Do you like burgers, but can’t fit in more than one? The upcoming STK Strand x Secret Slider Club menu is perfect for you. Nick slid in early doors
I’m partial to the occasional burger, but not keen on the way so many places serve burgers bigger than a baby’s head. After a few bites it’s already falling apart, and if you relax your grip to grab a chip the whole shebang ends up on the floor.
It was the Americans, funnily enough, who came up with the solution of The Slider – burgers reduced to around two inches across (America doesn’t do metric) and served as a snack or party food. An idea that soon crossed over here.
Not that Sliders can’t be a main meal of course, you just need more of them. Five seems about right.
Of course, eating five identical mini burgers would be a bit boring, what you want is five different ones that show off the chef’s creativity. That’s what you get at STK Strand with their new Secret Slider Club menu starting today, September 28, for a six week run..
If you don’t know STK Strand, it’s a part of a rather stylish international steakhouse chain (STK, get it?) that appeals to lovers of the kind of glossy chic that footballers are fond of. It’s clubby, loungey, cool and laid back and you should arrive in a flashy Range Rover or similar. You also need fairly deep pockets.
Well I drive a knackered old SAAB, and anyway you can’t park outside, so I took the tube.
I’d been invited to preview the Secret Slider Club menu and Chef Ricky Evans was on hand to tell me more. He created the Secret Slider Club originally in Elephant & Castle’s Mercato Metropolitano (sadly closing soon to make way for, you guessed it, more apartments) where eight people at a time sat down to an Omakase style menu with Evans making the burgers on the spot.
This is a more central and luxurious stage for his sliders and the first to ‘slide’ out is… (photos not necessarily of burger in list, but general feel)
Lil’Brgs
STK regulars will know this has been on STKs worldwide menu for a long time – wagyu beef sliders with special sauce on a sesame seed bun. Very popular as a children’s choice apparently, although it seems far too good for them. It’s often ordered by adults as a starter. I don’t know what’s in the Special Sauce, but it’s great. If this is the opening act, things look good.
On next to the first of chef Evan’s creations
Dark Arts Wagyu
Well, what a treat. Made with Santa Rosalía Spanish Wagyu from Burgos where the cows live in high-welfare comfort with 100 square meters space each and are fed on an additive-free feed of green forage, cereal flakes and organic wine/byproducts from the estate’s winery. To this superb meat, Evans adds black garlic butter shallots, black truffle aioli, aged Comté and furikake, all finished in a Wagyu butter-glazed brioche. Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. But what if you don’t eat meat?
Maitake Melt
Well you’re probably in the wrong place, but the next burger meets (sic) a demand. A maitake mushroom croquette with oozy Raclette cheese and a confit garlic and chive emulsion,plus Champagne pickled shallots for extra pimp. It’s a bit wetter than a beef slider, but packed with flavour and a luxurious treat for the non-meat eaters.
Thai Wanese Chicken Royale.
Chicken in a bun and why not? Taiwanese crispy fried chicken is draped in a sticky smoked soy and fish sauce caramel with a Thai herb remoulade and sandwiched in a brioche. If you’re feeling Premier League, you can have caviar on top for extra money, I prefer my chicken a little more done for firmness, but otherwise this was a brilliant burger packed with flavour.
By the way, we were also eating Parmesan Fries and a Baby Gem Caesar Salad, which was a perfect crispy, sharp palate cleanser between burgers
And to end
Espresso Confit Duck Doughnut
This was a very different delight. I’d got rather used to the velvety texture of the wagyu based burgers, so this offered something special. The duck was slightly reminiscent of the duck you dab with hoisin sauce and wrap in Chinese-style pancakes. It had Shaoxing-pickled cucumber, spring onio, and extra goodness from crispy duck crackling. The whole thing was encased in a five-spice smoked sugar doughnut and really was a wondrous thing.
By this time I was pretty full, but the beauty of five different burgers over one mega burger was clear. This was a proper menu of variety under an umbrella of burgerishness.
You can order any of the sliders as singles, of course, then go onto mains. I recommend though that you dedicate your night to binging on burgers and order all five, this actually works out cheaper.
Reservations here