The best burgers come to the Bigg Market! 🍔
You’ve surely already had a piece of Meat:Stack (41-43 Groat Market, NE1 1UG). Haven’t you?
Burger joints generally have a torrid time in Newcastle, and come and go faster than NUFC managers. Some good, some bad — but Meat:Stack looks increasingly likely to not just survive, but go on and thrive as a brand. Whether you remember early days at the Quayside Market, or their multiple popups at The Grind, or in Number 28, The Dog & Parrot, etc, etc., they’ve just been a consistently quality take on what makes a burger.
Here’s why…
This was my Triple Big Kahuna from last week. Soooo… safe to say the burgers are still bang on then 😳
Difference is, they now have a new restaurant they can finally call their own. Pretty bare bones casual diner-feel but still buzzy and cool inside, and fingers crossed it’s a fantastic catalyst for a bit of a second coming of the Bigg Market. The relatively new WC bar across the road is a nice one for afters, too.
It’s a tough time for anyone to launch a restaurant, but the lads seem to have done it and landed right on their feet. For now, you may have to queue in ‘these uncertain times’, but once inside, expect a rapid service. I don’t think we’ve been in there for more than an hour, making it perfect for an in-between pints smash-and-grab tray full of satisfaction.
The burgers are of course flat top smash burgers, and if anything, the overall finesse just keeps going up a notch each time we visit. Sure, it might at the cost of the raw simplicity of before, but it’s a good thing. Smashed and cooked very quickly, slight gnarly char but still juicy meaty innards, and then furnished with not too many daft toppings. There’s no popping candy, excess of cheese & mayo, or lack of physical edibility that blights some other burger places.
Burgers (£6-10) range from your classic quarter pounder, to a cream cheese and black garlic honey number in double and triple varieties. They’re still everything you want in this type of burger.
In a masterstroke of an offer, the ‘Sunak Challenge Tray’ was part of Eat Out to Help Out. Any burger, any fries, chicken tenders, and even some soft serve ice cream. This was the best tenner you’ll spend on a Mon-Weds in August. We didn’t have tea afterwards 🐖
There’s a few new bits like genuinely decent soft serve ice creams and calorific biscoff, peanut butter, etc., shakes (not here for health food were you?), and a full suite of breakfast items, which btw, are class. Think — the independent take on the sausage & egg muffin you always wanted. But if you were looking for ‘all-new’, you won’t find it. Evolution, not revolution.
Best of all, the crispy, salty fried chicken tenders are bloody great, and perhaps a sign of Things To Come… 👀
Fries are now in ‘is it even a chip if it hasn’t got truffle oil and parmesan on’ editions, as well as a queso and jalapeño. I’ve covered them extensively, but they’re still exemplary. Beef dripping, of course, making all the difference (£2.5-4.5).
Take a look at the burgers from day one vs. what we have below, and you’ll see the product is much more polished. This is isn’t Byron. In a good way.
I’ll just keep adding photos of the burgers cos that’s an easier sell than anything I can say here 🤷🏻♂️
You’ll spend about £25 for a couple of stacks of meat, chips and a couple of drinks (look out for Full Circle, 40Kola brews among other bevvies). So price point wise, think Five Guys but with a slightly smug satisfaction of supporting a local business.
You might have just missed the Sunak challenge tray, but really given the current situation, there’s no better time to get down and support a growing local business which is doing well despite the hard times that the trade faces.
Pound for pound, Meat:Stack still does the best burger in Newcastle.
Contact: meat-stack.com
Food hygiene rating: Not yet rated
* For full disclosure, we were invited along to a press night for the launch of Meat:Stack Bigg Market, but have been back a few times since then. Long-term fans & supporters, either way 💙
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