No chips at Lucky Chip

Cheeseburger, please.

Yet to venture beyond the confines of impossibly hip and occasionally irritating Hackney, my burger quest has progressed to Lucky Chip in Netil "Market", off Mare Street. I say "Market" with "apostrophes" because it's really just a car park with tatty stalls selling tat, and a bloke covered in oil who fixes local hipsters' fixie bikes. Really, the only reason anyone bothers visiting is cult food-van phenomenon, Lucky Chip.

Netil Market: like Glastonbury, but in a car park.

On further investigation, Netil Market is actually an offshoot of Netil House, which is a derelict Sixties office block full of "creatives" who have seemingly earned squatters' rights and set up a hot-tub cinema on the roof (...and you think I'm joking). Either way, it's quickly apparent that without Lucky Chip and its fully occupied plastic garden furniture, Netil Market would be nothing. And that's down to their quite superlative cheeseburgers; a snip at £6.50 and lovingly crafted by two bearded chaps, whose precise, hunched activity behind the counter reminded me of the Chemical Brothers, or Orbital, or any other double-act stadium DJ act from the Nineties.

And the burger itself? As the blonde so elegantly observed, it's best described as a high-end version of McDonalds' quarter pounder with cheese. All the same condiments and garnishes, just done with superlative ingredients and cooked to perfection (i.e., medium rare). The big let-down, however? Just far too much condiment and garnish. The pickled gherkins, mustard and ketchup all overpowered the tender, pink beef, and the shredded lettuce (I told you it was like McDonalds) flicked sauce all over my face, necessitating 3 napkins. A good burger should never require more than 1 napkin.

Yes, no chips. Regretful decision, but I'd just had my breakfast.

Interesting footnote: Lucky Chip's superstar DJs, sorry, chefs have a clever cooking technique. While frying each side of the patty on a very hot plate, they stick a waiter's dome over the top, so that moist, charred, flavoursome smoke is trapped and re-infuses the meat.

God, I'm starving.


Lucky Chip
Netil Market
13-23 Westgate Street, London, E8 3RL
http://netilmarket.tumblr.com

Also, Lucky Chip have a residency at:

Sebright Arms
31-35 Coate St, 
London
, E2 9AG
020 7729 0937
www.sebrightarms.co.uk