Menu-less Mania

When it comes down to it, the main thing that differentiates home cooking from a restaurant is the menu… Or I guess the lack of one.  At least that was the case at my house.  I mean, it’s not as if we didn’t have the means to produce a menu.  We had Microsoft Word, paper and a printer, and on days the computer or printer decided to be unnecessarily stubborn, we still had hands and ballpoint pens, although sometimes it was easy to forget about the latter. 

But let’s be real.  The thought of a menu being passed around the dinner table was and is a bit ridiculous.  Even more so, it’s impractical.  Let me explain.  You see, my mom is no Rachel Ray.  And by that, I mean that when she cooks, she cooks.  Her meals aren’t thrown together from packages of pasta and cans of soups.  Her recipes call for real ingredients—carrots with flecks of dirt still clinging onto the oompa-loompa colored flesh, imperfect mushrooms slightly bruised from the tender love and care they failed to receive on the journey to the cutting board, broccoli chilled by the cold of winter rather than by the chill of the supermarket freezers…With that being said, however, she’s also no Jamie Oliver.  Although she can cook, her library of recipes is fairly limited.  She has a few go to meals that are absolutely flawless, and as much as I’d like to emphasize the word “flawless”, I’d also like to emphasize the words “a few”.  You see, that’s why a menu would be impractical. .  My mother’s recipe collection simply wouldn’t be as extensive as it would need to be to ensure a satisfying nice and plump menu.  My mother, you see, is no Olive Garden, and she’s definitely no Red Lobster.  Though the expanse of her invisible menu is somewhat limited, the dishes she does churn out, she does so impeccably well.  And that is exactly what makes her home cooking so great.  That is what makes home cooking, in general, so great—the lack of a menu.

So, with that being said, you could probably predict my excitement when I heard about a restaurant in London that practiced the same thing my mother did and does—dinnertime without menus.  This could only mean one thing.  Well, it could mean many, but from past experience, I assumed that this restaurant would only do a few things, but you could sure as hell bet that they’d do them well.

I should probably be granted an award for my assuming capabilities, because I was right.

Burger & Lobster, located on 29 Clarges St, London W1J 7EF, United Kingdom only serves three dishes.  You could either get a burger, a lobster roll, or lobster.  They all come with a side of salad and delicious fries for a flat rate of 20 pounds.

This restaurant is a must visit if you happen to be in London.  Don't let the lack of menus fool you.  It's not, nor should you expect it to be, home cooking.  That is, unless lobster, lobster rolls, and burgers were on the invisible menu at your household... But trust me, it does the job, and it does it well.  But I mean, menu-less restaurant?  That was to be expected!

Cheers,

Kimmy