Review: Meat Rack - Earsfield, London

As London goes gourmet burger crazy Meat Rack is the most recent addition located in Earlsfield. Seems like every time we want to go out and eat as a family we end up in a burger joint. Not that I’m complaining mind you, I love a burger more than anyone but could Meat Rack bring anything new to the market given they’re only up the road from Meat & Shake? The answer is yes!

Let me get the negatives out the way — Meat Rack is small perhaps only accommodating 25 diners at a time. The restaurant floor is small and lacks any ambience or cool vibe at all. The decor is quite bland and if there is a large group with noisy children also present, it can become hard to hold a conversation. Positives are that Meat Rack have a good range of steaks and wings too and you can have your burger with either beef, lamb or the veggie option which I assume is a vegetable patty. It’s also next door to Desserts Caffe which is owned by the same family, so you can pop over next door through the back for your desserts and get 10% off. More on that later.

Best Dish: She’s So Hot Burger £7.75. I wanted something with a kick and boy did this hit the spot. The beef was beautifully flavoured and sandwiched between cheese, jalapenos, escarole leaves (aka lettuce), Meat Rack hot sauce, onion rings and homemade coleslaw. I had the tomato removed as I don’t like tomatoes in burgers — don’t judge me! Anyway, I can’t emphasise how much I enjoyed this, everything was perfectly balanced. For a 6oz burger, I polished it off pretty quickly.

Disappointing: Mango Habanero Wings £5.95. I felt these 4 wings could have done with a bit more cooking. They were slightly red/pink from inside in parts and should have been browned or charred from the top. The marinade was interesting, sweet at first then out of nowhere, immense chilli — that would be the Habanero chilli part.

Recommend: Boerewors £5.95. This is a South African sausage that looks hideous but tastes amazing. Juicy, thick and flavoursome, this is better than the one at Meat Co. But it’s a huge sausage to share between lots of people, we had to take it away as we couldn’t finish it.

Drinks: Milkshakes, non-alcoholic wine and cider are on the menu as well as the usual soft drinks. Lussory Red White and Gold is also on the menu which made me chuckle — that’s a brand of nonalcoholic champagne where the gold one has 24k edible gold in it!

Service: The owners and the waitresses were really friendly and hospitable. Our food came in 10 minutes. They also were very kind to my children, giving them balloons and chocolates and generally being nice!

I can’t wait to come back to Meat Rack and try a steak, although not sure how I’ll be able to resist a burger. None of us went for the steak option as the burgers looked too tempting so that provides a good excuse to revisit.

Desserts Caffe next door has an unbelievably large selection of ice cream, waffles, milkshakes, sundaes etc but as we were so full we only ordered one dessert and one milkshake. The decor is much nicer in here but the tables are small so for a group of more than 4, you have to join tables.

Out of the whole menu, my husband and I chose the same sundae — Latte with Love, so he reluctantly agreed to share it with me. Thankfully we only ordered one as between 4 adults and 3 children we struggled to finish it. The soft white ice cream was nice (same as the one that comes with the kid’s meal) but the coffee ice cream was grainy and the chocolate drops on top were more sweet than chocolatey. The chocolate-coated coffee beans on top were ok. The crunchy milkshake was quite ordinary although it looked the part (see pic below).

Slightly disappointing however I won’t write it off completely as the waffles are supposed to be very good. Also, the cakes which I saw upon leaving looked absolutely gorgeous and they’re homemade. Definitely one for next time!

The other thing about Meat Rack is that the burgers are really good value. For under £10 you can get a huge 6oz burger and drink and be super full. The kids' menu has a macaroni cheese option as well as a cheeseburger/chicken strips which come with a drink and chips for £4.95-£5.95. The kids loved their food so overall a big thumbs up for Meat Rack!

Halal Status: All food is halal as verified by owners. Pork: No, Alchohol: No.
Address: 607 Garrat Lane, Earlsfield, SW18 4SU
Parking: Plenty of parking outside after 7pm. 5 mins from Earlsfield station.
Cost: ££. The total came to £72 for four adults and three children, not including service or the dessert menu.