Please note, Advisory has now closed. Time Out Food editors, March 2019.
Just when you thought London’s burger bar scene was surely already overdone, along comes another, located at the unlovely but up-and-coming Mare Street/Well Street junction. The Advisory, named after the Asian Women’s Advisory Centre that was previously on the site, recently opened with a compelling launch offer of a burger and beer for a fiver.
After just a few weeks of settling in, prices are steeper, but not much (the better-than-average burgers are £5, tasty sides of chilli greens and roasted carrots with thyme are £3 a pop), and the launch offer clearly worked. On a Tuesday evening the place was rammed, they had run out of burger brioche buns, and during the next hour, they ran out of the replacement hot dog brioche buns too and had to move onto the next day’s brunch muffins. ‘What are you gonna do when you run out of those?’ I ask our friendly, busy and very efficient waiter. ‘Close down’, he replies, deadpan.
With a tempting but simple evening menu of just three burgers (beef, bacon, and a veggie option), a hangar steak and the unusual and excellent Canadian dish poutine (melt-in-the-mouth lamb gravy and goats curd, poured over chips) plus amazingly good-value drinks – a gin and tonic costs £2.80, large house wine £3.50 and TsingTao beer £3 – that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.