There is no shortage of smash burgers in London. Victoria alone has enough serious competition to make opening another burger joint feel like a particularly brave decision. Hanbaagaasuuteeki did it anyway, setting up on Buckingham Palace Road directly opposite the likes of Shake Shack and Bleecker. A year on, it is clear the gamble has paid off.
The restaurant has built a loyal following by taking the familiar smash burger format and throwing it around Asia. Korean kimchi, Thai herbs, Szechuan pepper, Japanese-inspired sauces and Vietnamese flavours all make an appearance, while the burgers themselves remain unapologetically American in format.
Now, to celebrate its first birthday, founder and chef Fatih Alkan is adding five new bāgas and doggus to the menu, continuing the restaurant’s habit of putting big Asian flavours between a soft potato bun.
The Food
The appeal of Hanbaagaasuuteeki is that it does not try to reinvent the burger itself. The patties are still smashed, caramelised and tucked into soft potato buns. It is what happens on top that makes things interesting.
The existing menu has already become known for dishes such as the Shrimp Kong Bāga, which pairs a smashed beef patty and melted cheese with crispy shrimp and a sweet, spicy sauce. Its universally agreed this burger is one of the best in London. The unique flavours are special, the blended patty is just a mixture of deliciousness.
The Szechuan Chicken Bāga is another favourite, built around crispy chicken with plenty of numbing Szechuan pepper, while the Isan Bāga brings Thai flavours, bird’s eye chilli and holy basil into the mix, the chicken patty is so big it requires a larger bun to keep all the flavour together. For anyone who would rather keep things classic, the Another Double Cheese Burger delivers a much more traditional double smash burger with American cheese and a soft potato bun.
Then there are the sides. The miso-loaded fries have developed something of a following of their own, regularly being picked out by reviewers as one of the best things to order alongside a burger.
It is a menu that makes sense once you understand the idea: take American burger culture and use it as a vehicle for big Asian flavours.
Five New Bāgas And Doggus
The first birthday menu pushes that idea even further, with five new additions spanning Korea, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Kimchi Bāga
The simplest of the new additions, but potentially one of the most satisfying. The Kimchi Bāga takes a classic smash patty and loads it with slow-fermented Korean kimchi. The restaurant’s existing kimchi burger has already been one of its signature choices, so this feels like a return to one of the flavours that helped establish the place in the first place.
Ika Ringu Doggu
The Ika Ringu Doggu takes the hot dog in a distinctly seafood direction. Crunchy calamari rings are packed into a soft potato roll before being finished with a ponzu-kuro nanban sauce. It is also made fresh daily until it sells out, making this one to look out for if you are visiting with something more adventurous in mind.
Kimuchi Doggu
There is no ketchup here. Instead, the Kimuchi Doggu takes a bespoke sausage and covers it in Japanese-style kimchi. It is essentially Hanbaagaasuuteeki’s answer to the question of what happens when a classic hot dog gets handed over to the kitchen’s Asian flavour department.
Thai Okla Bāga 2.0
The original Thai-style Oklahoma burger was already one of the more distinctive ideas on the menu. Version 2.0 takes it further. The smashed burger is piled with som tam-style slaw and finished with a bold kra pao sauce, bringing together the sweet, sour, spicy and herbaceous flavours associated with Thai cooking with the deeply caramelised onions of an Oklahoma-style smash burger. It is exactly the sort of combination that sounds slightly chaotic on paper and completely makes sense in a potato bun.
District 4 Chicken Bāga
The most overtly Vietnamese of the new arrivals, the District 4 Chicken Bāga is described by the restaurant as being “straight outta Saigon”. A crispy chicken thigh is glazed in a fiery nem-style sauce before being topped with punchy kimchi and fresh coriander. The result brings together crisp chicken, heat, acidity and freshness, with enough going on to make this considerably more interesting than your standard fried chicken burger.
The Chef Behind The Bāgas
The man driving that idea is founder and chef Fatih Alkan, whose culinary background spans Italian and French cooking as well as experience in Japan. Rather than opening another conventional burger restaurant, Alkan has used Hanbaagaasuuteeki to bring those influences together in a format that is familiar, quick and very London-friendly. His brother Atilla Alkan is also involved in the business, helping turn the original idea into the Victoria restaurant it is today.
The result is a menu where a classic smash burger can sit alongside something flavoured with kimchi, Thai basil, Szechuan pepper or Vietnamese-style sauces without any of it feeling particularly out of place. And with the first year now under its belt, Alkan is showing no signs of running out of combinations.
One Year In
The interesting thing about Hanbaagaasuuteeki is that it has not tried to compete with London’s smash burger scene by simply making another very good cheeseburger.
That would probably have been easier. Instead, the restaurant has built its identity around making burgers that borrow from different Asian cuisines while keeping the format familiar enough to work as a quick lunch, post-work bite or Victoria station pit stop.
Everything from the burgers and fries to the lively atmosphere, have meant the restaurant has built a sizeable following in its first year. Now, twelve months after opening, there is no sign of the experimentation slowing down.
The five new birthday additions are a good indication of where Hanbaagaasuuteeki wants to go next: less about perfecting one signature burger and more about seeing how many different flavours can work when you have a smashed beef patty, a soft bun and a willingness to experiment.
And that is probably the reason the restaurant has managed to stand out in an increasingly crowded London burger scene. There are plenty of places doing smash burgers. Far fewer are putting kimchi, som tam, Szechuan pepper, calamari and Vietnamese sauces on them. The fact the menu is so varied and constantly innovating gives fans to keep on returning to explore the menu.
For Hanbaagaasuuteeki, that is the whole point.
Hanbaagaasuuteeki, 36 Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, London SW1W 0RE.
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