📍The Plimsoll, London

Earlier this month, I planned to work from Berlin for a week and then do touristy things in Seoul. As a result, I booked a one-way ticket to Germany and used points for the rest. Then, there was political turmoil in Seoul that made the trip seem risky. I decided to skip Seoul and fly back to New York. I found a flight from Milan which had an extended layover in London that seemed perfect. Why perfect? I wanted to try the burger at Plimsoll. 

I woke up in Milan, had some coffee, and visited a coworking space before taking a 4:30 pm flight from Linate. I landed at around 5:30 pm at Heathrow airport. My reservation was at 8:30 pm. BA gets jetways at Heathrow so once the plane parked at the gate, I deplaned quickly. I made my way through the airport. I snaked through the corridors making my way to passport control. Thankfully the US passports can use the e-gates and I've used those exact e-gates dozens of times over the years. I passed through baggage claim and customs with only my carry-on travel backpack. I didn't stop at any of the shops along the way.

Down a few escalators onto the rail connection platform. The express to Paddington comes and goes. I bide my time (tap through Instagram stories) waiting for the Elizabeth line so I can go straight to Liverpool Street. It's a little over an hour to get to my hotel. While checking into my Shoreditch hotel for the night, I grabbed a beer from the kiosk at the front desk. I went upstairs to drop my bags and change. 5 minutes later, I was downstairs again to make my way to the Great Northern line. I sipped my beer from the front desk to the entrance of the Old Street station.

This train seems to run at 15-minute intervals except on this particular day. There were issues, so some trains were canceled, and others were delayed. This meant I waited almost 20 minutes for the train. An unexpected delay to this very tight schedule. I think this was my first time taking this train. I had certainly never been to Finsbury Park, though I often confused it with Finsbury Square.

There was a bit of breeze and drizzle. The type of drizzle that, if you blink, you might confuse for snow. Finsbury Park is a neighborhood that feels like suburbia. I walked a few blocks until I could hear the telltale sounds of Britain's pub culture. Small groups of folks gathered together but spread out along the outside, sipping their beers, pulling a drag of their cigarettes, and having a good time. I walked in at around 8:10 p.m. for my 8:30 p.m. reservation. 

I walked in through the entrance to the pub. It was busy enough that despite 3 bartenders, you still had to wait behind one or two people to get a drink but not too busy that you couldn't move around inside. It was the Goldilocks of busy, at least for my preferences. I had dinner reservations, so I walked around the place and saw that there were two rooms. One room, the one I walked into, was more of a bar, while the second room was the dining area (which had a separate entrance). 

I found the host, and he said my table wasn't ready. Considering I was early, this is totally reasonable, and it gave me a chance to head to the bar for a drink. I waited behind one guy and then ordered a Guinness. It took a few minutes as we waited, but he poured it with perfection. The host came to find me because my table was ready.

Walking through the dining area, you feel like you're in someone's home. It's a tight living room with creaky wood floors and rugs. I threw my coat up on one of the many hooks on the wall for coats. I sit on a cushioned three-leg stool with my legs at the side because the table is low. The effect is that despite dining solo, I feel like I'm part of this dining room. I'm sitting separately but part of the bigger group. This doesn't feel like a caricature of pub culture like the pubs you find in the touristy areas of London. It's a neighborhood pub, just with an incredible dining pedigree. 

I was going to order the burger, but I was hungry. The last thing I ate was a pastry in Milan in the morning, a tart slice at the BA lounge, and gingerbread cookies on the BA flight. I started with this Prawn Toast. It was a daily special. A thick slice of bread topped with their house aioli and an exceptionally fried prawn with just a few thin slices of pickled radish to cut through it all. The prawn was fresh and hot. Seasoned with just salt, the lemony aioli carried this bite. The aioli squeezed itself out all over the place as I ate it, but it was worth it. 

These potatoes are a work of art or magic, take your pick. I don't know how they made these. They bring together the best parts of crispy potatoes and jacket potatoes into one. The exterior of these potatoes, especially the skin, is crackly crisp. The areas where the skin was broken or blistered were exceptionally crispy. The inside was steamy and soft like a baked potato. These were not an accompaniment to the burger but their own dish. So I ate half the plate before the burger and the other half after. It held up even after.

Of course, time for the Dexter Cheeseburger. It came about halfway through eating the potatoes. I took a break for this burger. I essentially flew to London for it and sprinted through Heathrow to get here. It's a pretty simple burger. The burger has no component that is breaking any new ground, so it comes down to execution. The execution was there, exactly like everything else I had at the Plimsoll from the Guinness onwards.

We start with this buttery brioche bun. It's toasted with butter until the edges are buttery crisp, like the bread of a grilled cheese. American cheese melts beautifully with their aioli. I didn't expect to try the Plimsoll aioli in each dish, but it worked. There were some finely chopped onions also, but they were easy to miss. In Smashburgers, the texture and sauce play key roles. Here, the sauce and cheese act to bring this burger together. They aren't the stars.

The beef is treated a bit like a Smashburger where it's smashed, but it's not thinned out. The beef develops a beautiful crust this way, but the center gets to remain pink.  If you enjoy burgers for the beef, this is such a great way to treasure that beef while still building texture. This wasn't the fattiest beef I've had in a burger, but there was a rustic-ness to the finish that I appreciated. 

The pickles in this burger are interesting. There's really good coverage. It's impossible to have a bite of the burger without a pickle. These are thick pickle slices, too. The acidity is great to balance the bite, but the textural journey of the burger is where I appreciated the inclusion. You have the crisp bits of the bun and beef, the hot, gooey cheese and sauce mix, the tender inside of the beef patty, and this crunchy-cool pickle. As you chew, it comes together, and it's fun. Some burgers can feel a bit one-note, which is fine for slider-sized burgers, but bigger burgers like this do well with this change of pace.

I rounded it all out by ordering the Choux Pastry with Apple. You pipe choux pastry dough onto a tray and bake. They puff up with a hard exterior and air in the middle. They don't have much flavor on their own. So you can either poke a hole and fill them with something or cut them and stuff them with something. The Plimsoll did a simple light whipped cream and some cooked spiced apples. This was really easy to eat. Despite the cream and size, it wasn't sweet or heavy. It felt like a good end to a good meal. 

It was nearing 9:30 p.m. as I paid for my meal at the Plimsoll. Not bad for landing just 4 hours earlier. I had zero doubts about making my reservation. I considered grabbing another beer at the pub before leaving. I only had another 18 or 19 hours left in London. I decided to do what I would encourage everyone else to do: go get a Martini. So I hopped back on the train to Shoreditch.

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