It’s national burger week so TOM SEAWARD puts the best to the test

AT what point do you give in? When your stomach physically can’t absorb any more burger meat? Or when you’ve managed to push through the jibes of your fellow reporters?

Three of us had been set the challenge of munching through meals from three of Swindon’s finest burger restaurants — as judged by TripAdvisor reviews.

But illness forced a colleague to withdraw – leaving just two of us to take on the contest.

And we couldn’t get hold of Eddie’s Sandwich Bar & Grill on the phone, forcing us to substitute new restaurant Gourmet Burger Kitchen for the legendary Rodbourne diner.

The now ubiquitous burger is an easy thing to buy nowadays. And it’s an equally easy thing to get wrong.

It feels like there are burgers for all occasions, with names as bewildering as the hairstyles of those serving them.

Has my “dirty” burger been dropped on the kitchen floor for the neighbourhood cat to lick?

Is there any benefit in serving a triple-stacked megalith that is clearly too large to fit in the mouth of an average adult?

But all scepticism was left at the door of the newsroom as we set off for our first restaurant.

The Ridge opened earlier this year at Shaw Ridge Leisure Park – a stone’s throw from the home of the Swindon Wildcats.

The restaurant is the baby of brothers Scott and Luke Jacobs, former managers at Bottelino’s in Penzance Drive.

Inside, the décor feels like an upmarket Frankie & Benny’s. There’s a classy-looking bar at the centre of the barn-like restaurant. Less classy is what looks like the fake stone stapled on the wall.

The waiting staff were attentive, always asking how our food and drink was. In hindsight, that might have been because we were one of just two groups in the restaurant at 5pm on a wet Thursday.

We went for a cheese burger (£9.50) and speciality pulled pork fries (£5.95), with an orange soda and pint of Guinness’ Hop House.

The burger arrived quickly, served on a chipped metal tin with chunky coleslaw.

The bun had a brioche-like taste, light, with a shiny golden top.

But the meaty taste of the burger was overpowered by the strong cheese. The burger juice seeped into the bun, leaving it doughy and peeling in your hands.

The chips, on the other hand, were perfect. Thin fries, crisped beautifully. The dollop of too-sweet pulled pork started off tasting cloying, but it soon grew on us.

Joe described the meal as “perfectly adequate.” And it was – especially for a treat before or after an evening at the ten pin bowling.

We drove back into Old Town in the rain, running for the relative safety of the pub.

Over pints of overpriced Continental lager, we ordered the next two meals on Deliveroo.

We’d been asked to buy burgers from Ed’s Easy Diner in the Designer Outlet and Gourmet Burger Kitchen’s restaurant in Regent Circus.

We could probably have walked to both of them. But it was a Thursday – and chucking it down.

The Ed’s Easy Diner burger came first, delivered by a drenched Deliveroo cyclist wet with sweat.

The ride had caused the burger to disintegrate. The cheese burger (£7.50) came without fries (£2.90) – and we ordered a “quirky” side of mozzarella sticks (£3.50). We also had to stump up a £2.50 delivery fee, which given that the cyclist had just sped through the rain seemed only fair.

The burger was an improvement on The Ridge, bigger and blessed with a Big Mac-like sauce. The bun was toasted and turned less soggy than its Shaw Ridge counterpart.

The mozzarella sticks would have been delicious had they not been couriered from beyond the railway. As it was, they were cold – but the spicy tomato chutney was better than the supermarket average.

The fries were atrocious – losing heat, crunchiness and flavour in the courier journey. They were the colour of pale straw and tasted not dissimilar.

Finally, we were left with Gourmet Burger Kitchen, known to thousands of after-work eaters and students as GBK.

After a mix up with the Deliveroo order, Joe was forced to walk the half-mile downhill in the rain to pick up the order.

The burger (£8.15) was the best of the lot. Everything about it screamed class: The size, the medium-cooked meat, the flavour of the ground beef and the ooziness of the cheese.

Unlike the other restaurants, GBK gave us string-like fries (£3.30). They were deep fried to perfection. Be warned: If you like the earthiness of a thick cut potato chip these might not be you – they were more like crisps than chips.

By this point I was fit to bursting. I physically could not finish my burger.

It might be why I felt physically repulsed by the fried halloumi bites we’d chosen for our side (£3.95). To me, they were like tiny cubes of squeaking culinary horror. But to the others, they were apparently fine.

The Ridge

Burger: 3/5

Bun: 2/5

Sauce: Couldn’t taste it

Fries: 4/5

Side: 3/5

Ed’s Easy Diner

Burger: 4/5

Bun: 3.5/5

Sauce: 2/5

Fries: 1/5

Side: 3/5

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Burger: 4.5/5

Bun: 3.5/5

Sauce: 3.5/5

Fries: 4/5

Side: 1/5