Wahlburgers is a restaurant burger chain owned by chef Paul Wahlberg and his two brothers, actor Mark Wahlberg and former singer of 1980s boy band "New Kids on the Block" Donnie Wahlberg. A television series was produced about this chain of restaurants in the states in 2014, but the London branch only opened its doors in May of 2019. The London branch is located at Covent Garden, and I stopped in for lunch.
For starters, I had the fried halloumi cheese, which is unique to the London menu. (I once tried to find halloumi in the states and could not find any.) This was served with an orange and cranberry-flavoured dip.
I tried the Thanksgiving Turkey Burger with fries. The burger was made of ground turkey, stuffing, butternut squash, and the orange and cranberry dip. I did not care much for the fries, and the turkey burger was about average and worked when all of the ingredients were combined in a mouthful as otherwise it was too bland.
The "Jenn's Chicken Sandwich" (not named after me!) was my favourite. The chicken breast was marinated, and the burger selection can be customised with a range of free toppings (cheese/onions/jalepenos) or from a list of charged toppings. The onion rings (actually, they were battered onion straws) were tasty as well.
For dessert, I tried the cookie dough. This came with strawberry ice cream, sauce, and whipped cream. This dish was a complete miss for me as the cookie dough was too tough and very bland. Without the ice cream on top, it would have been completely inedible. I actually left most of it as it was not worth the calories at all.
What's my verdict? First of all, London has several restaurants where its residents and visitors can grab a burger, and London has some excellent burger restaurants. So, competition it pretty tough. Second of all, the food ranged from being inedible to average. The chicken burger was okay, but I've had much better at the burger chains mentioned a moment ago. The onion rings straws were good, but other places in London do good ones and good sides as well. For the price, Walburgers is on the expensive side. Also, it's been going for several months, and there does not seem to be much footfall. I know that this February seems to be particularly quiet in London, but I would guess that this place is struggling a bit. Those that I did see paying interest were primarily visitors or first-time-visitors of people like myself who are working in the area.
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