Bohns Finest were at Nottingham Street Food Club last weekend serving up their Gourmet Burgers. They have been here before back in July,  the fact that they had been invited back was probably a good sign.

Hailing from Derby where they base their BBQ Rub and seasoning business they have also been serving up their burgers and BBQ at the Post House in Derby for a year, been a feature at the Bustler Market in Derby and at the Barton Bros Street Market over in Chilwell.

Recently it was announced that Bohns are opening a restaurant in the city in the space beneath Brew Dog on Broad Street and I was curious to see if their burgers were any good and to see what they were all about. There are going to be the obvious question when they open up as how they compare to or stack up against the legendary local burgers from Secret Burger Club and also how they will fare against the popular Annie’s Burger Shack

With that in mind I had the urge or the burger hunger to pop over a couple of times over the weekend to sample some of their burgers.

The Steak Mate

The  first burger that I tried from Bohn’s was the Steak Mate which is their ‘Classic Cheese Burger‘ described as a ‘seasoned beef patty with Bohns SteakMate Mayo‘ selling for £8.95

The actual burger is a big thick meaty patty, the meat is sourced from a farm in Hartington in Derbyshire and they grind it themselves mixing it with their own seasonings.  I think that they also add the all-spice seasoning when they cook it as they flip the burgers over.  All of the Burgers on their menu come  with ‘melted cheddar and American cheese, wild rocket, pickled red onion, gherkin in a toasted brioche bun‘.

The brioche bun is also sourced locally from a Derbyshire baker and as brioche buns go it is quite a decent one, nicely glazed and topped with white and black sesame seeds. I personally found it to be a bit too thick and chewy as I prefer a simple softer burger bun. However the amount of meat and fillings that they put into their burgers does need a big strong bun to hold it all in, and these buns certainly did that, I think a weaker effort would have resulted in bun overload and it would all fall apart. So maybe they knew what they were doing 🙂

The SteakMate mayo is seasoned with the SteakMate rub sold by Bohns Finest  described as ‘ a robust seasoning for steaks and burgers’ which doesn’t give too much away, the list of ingredients on the site reveals only slightly more ‘thyme, rosemary, coriander, garlic, onion, red pepper, salt and pepper’. It has a kind of meat gravy taste that was somehow moreish

It you like big solid pub style burgers and you like brioche buns then you will probably like these.

The Torero Burger

The Torero was described as being a ‘Seasoned Beef Patty, Topped with diced Spanish Chorizo and Bohns All Spice Mayo’. I did like the chorizo as it added a nice bit of sweetness  to the  burger, it wasn’t too over-powering and it did make each bite a bit more interesting. It did get a little bit lost with all that bread, but it still had nice flavour. I thought that it went well with the crunchy red onion pickle and the chopped up gherkins.

This one was selling for £9.45, presumably the addition of the chorizo was elevating the price a little. I think that I liked this one more that the Steak Mate burger although I liked the Steak Mate mayo more that the All-spice mayo. It made the burger seem ‘meatier’ somehow 🙂 

Pulled Pork

On the second visit to Bohn’s when I had the Torero burger they offered me a side of their pulled pork to try which was jolly nice of them.  I think that when they open the restaurant that they are going to be selling this as well as a lunchtime option. I used to be a big fan of pulled pork but then I lived in the states and had some proper stuff and found the stuff back home in England to be not quite the same.

I actually quite liked this version from Bohn’s, the flavour was pretty decent, It was a little on the sweet side from the brown sugar which probably caramelises a fair bit as it cooks, and you get that nice smokiness from the paprika. It was better than a lot of pulled pork I have had around Nottingham.  There is even a youtube video from Bohns where they show you how they make it. Unsurprisingly they use their own products the rub they use is called ‘Butt Massage’  The Rub is a mix of ‘White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Paprika, Celery Salt, Turmeric Powder, Black Pepper, Cayenne Powder, Smoked Paprika, Mustard Powder, Cumin Powder, All Spice’ and they also add in their own BBQ sauce too.

So back to the earlier question, that I have already been asked numerous times as to how they compare to or stack up against the legendary local burgers from Secret Burger Club and then how they will fare against the popular Annie’s Burger Shack. Truthfully I am not sure that is an easy answer they are selling a different type of burger to S.B.C and outside of the world of burgiatry I am not sure how many people care that there is a difference. I do though 🙂

S.B.C serve a much more fast casual American Burger, a type that I personally love to eat and a type that you really struggle to find done well in the UK. We are talking Shake Shack, In and Out Burger from the West Coast, Burger Fi from the Carolinas, Steak and Shake., you get the idea.  Annies? well I always find them to be just one big funhouse of burgers and you go there for the experience and the weird toppings, but they do do a decent classic cheeseburger.

Bohns is like the classic burger you would find in a pub or restaurant and is actually very similar to the sort of burgers you would get in a bar in the states.  It’s big solid, filling and satisfying . Here at Notts Street Food Club they were cooking on the flat top, but I think that in the restaurant and at other places they have been able to use a grill and I think that would make for a better sear and cook on the actual burger, perhaps with a bit of a char. I think that would make all the difference. One other thing that I did really like was that they made sure that there was plenty of cheese on the cheese burger!

I am quite keen to see how their new restaurant shapes up and I liked that they are sourcing locally and producing their own rubs and spices for their products. They seemed really enthusiastic, keen and knew what they were aiming for so hopefully it will be a success. Guess we all have to wait until October to try them out on their home turf in their shiny new kitchen and restaurant to get the full experience

Bohns Finest can be found online and you can check them out on their Facebook Page, their Twitter Feed and their Instagram Profile. They also have a whole load of Youtube videos about how to use their products as well that you can check out.