I braved Storm Darragh to keep a Christmas tradition alive - and it was worth the effort
We went to try out the festive menu for one of Newcastle's job burger restaurants.
Everyone has their own ways to know Christmas is coming. For some it is the turning on of lights in their hometown, others may feel the air is more crisp than usual.
For my partner and I, the festive season gets underway with the release of the Christmas menu at Fat Hippo restaurants across the UK.
The chain, which is best known for its burgers, has 13 sites across the nation, including two in Newcastle - the city centre and Jesmond as well as another North East site in Durham.
After (rather stupidly, in retrospect) trying to get a walk-in slot on the opening day of Newcastle’s Christmas market, we returned in the second weekend of December, table booked, to get stuck in and kick start the festive celebrations in our own way.
With each year's meal becoming more of a tradition, it can be easy to get caught up in expectations for such an idea, so how does this year's festive offering compare to those in the past?
We headed to the underground site on Shakespeare Street in a good mood after hiding from the lashing rain with a dash into a couple of bars and was swiftly sat down and sorted with the efficiency and perfect customer service you would expect from the well respected site.
In terms of festive offerings, the Christmas menu was disappointingly small, only offering two additional burgers - one meat based and one vegan - although the full regular menu was also available.
We were also left wanting in terms of opportunities for new things to try. As vegetarians we are used to not having as many options as our meat eating counterparts, but I believe the festive menu - for burgers at least - seemed to remain exactly the same as last year, and potentially the year before that.
This was until we got our food, however. In previous years the ‘Fairytale of No Pork’ has seen a series of changes from past editions. The mound of halloumi has gone, while the regular meat free patty has switched to a chicken-inspired option and, while Halloumi wouldn’t have gone amiss, it was nice to look at a full meal from Fat Hippo and genuinely believe I was capable of finishing it!
The burger was described on the menu as “Southern fried plant-based chkn, vegan cheese, sage and onion stuffing, maple butter mayo, pickled red ‘slaw and cranberry jello, served with your choice of side”, with the sage an onion stuffing not seen in previous editions of the meal from our memory.
Anyone who has been to Fat Hippo sites in the past will know how tough it can be to eat a full meal, but what the menu lacked in variation, it made up for in terms of quality of food. The 'chicken' patty was perfectly cooked while the sage stuffing, although slightly messy once bitten into, offered a perfect difference in taste which didn’t make us miss the Halloumi from years gone by too much.
In terms of what makes the burger festive, the cranberry and christmas 'slaw wasn't lathered on, giving a lovely subtle taste of late December, although it was arguably not paired well with the beer I got on the side.
The burgers, alongside the site’s stunning ‘Trash Browns’ - deep fried tater tots, liquid cheese and Cajun onion strings - were a perfect way to continue a tradition which is now in its seventh year, and long may it, and Fat Hippo, continue!