Defeated? Me? Surely not!

On Thursday the husband and I were invited to Byron burgers for a preview of their immense bonfire night burger called (wait for it…..) Calvin Haggis. And who’s never going to turn down a free meal? This girl! (I must say; whereas I received the meal for free, Byron has not asked for a review, nor will my opinions be affected by the schmoozing. I just love a good meal.)

So there I was, completely willing to throw away my diet for one night of pleasure. Some people just are wired that way. And I’m totally okay with it. I’ll just pretend a free day was planned. Yeah, that works right?!

Confession time. I’ve never been to Byron before. Simply because I presumed that because it’s a chain, the care for food is just not there. If I want a boring burger I’ll go to McDonalds, you know? If I want a great burger, I’ll go to somewhere that is not Aberdeen. Why? Because the council doesn’t allow burgers to be good anything other than nigh-on burned to a crisp. What’s wrong with a burger done medium well? (note: Byron will do this elsewhere. Try a burger done to how you like your steak. Well done is never the answer!)[/end rant…] But as soon as we stepped in, The Experience started. Liam the General Manager seems to truly care about the customer experience in the restaurant. As you step in, you’re greeted with a smile, and even as you’re leaving, they are still wishing for you to have a good night. Even knowing that we weren’t going to pay for our meals, the staff gave a 100% and truly gave us a great experience. (note to all you bloggers out there; remember to tip even when you’ve been gifted the meal!)

What about the food then I hear you say. Well, we made a mistake. A good mistake, but a mistake nevertheless; we ordered starters/food for while we wait.

Can I just say, I ordered some buffalo chicken wings and I had always thought that TGI’s does the best wings around. I was wrong. So wrong. Byron’s where it’s at! Perfectly crispy on the outside, falling off the bone on the inside. Hot, gooey, chickeny goodness all around. The husband went for some mac’n’cheese balls. For a man who doesn’t like mac’n’cheese, he sure destroyed them. So much so that half of them had gone before I even could take a picture!

We’re not great with restaurants. Eating in general turns into a competitive sport in our house, and if anything lasts beyond five minutes, we consider it a win. Meal times isn’t something we’ve invested into; our dining table generally acts as a laundry sorting area, and our meals are eaten with haste as the TV blares the latest Hotel Inspector or Kitchen Nightmares. So imagine our confusion when we actually had to make conversation and spend a whole hour doing nothing but sit there in our own company.

But it was well worth it. I mean, how can you turn down this?

For £11 you get a whole lotta burger.

A whole lot. So much so that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I mean, I was doing a pretty great job shoveling the food in my mouth, and in general I’m pretty damn proud of how much food I can put away! There’s a very good reason I’m fat. A “sharing” bag of chocolate has nothing on me, and a Dominos medium pizza was not a match to me.

Yeah, nothing but carefully staged photos here!

The thing is, we made that mistake of getting the “starters”. Then we made the mistake of getting sides of onion rings and fries. I mean, it was all just fantastic. But I’m ashamed to say… I.was.defeated! By a burger! By this burger!

Of all the burgers to be defeated by, I sure am glad it was this one. It was super delicious, and I mean look at that egg on the top; that is one perfectly cooked egg!

In the 13 years I’ve been in Scotland, I haven’t had the need to do the whole Burns’ supper thing. In the first few years I didn’t even know it was a thing; what ignorance! From following my friends & coworkers, nowadays it seems to be a big thing with the older crowd, not so much in the older millennial crowd, but growing with the young’uns. But I like the twist Byron have done with it. I mean, you take a beautiful burger and add bacon and haggis on it, it becomes stunning. Top it off with a fried egg, you’re onto a winner.

If I had a gripe or two, I’d have minuscule ones. The potato scone? Pointless. You can’t taste it and it doesn’t bring a different texture to the mix. I get that it’s a part of a Burns supper, but you could do without it, you really could. And a non-burgery gripe… Nutritional information! In the days where health & fitness is grasping a bigger section of the market whilst at the flipside obesity rates are rising, restaurants providing nutritional information is highly appreciated and even expected. Byron are currently working on bringing the information out, but as it is just now, this is not available. But I guess if you’re having a non-track meal, you might not even want to see how many calories you’re putting in your mouth!

But in the end, this is the only restaurant I’ve ever been to that doesn’t have sticky tables. So we will be back. Do you want to get your hands on this? Well. head on over to Byron next week (22nd – 28th of January) as it’s a limited edition for Burn’s night. Well worth it!