) tastes like it means business. There’s a serious char on the outside of the Bougie Burger, a thick crust that gives way to juicy interior, without tipping into underdone. There’s a faint blush of pink, but it’s all cooked well enough with no dreaded bun bleed.

Compared to the lacy, ultra-thin smash patties at places like Supernova or Dumbo, the smash burgers at Burger & Beyond feel fuller, more substantial. The edges are not delicate, they’re blistered with that thick char. Caramelised onions punctuate the richness with sweetness, and the bun, soft and pillowy, does heroic work holding everything together.

For a while.

Because this is the kind of burger where the insides drip, cheese and sauce threatening escape. My hands get sticky immediately, and there’s a point, about two-thirds in, where the bottom bun is holding on through sheer determination and faith.

I briefly consider saving the last third for my husband. But I don’t think he’d appreciate the mess of a thing that this burger has become. 

This is a cheese dripping down your forearms type of burger. A wet-wipe needed burger. 

By the time I surrender and reach for the extra napkins (thoughtfully delivered without me asking), my white top is a regrettable decision. I don’t regret a thing. 

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What else is on the Burger & Beyond menu?

Burgers are central to the Burger & Beyond menu, from the Bougie with its marrownaise and steak sauce to the Picante Deluxe layered with habanero glaze. But, as the name suggest, there are other things on the menu.  

The kitchen, now far removed from its street food stall origins, clearly has room to play. You see it in the snacks, like the steak tartare and bone marrow and truffle, which feel considered rather than obligatory add-ons.

And then there are the Galician Blonde steaks, dry-aged on the bone for 40 days. 

It’s a menu built for afternoons that stretch.

The soundtrack makes it really special 

And still, what lingers almost as much as the burger is the music.

When D’Angelo’s Chicken Grease rolls through the speakers, that bassline thick and rhythmic, it is somehow the perfect foil for inching your way through corn ribs or messy burgers. There’s something poetic about eating a fatty, charred burger while honeyed jazz pulses in the background.

It’s a confidence that permeates Burger & Beyond. You feel it in the staff who know to bring extra napkins and wet wipes, and in the menu. 

Final thoughts on Burger & Beyond Soho

So here’s my honest Burger & Beyond review.

The Bougie burger is indulgent, flavour-packed and gloriously messy, while the corn ribs are a standout, and absolutely worth ordering.

The bone marrow fries, at £8, need serious work. Good gravy is not enough when the fries underneath are barely fried.

But the burger and ribs are that good, that I’d come back to Burger & Beyond Soho.

But next time, I’m wearing black.

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Burger & Beyond Soho review
Address – 10 Old Compton St, London W1D 4TF
Nearest Tube – Tottenham Court Road