themorrisonla.com
The Order: The Morrison Filet Burger, medium rare. Port salut, celeriac remoulade, a 3oz filet mignon, and marrow butter on an English muffin.
Side Order: Comes with fries.
$16
Drink Order: Sweetgrass APA
Burger Menu Rating: 10/15
In February, when I was in Los Angeles, I visited a new burger joint. I actually visited a few, but one of them was more exciting than the others, and that was The Morrison. Alex Kagianaris, the Executive Chef of Stout, my favorite Los Angeles burger joint, is also the Executive Chef at The Morrison, a new upscale Scottish pub in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles. For those of you who don't know anything about Stout, read my review from 2011. After you do you'll see why I had such high expectations for the burger at this new gastropub.
I'd managed to strike up a conversation with the person running their twitter who recommended their burger up and down, with whom I was able to set up a tour of the kitchen, and an in depth look at their Morrison Filet Burger. When I got there, I was welcomed by Brian, the General Manager, who made sure I was well at home and who also shares an extreme love for burgers. He gave me the rundown on the place and made sure I could get into the kitchen for this review. To Brian, I must apologize for the tardiness of this post and hope he'll forgive me.
First of all. They put a steak... on the burger. That should tell you a little something about what to expect when going to eat this monster. Rich, big, and decadent: there's a lot going on in this burger. The patty is a custom blend of 40% brisket to 60% chuck from a local provider. The brisket makes for a slightly leaner burger, but gives you a hearty beef flavor in every bite.
Getting a good sear on both sides of the patty.
Each burger is seared on both sides, then a huge chunk of marrow butter is added to it,while the patty cooks to temperature. Adding the marrow butter after searing lets the butter melt down all over the patty and keeps it from completely cooking off, so the bone marrow flavor was really present. Then, the Port Salut (the cheese) is placed on top of the burger, while the Filet Mignon is cooked.
The filet mignons cook while the Port Salut melts on top of the patties.
Unfortunately, the piece of steak is super thin,and cooked well done instead of medium rare. To be fair, I didn't think to try to order the steak cooked to medium rare also, but I figured that if I ordered the burger medium rare, the whole thing would be cooked that way. The English muffins are then toasted and the stacking begins.
They begin the stacking with the celeriac remoulade.
Then add the burger and steak combo.
All your burgers in a line.
First of all, the custom burger meat blend is a good one. I was skeptical at first, but brisket has such a distinct flavor and it really made the beef flavor stand out. With every bite, the patty just kept on delivering a fantastic combination of meaty goodness and marrow butter. I don't know who first created marrow butter, but I'd like to shake his/her hand. Maybe also a high-ten just to drive the point home.
Sadly, my burger was undercooked. Rare instead of medium rare.
While the patty was so delicious, it was undercooked, coming out rare instead of medium rare. And the steak was disappointing as well. It added very little to the burger except for a textural element. There didn't seem to be enough seasoning on the steak to really bring out that flavor, especially with filet mignon being such an excellent cut of meat when handled correctly. When added to such a delicious burger patty, the excess meat became a detriment to the burger, rather than adding interest with a contrasting flavor and texture.
The celeriac remoulade was super tasty, but couldn't stand up to the other flavors.
The celeriac remoulade was delicious and had a fantastic texture on its own. It was such an interesting ingredient to find on the menu, but, when put on the burger, I ended up wishing that it had a stronger flavor to balance against the bone marrow and the meat. Perhaps there just wasn't enough of it on my burger, or maybe the flavor just wasn't strong enough, but it left me wishing for more of that delicious topping to cut through and compliment the other flavors. The Port Salut, a cow's milk cheese, had the same issue. On its own, it had a great mild flavor, but to make it on this burger, something with a bit more attitude would have been more appropriate. Points for using different elements that aren't generally found on burgers, but some more experimentation with the toppings and their interaction would have been good here.
Deliciously seasoned golden deliciousness.
The fries were delicious. That's probably all I need to say. They were a medium size cut, salted and spiced to perfection, and left me wanting more. The fries were tasty on their own, but when dipped into the burger juice drippings, there was no way I was going to have any left over after the meal. But watch out. Other burgers on the menu don't come with fries, and if you want them, you'll be slammed with paying for a $6 side dish.
The best part of our meal wasn't the burger, or the fries, or even the beer. It was the dessert. The bread pudding at The Morrison is phenomenal and not to be missed (sorry no picture!). It's the best I've ever had and the best in Los Angeles, as agreed upon by others who've stumbled upon the pub. There were lots of edge pieces, so there was a fantastic texture both soft and crunchy, and when mixed with the vanilla ice cream, it was an explosion of rainbows and unicorns in my mouth. I might actually just go there for one of these.
When put together, this is a beautiful burger and it ends up being a huge tower of gorgeous meaty goodness. I mean, for $16, you'd hope that it would be pretty big right? While this burger is good, however, it, sadly, is not all it's cracked up to be. The quality and freshness of the ingredients, with the appeal of saying that you ate a burger AND a steak at the same time, makes this worth the visit once. On the whole, it was still a tasty burger, but it lacked balance, and for the price tag, you should be able to expect to eat something that was really going to wow your taste buds. I'd still choose the burgers at Stout over this one.
Cooked Correctly: 4/5
Design/Ingredients: 2/3
Plating: 3/3
Value: 1/3
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