Byron Hamburgers – Edinburgh

When Byron set out in 2007 they had a simple mission, to do one thing, and do it properly. I put it to Byron that they’ve failed. They do at least two things extremely well, burgers and beers.

It’s fair to say we’ve become regulars at Byron on Lothian Road, it’s an ideal location for a pre-cinema feast and the ever-changing menu keeps us on our toes. I’m a sucker for Byron’s special burgers (I miss you already Cluckosaurus Rex), whilst my dining partner sticks to the classics. There’s one thing we always agree on, every visit to Byron should start with a portion of wings and a couple craft beers.

Craft Beer at Byron

The team at Byron are clearly passionate about their craft beer, working with their best beer mate Mark Dredge, who gives his seal of approval on their selection. Byron are so serious about beer, that they even have a couple of their own on the menu, Byron Lager and Byron Pale Ale, brewed by their pals at Camden Town Brewery.

Craft Beer Offering:

• Punk IPA and Elvis Juice (Brewdog)
• Neck Oil and 8 Ball (Beavertown)
• Pride & Joy (Vocation)
• Revival (Moor)
• Pils Lager (Four Pure)
• Camden Hells (Camden Town Brewery)
• Brooklyn Lager (Brooklyn)
• Hop Hunter (Sierra Nevada)
• Peroni (Vigevano)

Supporting Local Breweries

Byron is also serving locally brewed beers on tap (in addition to Camden Hells and Byron Pale Ale) in 37 of their restaurants, to celebrate some awesome beers from smaller regional breweries such as Marble, Magic Rock, Gipsy Hill & Redchurch.

Burger and Beer Pairing

Given our affinity to burgers and beers, we were pretty excited to have the chance to visit Byron and sample their new beer menu with the aim of coming up with our own burger and beer pairing. Mission accepted.

Always Start with Wings

Byron has some Korean specials on the menu at the moment, their wings have been given a makeover and are now smothered in a sweet and spicy Gochuchang sauce. The Spicy Buffalo Wings are still on the menu for those of you who don’t like change, but we’d suggest giving the Seoul Street Wings a shot, you won’t regret it!

Seoul Street Wings // Neck Oil

The Gochuchang sauce on the wings is lip-smackingly spicy and with no blue cheese sauce to help reign things in, a reliable beer is essential. Beavertown’s refreshingly juicy Neck Oil was the perfect partner to these potent wings. This hazy session IPA has clean crisp citrus notes, which help cut through the intense spice and garlic from the wings. Neck Oil is an incredibly refreshing IPA and not overly bitter, making it an ideal palate cleanser before moving on to wing number two.

The Kimcheese // Elvis Juice

I couldn’t resist Byron’s special burger, with a Korean BBQ glaze, streaky bacon, Freddar cheese, crispy onions, kimchi cucumbers, more Gochuchang sauce and Ssamjang mayonnaise. The Kimcheese is a bold concoction, a sweet and sour burger with plenty of spice from the Gochuchang sauce, which at this stage was my new aroma. The soft bun and crispy onions added a depth of texture and the Ssamjang mayonnaise helped bring all the ingredients together. This burger didn’t hold back on flavour, I was going to need a beer that didn’t compromise either.

BrewDog’s Elvis Juice is a grapefruit infused IPA, bursting with tropical fruits and a fairly strong bitterness. This well-balanced beer has no issues taking on the strong flavours present in the Kimcheese.

Blue Cheese Burger // Moor Revival

My dining partner likes to keep burgers simple, avoiding extravagant toppings which inevitably end up all over your face. Blue cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, a classic. To pair with this burger, my dining partner opted for Moor Revival. The strong citrus flavour and medium bitterness cut through the creaminess of the blue cheese and you’re left with a lovely hoppy finish.

Superb Sides

As always, we went a little overboard on the sides. A mistake I’m sure we’ll repeat next time we visit.

To keep with the Korean theme, we couldn’t resist the Gangnam Fries. Obviously, these were ordered in song and if we’d had a couple more beers would probably have been ordered in dance.

The fries had another helping of Gochuchang sauce (which was starting to come out of my pours at this stage) and a little extra spice from some jalapeños. Although there was cheese on the fries we wanted to maximise our exposure to dairy, the indulgent macaroni cheese made sure we hit our weekly cheese quota in a single afternoon. Tasty and efficient.

As side-orders to the fries and macaroni, we also enjoyed Kale Caeser (a bacon Caeser salad with Kale, what’s not to love about that?!?!) and some courgette fries with ranch dip.

The courgette fries were immense, with a light crisp batter and juicy interior, these were almost healthy until we became too accustomed to the dip.

To finish our meal we sampled a couple more beers, I was on the Vocation Pride and Joy whilst my dining partner enjoyed a Vagabond, a gluten-free beer from BrewDog.

The Pride and Joy was another cracking beer, a malty hoppy APA with notes of tropical fruits and grapefruit. The Vagabond was a light hoppy beer, incredibly easy on the palate, if we hadn’t known it was gluten free we wouldn’t have guessed.

Byron – doing two things, and doing them properly

Byron knows their stuff when it comes to craft beer and the burgers are always reliable.

The service is first rate and the advice offered around the pairings is always a great help. I feel each time we visit Byron we leave with some more craft beer knowledge, we’ll be back soon and are excited to see what guest beers will be on tap.

Huge thanks to Elliot for being such a great host, his passion for craft beer and Byron is infectious!

113-117 Lothian Rd, Edinburgh EH3 9AN | 29-31 North Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1SF