Patty & Bun: Juicy burgers & blaring music in Marylebone

Some nights just call for a dirty burger and, upon review of the various establishments in the Oxford Circus vicinity, Richard and I hit Patty & Bun on James Street for the dirtiest burger of my food blogging career to date.

A small restaurant, Patty & Bun was hot and sweaty when we arrived.  We were seated right away, and fell silent as we gave up trying to shout over the blaring music and instead turned to the short menu.

With just 6 options on the menu, all burgers (beef, chicken, lamb and Portobello mushroom all feature) are around the £8 mark.  We plumped for two Smokey Robinsons – beef with “mounds of caramelised onions”, bacon, ketchup and smokey P&B mayo in a brioche bun (served medium-rare as standard), plus sides of rosemary-salted chips and coleslaw (£3 each).

The drinks menu is rum-heavy, with Wray & Ting, Appleton & ginger beer and carafes of rum punch on the list.

The burger joint filled up fast, with a queue forming down the pavement outside.  The ‘art’ that’s hung on the chipboard walls uses the medium of marker pen, on a cardboard takeaway box canvas; furniture is functionally simple.

Food arrived in under ten minutes, and proved that Patty & Bun do not believe in washing up: burgers were wrapped in greaseproof paper, chips and coleslaw were piled into disposable paper bowls.

We hoovered the food up – burgers were juicy, and there was soon smokey mayo smeared across faces and dripped down t-shirts.  The sign of a good meal, for sure.  Sadly no sign of a wet wipe for cleaning up afterwards.

I’d certainly go back to Patty & Bun (there’s a restaurant in Liverpool Street too). It’s rough and ready stuff, and not well-suited to a first date, but it’ll certainly fill the burger-shaped hole that appears in my stomach on a regular basis.

Photos by Paul Winch-Furness.

Patty & Bun
54 James Street, London, W1U 1HE

Also: 22/23 Liverpool Street, EC2M 7PD