Slider bar - (Un)lucky Chip

SliderBar
Player Bar, 8 Broadwick St, W1F 8HN

For ages we had been looking forward to the opening of Slider Bar, the new venture of LuckyChip in Soho, to complement their Hackney residence at the Sebright Arms. Their opening seemed to be constantly put back and back, checking out their twitter feed they seemed to be beseeched with bad luck holding back their opening. But finally today was the day, announced only the day before on Twitter. With the Lucky Chip burgers consistently touted as one of the best burgers in London, I didn't want to miss out on this.

The Slider bar is on Broadwick St, just off Wardour Street, it is very discreet with the World's smallest sign, so keep your eyes peeled. We got there half an hour after opening, and managed to get a table for the 4 of us. The set up is quite strange downstairs half bar, half restaurant with the seats all bunched together round the perimeter. There couldn't have been more than 50 people seated.

Approximately  50 seats - most vacated by time we left at 9pm

Now to the menu...er...what...no idea what's going, my friend and I had two variations of the same menu with different pricing. The appetizers included a chicken bucket, fish n chips, mac 'n' cheese. The sliders at £12.50 seemed quite expensive, but I knew the quality would be worth it, so chose to ignore that slightly. For this price they would have Opera Tavern iberico pork and fois gras slider at same price range. Or even a burger at Bar Boulud, which is higher end dining in Knightsbridge. The sliders also came with fries and there was a choice of cheese burger, double cheese burger (why would you have just a small one?), bacon burger, club burger, pulled pork burger, the El Chappo (burger with blue cheese), royal wit cheese, fillet o fish, and a vegetarian option with kimchi and potato cake. We were also quite excited by the inclusion of the ice cream burger, and 'make your own' sundae (with added Pizza Hut nostalgia!).

Oi bruv, get me sum Ting yeh. Safe blud

Shahz ordered the Mac 'n' cheese as an appetizer. It was well seasoned and suitably cheesy (it contained 4 different types of cheese), but at £6.50 it didn't really seem like that great value. I haven't really tried a mac n' cheese which has particularly blown me away per se; they all taste pretty similar to me. I'd like to be converted to the cause, but I think it would have to be pretty mind-blowing to justify that kind of price, especially as an appetizer.

Mac n' Cheese

Then the wait. Tick tock tick tock. 2 hours before we got any food. I'm perfectly fine with a bit of teething issue on first night and things not always being able to run smoothly, but this was beyond the pale. I don't think this would have been too much of a problem had the customer service not been sooooo bad. I haven't ever experienced anything like that. As a customer I should not be told after inquiring how long the food was going to be':

'We brought it to your table but you refused it'

How ironic

To be accused of rejecting food that I was now asking for, I'm quite baffled. Service seemed to be a bit of a mish mash, we had been brought some food, all of which was different to what we ordered and was for another table. This seemed to happen at a few other tables. Another time, we were told again that our food had already been brought to us. Regardless of how things are going if people are polite about things I'm more than forgiving, but no apology was there. Seriously, I was STARVING, the table next to us had just got their food, and were enjoying it. Thankfully, whilst we were waiting, I managed to have a lovely conversation with the nice people from EmpireLineEater and #Brgr (coming to an office near you soon!). Eventually the manager came over and sorted things out, and it would be on the house, but we still had to wait another half hour. He proclaimed

'The kitchen has had to be shut, no more orders, we didn't expect this many food orders'

WTF? Completely astounded by this. Opening night and closed 2 hours after opening, **** must have hit the fan. I heard this place was built on an old indian burial ground, must be cursed. More bad news meant we couldn't now have the ice cream dessert :(

                                       

At last the burgers arrived. We were very ravenous, it was difficult to control ourselves as photo taking began. With that over with let the feasting begin. Despite all the previous letdowns, the burgers were right on the money. Perfectly constructed; they looked and tasted amazing. Cooked medium rare, these little beauties melted in the mouth, and were not as greasy as something you get from Meatliquor/market. I had the Club Burger and the Double cheeseburger (where are quirky actor names, like at the original LC?). The Club burger was exactly like how a Big Mac should be, 2 patties with lettuce, tomato and that special sauce to go with. They were seasoned alright as well, not as over-seasoned as I had heard Lucky Chip burgers could be (particularly from their food truck stall).

The brioche bun was super soft and airy. The only thing about the bun was that in a small slider potion, it does tend to just disintegrate in a way that it wouldn't be likely to with a full-sized burger. The taste was spot on though, and adequately complemented the patty's softness. The fries on the side served with the burger were ok, but nothing out of this world, and a bit salty and on the small side. 

A Club Burger and cheese burger

Cooked just how I like it

I feel so disappointed that the customer service was such a let down when the sliders were so good. Sliders should be something you have for a quick bite to eat while having a few drinks, like at Spuntino. I really do hope that they manage to sort this issue out and that these are just teething problems, as we really did enjoy the burgers. The only other issue is the pricing scheme. 2 sliders, despite their quality is not worth £12.50, considering the Lucky Chip @ Sebright Arms is £7 for a bacon burger or £8 for royal wit cheese. Or even just round the corner Honest Burgers at just £9. In the end, had we not got the sliders on the house it would have been £19 for two courses, and £25 for three without drinks, which we don't think makes sense when just going out for a burger in Soho.

Despite appearing small, still hard to eat in one!

A comment on Twitter sums it up the customer service issues:

Waited an hour for our patties and they didn't even show. Left burgerless. Dont blame @sliderbar , it's the @plyr! Awful service.

Hate the player, not the 'Chip!