MEATliquor N1

What would happen if Saw and a slaughterhouse had a baby and that baby was a burger place? Meat Liquor! I’ve been meaning to go here for way too long and I am glad I finally got the chance.
Went there for Saturday lunch with some lovely Unilocal ladies and I had a lovely time. I started with their banoffee milkshake and then had the garbage plate (burger patty, onions and chips with gravy on top). Both of them were delicious and very filling.
As for our waitress I have to describe her as sassy, full of energy and attitude but very welcoming and helpful. She definitely completed the experience of the place and I wish all waitresses were like that.
I definitely want to go back to try more of their menu, lots of burgers and deep fried things to choose from as well as yummy looking cocktails.

The pace of new restaurant openings in Islington has been so fast that I am far behind on checking them out, so when my friends were eager to make plans to go out in Islington I was more than happy to come up with a few ideas. This location of the Meatliquor brand has only been open a few months, but I’ve been to its sister restaurant Meatmission a while back, and it’s fairly well known for good burgers and a very happening bar scene. On this occasion, we only organized on Saturday afternoon to get together that same evening, so the no-​reservations policy helped, though the wait was approximately one hour and we were seated at 9 PM. They won’t put your name on the list until all members of the party have arrived. Luckily, the bar makes the wait very bearable, and I had a number of the Vedett cans of beer before the 3 of us were seated in a comfortable booth.
My friends are far more experienced Meatliquor veterans than I am, and they recommended the Dead Hippie burger, which has 2 patties, a special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and minced onions. I thought it really resembled an In-​N-​Out Animal Style. We also got the buffalo wings, fried pickles, chili cheese fries, and deep fried mac n cheese. I liked that the buffalo wings sauce was not too spicy, but my favourite was the fried pickles with their incredible batter. You don’t really notice the pickles! The chili cheese fries were not all that impressive in my opinion, and the mac n cheese was interesting, especially with the marinara sauce, but did not leave me craving more. I thought it was hilarious that the salad section was called «rabbit food.» I think the only other thing I would have liked to order would be the onion rings, as I feel they would have the same incredible batter as the pickles.
I think this place is a really good fit for the Islington scene. It’s not directly on Upper Street, but the Meatliquor brand has such a strong following that people will come anyway. And the bar scene is really fun and I would not be surprised to end up here just for a few drinks. The decorations are really something else — there are a few rows of old school TVs right above the kitchen screening something too hard to make out, and the bathroom area is blacklight with neon graffiti all over the place. It just screams out a vibe that it’s where young 20 somethings like to go to hang out. The open kitchen is so open that you can’t help but glance right down it when you enter the restaurant on your way to reception. I do wish the bar area could be expanded a bit, as right now it’s everyone piled into one corner, but I feel like the place will do just fine.

Another burger place? Go on then… they must be getting popular!
So, having dined at the meat liquor in central, I was amazed to find that one had opened a matter of mins away from where I lived in north London!
The venue was set off the main upper street parade of restaurants/​shops. It seems like it’s based in a former Citroen garage workshop and by no means have they tried to cover this up. It’s an intriguing, interesting and provocative place to walk into. Using the rebellious attitude towards the traditional décor coupled with decent food the visit was very different to any other burger place I had been to.
Having overcome the surroundings, we set about the food. There was a very wide selection of food and drinks. I ended up choosing the bacon cheeseburger with buffalo wings.
The bacon and cheese part of the burger was rather intriguing — the bacon had been finely chopped and melted into the cheese, which actually tasted great. Was this the rebellious attitude toward the norm flowing down into the food? Hard to think otherwise, as I was being blinded by an upside down McDonald’s «M» that had been crucified against the wall.
The wings were nice — not great — a little dry but the sauce did a great job of covering it up.
We had a couple of cocktails to accompany — all in all a great little venue offering something very different to the cleanly polished veneer of the Angel/​Islington perfection!

This was the first time I tried MEATliquor and it lives up to the hype. It’s not a crowded place, and I immediately loved that about it. Just like the other Meatliquors, the atmosphere is dark and grungy looking, which completely betrays the fact that it has amazing food. I ordered a Dead Hippie burger (their signature dish) and the patties were positively dripping with juice. The burger looks small but don’t be fooled — it’s a whopper of a meal and before you know it you’ll be patting your belly in utter satisfaction. Also tried their mac and cheese balls and they were very comforting to munch on as a side. I’m definitely a fan now.

How can you not love a MEATliquor without a queue?
Tucked down a back alley that could be straight out of Bruce Wayne’s nightmares, the joint is as delightfully arcane as the original. There’s a lot of seats and better lighting that doesn’t make it feel as if the walls are entirely covered in someone’s (else’s) blood.
The food is a greasy, beautiful mess of delicious gluttony. The green chili cheeseburger is gooey and packed with enough chilis (and jalapeños, methinks) to put a lingering burn on your lips that only a couple of smooth ales will cool.
The prices are average for a London burger joint, with all the burgers in the £8−9 range and beers around £4−6 depending on cans or taps.

Remember when people used to queue for Meat Liquor? Wow, those were the days. The days of pointless hype. Well, hype is dead and now there’s a Meat Liquor conveniently located in Angel. We went when I was horrendously hungover. Oh life, why do you hate me so?
First things first, this might be my favourite of their venues. It’s wickedly try-​hard with the flare all over the walls and the ‘we’re alternative’ dark signage but it kinda works. I dig how the bathroom looks like an acid trip in deepest Camden. And the upside down McDonalds’ sign is kinda cool.
I think the slow realisation that Meat Liquor is basically McDonalds food has hit me though. My boyfriend said it’s supposed to be the ‘alternative McDonalds’ but the only alternative is that the food is just a bit wetter but tastes mainly the same and costs three times as much. Namely their hippie chips taste exactly like a Big Mac and look like a pile of crap they scrapped off the floor. I think they are supposed to taste that way, but why? Why make it taste like a Big Mac? Are they trying to do an In ‘N’ Out burger thing? Maybe they shouldn’t.
I got a regular cheeseburger and it was the same wet mess that you always get there. I didn’t even finish it. The best bit for me were the monkey fingers, those are damn-​good!
I think I am just bored of their food. Once you’ve had it a few times, you realise that it is just not good. And I hate that they shove pickles and onions in everything. We paid like £44 for our food. Seriously… what a joke.

I always get the same thing when I go to Meatliquor (I always go to the one in Marylebone), and I had the same thing here today — deep fried pickles, sub dead hippy sauce for blue cheese, and a bacon cheeseburger.
I found the food here to be better than what I get at Marylebone. The pickles actually had a bit of pickle in amongst the batter, and the burger had plenty of seasoning and was a nice medium rare.
I also approve of the venue — it has the normal dirty/​grungy ML look but felt a lot more airy because of the high ceiling. I think geographically it’s a bit far up Upper Street to be really accessible but it’s not that bad.
Service was friendly.
Pricing was the same as at Marylebone, down to the stupid ‘charity donation’ which I took off (and promptly put into a GOSH bucket at King’s Cross on my way home).

I liked Angel’s version of Meat liquor more than I expected to! I really like the burgers and drinks in the original Meat-​land over in Marylebone (I’ll call it Mary-le-Meat)…but there were always a couple of issues that would put me of visiting there. Angel-​Meat did everything better…
Coldness:
— Mary-​le-​Meat was always really chilly! Angel-​Meat was definitely better on this front.
Queues:
— Mary-​le-​Meat always seems to have a line. We had to wait for aaages when it first opened! Angel-​Meat lets you book (!) We wandered straight in without standing in the cold at all!
Noise:
— I like the music in both, but Mary-​le-​Meat can be so loud that its best to visit with just one friend (so your heads can be close and allow you to hear each other) Angel-​Meat was waaaay better for this. I could hear all my friends and speak without having to scream — yay!
Food-​wise everything was really good. We had chips, monkey fingers (oh my goodness I love monkey-​finger sauce!) and those looovely fried gherkins.
I tried one of the chicken burgers and it was sooooo good! It was also MASSIVE, about the size of half a chicken! I felt uncomfortably full afterwards… so I don’t think I could come here too often!
Oh…and the hard shakes! I adored my white Russian milkshake although all of the options sounded yummy!

First things first.
I love the location. It’s in Angel/​Highbury. We know what MeatLiquor is about. Grungey admittedly dirty street cool burger place. Out of place for area which is why I like it.
Secondly it’s actually hidden out down an alley. Bonus. Like idea of things hidden inside places.
The outside is how it is. Almost like dirty burger shack.
They’ve gone all out on funky interior in their new branch in Islington! The Warriors (type) meets Maccy D’s (signage) meets 1985 (CCTV) meets Meatmission (artwork) meets Dirty Burger (exterior).
You also enter the toilets and…
BAM!!!
It’s like a scene from Enter the Void meets a night out in Berlin. Love it.
What I would say that the food and this was the second day of opening training and it’s nothing to do with staff is the food. It’s ok/​good but not of standard yet as others.
I have always championed their chicken burger as one of my favs in London. This was good but no where near a hot or crispy or delicious as previous branches. Not sure if it was seasoning or the way it was cooked? It had a nice addition is cheese which was nice tho. Just didn’t have previous wow factor. The dead hippie chips were the most disappointing. I didn’t bother finishing it. Sauce added nothing and onion sauce was just not nice. The prawn skewers were a bit salty for my Taste too.
On positives… the shakes. Wow did I say hard shakes? Maple Syrup, Bourbon, Vanilla Shake. Did I mention it has Bourbon? This is my shake man. Fav flavour. Fav spirit. So good I ordered it twice.
Deep fried pickles were as usual fantastic.
All in all a mixed bag, but I’ll be back for sure in a few months once all settled down.