Calibration's what you need

So, in order to calibrate The System and give a useful benchmark to refer back to, I visited my local Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Milton Keynes.

They have many fine burgers on the menu featuring such specialities as The Jamaican (mango and ginger relish), The Wellington (horseradish, rocket and mushroom) and the signature Kiwi Burger (not made of small ground dwelling rare birds but piled with beetroot, egg, pineapple, aged cheddar, salad, mayo and relish).

So that I wouldn't be distracted by exotics, I plumped for a basic BBQ burger and 'small' fries. Usual price would be just under £10, but thanks to a discount voucher site I got all in for a very reasonable £5.95

As you can see from the pictures, it's a proper patty, chargrilled with a toasted bun and salad garnish. Although the menu describes it as 'Smokey BBQ sauce', I have to say it's more of a light chilli relish with not much smoke action going on.

I asked for medium, and that's how it came, still slightly pink in the middle. Reasonable flavour, but not too juicy. Salad garnish was basic but fresh and didn't overpower the main event. The bun did it's job well, only slipping towards the end when the sauce became a liability rather than an asset. I also thought the bun was slightly too big and lacked a little crispness, despite the good looking char lines. Fries were chunky, golden and hot, proper potato-ey taste and portion size about right. Additional condiments were thin on the ground as presented; only salt, pepper and no-name ketchup on the table.

So to the scores. Remember, 0 is for not present, 1 is merely functional, 2 is adequate, 3 is good, 4 is really good and 5 is OMG-can't-talk-eating.

KBI-1 : Quality of Burger	3 / 5
(Beefiness, quality of cooking, not getting lost in the extras)
KBI-2 : Distinguishing Features	2 / 5
(i.e. The 'headline' variation e.g. Bacon, Chilli, BBQ)
KBI-3 : Ability of Bun to Maintain Order	3 / 5
(size, freshness, flavour, keeping it all together)
KBI-4 : Condiment Enhancement	3 / 5
(variety, suitability of extras)
KBI-5 : Fries Counterpoint	4 / 5
(portion size, crispness, potato-ey ness)
KBI-6 : Other Supporting Actors	0 / 5
(quality of side orders)
Total Score	15/25

So, the Final Score for GBK was 15/25, about 60%. Sounds harsh, but this isn't like GSCSEs where you turn up and get a gold edged certificate for writing your name (in most universities 60% is the pass mark for awarding 2:1 upper second class degrees). 60% is a solid performance and one to be proud of from a chain restaurant, but my standards are high, I need headroom in order that the truly special can really stand out so I feel the outcome is a fair one.

Calibration complete, baseline determined!