Mambo Jambos

Four burgers in and I've taken to the lanes...

My long journey for the perfect burger will no doubt see me wandering all over the streets of this great city. This latest burger escapade has taken me down an area of particular importance to me, the Norwich Lanes. This venture took me to the lower of the goat lanes, presumably named so because in olden times the inhabitants really loved goats. No doubt they ate medium rare goat burgers prior to the introduction of the food standards agency and their draconian ways of thinking. With that piece of faux history told we can look toward the restaurant and the burger.

The Burger

Mambo Jambos is a fun loving excitably food establishment that embodies everything you want in a party atmosphere; good music and dim lighting. Provided you take the right company of course you're guaranteed a good time regardless of the food. I went for the Mambo High Rise, it appeared to be their signature burger and I was absolutely ravenous so the double stacker tipped it for me. So what did I get for this £13.95 beast: a double stacked burger, cheese, BBQ sauce, onion rings and two slices of bacon.

As always we start with the burger slice, this revealed a fairly good pink medium rare cooking throughout both burgers. The meat itself was ok, it could of done with a pinch of extra seasoning but overall it was pretty tasty. The bacon was a nice touch, after all what goes better with meat than even more meat from a different animal? It wasn't crispy, though they didn't advertise it would be so I'm ok with that. Potentially if it was crispy that would add a new texture element in to raise the overall experience. There was a pretty crisp onion ring amidst the chaos but ended being pretty soggy after it soaked up the gallon of sauce. The melted cheese and the BBQ sauce with the mega soft bun meant there was a lot of easy to chew non crunchy textures. I would suggest a little less BBQ sauce next time or scrape some out with a chip. It's worth pointing out here that the bun was sublime, very soft and perfectly toasted. Nothing fancy like brioche, just a good classic white bap. The height of the burger was about 5 inches so it was a mission to get down.  had to have a full logistical plan put in place prior to attacking this and I hate to admit it but I did end up using cutlery. This was definitely not a date meal. I ended up with sauce everywhere and looked quite frankly, repulsive.

The lighting in Mambo Jambos makes a great atmosphere but is a nightmare for instagram food bloggers, they would cringe at this, I probably wouldn't even get a single like. Thankfully it's not all about the photos. Though next time I could take a lighting rig with me.

The Fries

Standard bulk buy fries, fills a gap but won't leave you thinking 'wow those were great chips'. They weren't seasoned at all which was a bit disappointing and they weren't particularly crispy either. If you have to serve these Maccy D style fries at least get them crisp. What is the correct level of crispiness I hear you say? Essentially, you want them to be crispy enough that if someone tries to pinch one, you can jab their hand with one as they reach over and do enough damage that they won't try again.

Overall

If you like BBQ sauce you're in for a winner, that was the predominant taste. Everything else was pretty much consumed by it. It kind of reminded me of a BBQ sauce version of the pokemon muk. The burger was very well cooked and although it could of had a touch more seasoning, it was still moist and juicy and tasted nice when tried without sauce. I can appreciate that their other burgers are probably very good too, next time I will definitely opt for a less 'saucy' one (though it is valentines today). Now this place has a fairly extensive menu with a huge range of ribs and wings, but when it comes down to the burger alone, I actually think Captain A's tips ahead ever so slightly as their meat was top notch and they really weren't afraid to show the pink!

6.5/10

Mambo Jambos

14-16 Lower Goat Lane,

Norwich

Norfolk NR2 1EL

Tune in next time for when I finally make it to the Ribs of Beef public house...