Annie’s Burger Shack is one of those restaurants that’s been on my radar for a while now, but I’m so very rarely in Nottingham that I had to make do with the occasional photos posted by my twitter friends. Well, this past weekend we finally had an excuse to go to Nottingham and a stop at Annie’s was a must.
We arrived on a soggy Saturday afternoon foolishly thinking we’d get a table, seeing as it was after 3pm and raining cats and dogs outside. Boy were we wrong. The place was rammed and absolutely buzzing. We were told it would be an hour and 45 minute wait. Ugh. Well, we’d come this far in the rain so might as well wait it out in the bar.
We headed downstairs to the Ocean State Tavern, ordered a couple beers and plonked ourselves down in a corner booth. The bar is really cool – it feels like a secret, like you have to be in the know to be down there. There is a big screen at one end of the bar that was playing Pirates of the Caribbean, and a nice mix of students, families and couples sitting at wooden tables and booths throughout the bar. They also have a board game table to keep you occupied while you wait. We picked up Scrabble, ready to do battle, but 20 minutes in we were told our table was ready (which is too bad too – I was kicking ass). I was surprised that a nearly 2 hour wait ended up being 20 minutes, but I won’t complain.
We were seated at a little two person table at the edge of the restaurant and given our menus. There are so many burgers. You can choose between classic ones with cheese as well as the more exotic like the Dutch-Indonesian burger . And here’s the kicker, every single item can be made vegan – even the ones with things like bacon, cheese and sour cream. So as you can imagine it took me ages to finally decide what to order. In the end I went with the fajita burger with curly fries and Andrew ordered the Lemmy with sweet potato chips. Plus a side of onion rings for good measure.
Our burgers arrived promptly and looked incredible. I love burgers that are just spilling over with toppings – the messier the better I think. The patties themselves looked great too – bright pink, soft but still seriously substantial. My burger came with Mexican spiced sautéed onions and peppers, American style Cheddar cheese, sour cream, guacamole, fresh cilantro salsa and a black olive to top. Unfortunately they forgot the guacamole, but it wasn’t really missed with all the other toppings. Oh, and can I just say I’m not normally a fan of vegan cheese, but whatever cheese they used here was really tasty, even Andrew was impressed. The curly fries were awesome as well – crunchy and beautifully seasoned. Yum.
Andrew’s burger came with American style Cheddar cheese, tons of grilled jalapeño peppers and Annie’s own Jack Daniels mustard sauce.. His sweet potato fries were really nicely seasoned as well with a light crunchy outer coating.
We also had a couple beers to wash down the meal, and by the end of it were absolutely stuffed. Which is a shame, because their vegan milkshakes look incredible. Must remember to leave a little space for dessert!
Annie’s Burger Shack is a really cool restaurant – the interior, the friendly staff, the energy, the food. I am a big fan of any place that really goes out of its way to cater to vegans too, and do it so well. I only wish they were in Leicester!
Follow Annie’s Burger Shack on Twitter: @original_annies