USA all the way but don’t forget the personal touch
Ordering is by app, but the staff were friendly and the burgers were great
7bone,
16, Guildhall Walk Portsmouth 07708 159877
The Dish Detective would love to officiate at a burger World Cup. Or even a Portsmouth-only World
Cup.
We’d also take great joy in matching our esteemed restaurants and cafes to countries, so to 7bone, in Guildhall Walk. Where would they stand in the hall of fame?
The Dish Detective went after a wholesome afternoon visit to the almost-next-door New Theatre Royal with a three-year-old.
Afterwards, the little one needed feeding as the evening drew near and I felt it was just and proper to exercise an adult reward, so with a few steps we were inside 7bone.
It’s nicely done inside - a proto-industrial feel with some bare walls and plenty of metal on display.
Prepare to order via the app as well, even when sitting at one of their own tables - I appreciate that in some ways this makes the process of ordering quicker but I can’t help but feel that it takes a lot of the joy out of checking things on a menu, and indeed checking important aspects such as food allergies. As a first-time visitor unsure of how things worked I had to ask a member of staff anyway about whether food advertised on the paper menu was available to order as it didn’t appear online - it turned out that it was off the menu that day. The staff member was very friendly and I’m sure that they could have dealt with any query chucked at them, but hey people, please don’t forget the personal touch.
Anyway, app negotiated, we waited for our order. I’d gone for the Peter Green - which has a chilli burger, cheese, mustard and jalapenos in it. I didn’t ask why it bears that name, the names are feature of 7bone - a burger with truffle mayo and garlic mushrooms is a Robert Johnson - perhaps because it involves selling your soul to the devil?- and there is also the “All right all right all right” and the “Prince Charles is over-rated”.
The little one had set their sights on a hot dog - the aforementioned item on the kids’ menu that was not on that day - so I let them have an adult version. She had a ball park, which in its normal state would see onions and mustard as well as ketchup. Being three, just ketchup was fine and once it was cut up it was munched through contentedly.
As for the burger itself 7bone’s good reputation is well won and deserved. The burger is well-aged and tender, the flavours work well, and the bun is fresh. A deal of any main and dirty side for £14.95 sees it come with cheesy fries, which in the way of the modern world are not dirty at all but rather nice. The three-year-old wolfs down the hot dog and says it’s great.
It’s not that cheap - the meal for two of us, sharing a £2.40 can of Sprite is touching £25, but it’s American fast food, done very well and looks unlikely to disappoint. I think we could be talking about Italy here… which is high praise indeed.