The Herald - The Herald Magazine

Bone marrow, Roquefort butter, black truffle mayo, caramelise­d onions – all on one bun

- EL PERRO NEGRO

IT may be coincidenc­e but as I walk in, Bachman Turner Overdrive are giving it “B-b-baby, you just ain’t seen nothing yet”. Boom, boom blasts the sound system as I stare up at a menu that I have been earnestly promised will pretty much confirm that very sentiment.

Mmm, hmmm. If you were thinking that the last dill pickle spear had long ago been driven through the heart of the very last burger bar in boomtown you’ll be wondering just what’s going on here.

Er, more burgers, is the answer, though done properly – or at least that’s what my old mate The Jackal said when we chatted momentaril­y on the phone about this place the other day. Aged beef, hand-knitted button mushrooms, buns made in the garrets of impoverish­ed artisans, something like that anyway.

Not that Mr Jackal didn’t fess straight up and admit he was doing public relations for this place. Which has apparently something to do with the rather good Gannet restaurant up the road. And not that I didn’t say, as I always do, that if a restaurant thinks it needs a PR person, well, frankly… it would be much wiser to pay the chef more. Or perhaps getting a better one. Ho, ho, ho. How he disagreed with that.

Anyway, I’m on the Finnieston Strip. Between PC World and that shop where they fix your broken iPhone screen. Kansas have now taken over the entertainm­ent, with Carry On Wayward Son… “for there’ll be peace when you are done”. And I’ve stopped thinking the music is subliminal messaging and started thinking it’s possibly a CD of Jeremy Clarkson’s favourite hits.

Nonetheles­s, I do like the way the friendly guy behind the counter says, “Yeah, man,” when taking orders. I like too the way the decor is clean, plain and has no more than a bench table running across two walls.

I don’t much like the menu, though, but that’s because it’s a little bit like a Clarkson’s greatest hits of trendy burger accessorie­s: bone marrow; Roquefort butter; caramelise­d onions; black truffle mayo. Not only did they all feature on burger menus during the heady days of the great burger boom – but in here they’re all on the same bloody burger. Crikey. It’s called the Top Dog, somewhat confusingl­y. I order one anyway. I order Korean Gochujang wings too and a Deep Fried Tofu burger with well… we have a bit of a debate about this. I do change my mind twice, and I do get the impression the guy behind the counter isn’t too keen for me to have the blue cheese dressing burger, and we may have completely confused each other.

Anyway, whatever I end up with, it doesn’t taste of blue cheese, although I’ve got to say fried tofu makes for a pretty good burger. Oh, yes. Togarashi Fries. A Japanese chilli blend with orange peel, if you’re wondering. The fries are clean, crisp, square-jawed and even quite handsome. Maybe a bit of salt would have jump-started that spice blend into life.

The chicken wings, rather poshly called confit wings in here, are coated in the Korean red pepper paste gochujang and are pretty accomplish­ed.

That leaves only that burger to consider. I’ll say this: it’s not towered, or held together with a toothpick, thank goodness. It does have so much of that black truffle mayo that it slithers apart and sends me scurrying for more napkins and wipes. The bun isn’t brioche, as I

 ?? PHOTOGRAPH KIRSTY ANDERSON ?? El Perro Negro offers clean, crisp cooking – and the plain burger could well be a winner
PHOTOGRAPH KIRSTY ANDERSON El Perro Negro offers clean, crisp cooking – and the plain burger could well be a winner
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom