Cycle 14 – Item 226
19 (Sat) August 2023
American Burger
3.0
(Lotte World Mall)
-Jamsil, Songpa, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
w W and IZ
Gordon Ramsay Burger is an American restaurant. Specializes in burgers. Part of Gordon Ramsay’s global restaurant empire, the first Korean branch opened at Lotte World in 2021, now 2 additional locations across the country.
I’ve followed Gordon Ramsay on various television/internet programs over the years, both the silly reality-based cooking competitions (e.g., Hell’s Kitchen) and the more intimate cooking demonstration videos (e.g., Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking). For whatever reason, I can’t recall ever being inspired to cook something after watching him. While recognizing his objective talent/skill, I find him to be pompous/obnoxious at a personal level.
Tonight was the first opportunity to try his food. Because I don’t really eat meat these days, I hadn’t been particularly curious to visit, even though I’ve passed by on countless occasions. But W was keen. So there we were.
In light of a recent visit to Shake Shack, where I’d eaten a chicken burger rather than a cheeseburger – “[W]hat the fuck was I doing eating a chicken burger at Shake Shack?! If there’s ever a time to eat meat, this would be one of them.” (see 14.191 Chicken Shack) – I ordered a burger. For a moment, I considered the 1966 Burger (Gordon was born in 1966), comprising 1++ hanwoo + truffle pecorino + 12-yr-old balsamic vinegar, among other things, available only in Korea at an outrageous price of 140,000 won, but passed. I went with the basic American Burger, outrageously priced even at a mere 27,000 won.
Incidentally, we were in the mall to watch Barbie, which was stupidly good, perhaps the best of the summer.
At Le Freak, the burger was also served with a knife, including a suggestion by the server to first cut the burger in half before eating it (see generally 14.201 Signature (Burger)), which isn’t a bad idea per se. But I’m wondering if it’s more to facilitate favorable social media marketing, knowing that most customers these days take photos of the food and upload the images to share: cutting would initially provide a neat cross section to show the interior of the burger, and the resulting half portions would help make the burger more manageable to eat, avoiding a crumbled mess midway through. But generally, I’d prefer to keep it intact, old school.
The burger was good. A standard American cheeseburger in concept, immaculately constructed with impeccable ingredients – but otherwise nothing to rave about. Totally not worth the price – I would much rather eat 3 Shackburgers for a total of 25,200 won and pocket the 1,800 won in savings.
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)