Eat: Meat and Shake

Exposed brick work, illuminated bulbs, red leather booths and views of the kitchen? Sounds more like a Shoreditch eatery than an unassuming burger joint in the quiet area of Tooting in South West London, doesn't it? But Tooting has had an injection of cool in recent years, with independent coffe shops, tasteful restaurants and cool pubs and bars springing up in the area; theres even a branch of Honest Burger now.

Tooting is down the road from me so has clear advantages when choosing somewhere for a mid-week bite to eat, however when we turned up at Meat and Shake the place was packed and we had to wait around 20 minutes for a booth to become available. Our lovely waitress Savannah said that the place has always been pretty busy on weekends but now weekdays are heading the same way, so be prepared for a bit of a wait as there's a no booking policy.

The venue is small but not in a cramped way, more an exclusive vibe, with queues continuing out the door for the duration of our meal. Menus arrive on clipboards and are suitably smudged with BBQ sauce prints and waitresses have some sort of digital order pad slung over a shoulder.

Tooting has a large Asian population, so meat is Halal, there's no alcohol on the menu and the ribs are beef rather than pork which suited the Mr. as he's always on the look out for beef ribs.
The burger offerings are extensive and experimental; the Truffle Shuffle ( truffle mayo, Gruyere cheese,  honey and onion truffle glaze) and the Ruby Murray (Tikka Masala sauce, tomato, spinach leaves, seasoned chicken breast, red onion, Montery Jack, red chillies, coriander, yoghurt, poppadum) sounded interesting! The veggie section is severely lacking, the Rostie Postie (Harissa mayo, tomato, lettuce, sweet potato rostie, goats cheese, beetroot, alfalfa sprouts, red onion, aioli) was the only offering...so I went for that.

The Boy went for the Rib 'N Cheese (aioli, pulled beef rib, BBQ sauce and Montery Jack cheese) and was very impressed. We also had sides of onion rings and sweet potato fries and were feeling the presentation; cute sauce squiggles and tiny flowers on the plate which was way more than I expected from a burger spot.

The sweet potato fries were lovely and although the onion rings tasted a bit stale they did come in a huge stack and may just have been a bad batch. The real star of the show however are the milkshakes! The list is long and doesn't stick to the tried and tested, there's Basil infused Creme Brulee, Stem ginger,  lemon and honey, Rhubarb and Custard and Apple Pie flavours! I went for the Salted Caramel and was far from disappointed. The shake cups are huge frosted things and the shakes themselves are super thick and creamy. The little bits of Angelessy sea salted caramel floating about in the vanilla ice cream was just divine!

Meat and Shake need to improve their veggie options (I know meat is in the name but stilllllll would a mushroom hurt?) and taught me I still don't like goats cheese. But I'll defo be back for another shake!