Got Beef Co, Mackintosh Sports Club, Cardiff: Jules Winnfield would approve...

 Last weekend saw me taking a stroll to the Mackintosh Sports and Social Club, Keppoch St, within sniffing distance of the Kebab Mile. Not, as I perhaps should have been, for a quick burst of exercise, but in search of something I had heard very good things about; the Got Beef Co popup which runs from midday on Sundays, following the Friday evening slot at La Viva. With the advent of The Grazing Shed in town, quality locally-sourced burgers are becoming a real strength. Expectations were high.

The setup is pretty rudimentary- you grab your seat in the club bar and place your order as you buy your drinks. The way in brings you past the kitchen and the smell of chargrilled meat does what it should and gladdens the soul, raising the anticipation.

The menu is basic, too. And I don't mean that in a snide or dismissive way- I mean that these burgers have been designed to showcase their core elements, and you can only do that if you have a good stock of faith in what you are serving up. Or in their own words, "the centre piece is an award winning 6oz burger made from grass fed Welsh Black Beef." A beefburger can be a superb handful of food; alternately it can be a miserable condemnation of how far our expectations have fallen, a bastardised version of a meal economical in its brilliance. One of the most depressing sights of a Sunday lunchtime is how busy your local McDonalds is. But this menu means business.

Obsessive fan of The Sopranos though I am (and however tempting the idea of black pudding and egg in a burger is to any right-thinking carnivore) I went for the brilliantly titled 'Heisenburger'. I'm a sucker for the salty smack of blue cheese combined with red meat, and the Walter White connection was the clincher. The 'drunken onions' had me guessing too- apparently they are cooked down in Budweiser. Bacon needs no justification, obviously.

 Cutting to the chase- this is one hell of a burger. The soft brioche bun, the streaky bacon, the blue cheese tang, those onions- nothing overpowers the patty, as is quite proper, and every element is both discernible and utterly complementary. Everything is there for a reason and it all works in harmony. It's not hard to see why it's won awards.

 The fries were exemplary. Crispy and light and dry and almost ludicrously crunchy, they came in a generous serving and were a true highlight. Other fries with pretensions to crispiness are probably having to give their career plans a pretty solid rethink, right about now. I'm struggling to remember a better portion of skinny fries.

A special mention for the Panko-coated Cajun onion rings too; another £3.50 on the bill but I've not tasted many finer. It shouldn't come a surprise when you find actual rings of onion in your onion rings- rather than some gel squeezed into indentical molds and served in the interests of uniformity- and at that price you'd expect quality. Happily, mission accomplished with some room to spare.

I wasn't asked how I wanted my patty cooked, but hopefully this shot shows an excellent amount of pink leaving you with a juicy, savoury, tangy mouthful.Great seasoning and flavour and texture and just the right amount of toothsomeness. It was over all too soon and I had to repress the urge to add another for my walk home- purely, you understand, in the interests of balance and research.

Or something.

(Well, what did you expect? There's a reason this blog has the title it does...) Got Beef are clearly proud of their basics; get those right and it'd be hard to argue. Bread, garnishes, fries, onion rings; all smack bang on target. Any more and they'd run the risk of over-complicating what can be a beautiful thing. And that beef... well, their pride is justified.

This doesn't come cheap: a pint, some onion rings and a burger won't see you much change from £15. But crucuially it does deliver on its promise; and in the words of Mr Winnfield, who knew a good thing when he saw it:

Catch Got Beef Co on Friday at La Viva, Wyverne Road, Cathays, CF24 4GB; and on Sunday at Mackintosh Sports Club, Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 3JW.
http://got-beef.co.uk/ 

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