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One of London’s best burger restaurants is now open at Westfield Shepherds Bush, as the shopping centre continues its irrepressible mission to make London take its food seriously. Zan Kaufman’s Bleecker Burger opens at the first floor balcony, which has recently welcomed the fast-growing Pizza Pilgrims, Soho Mexican outfit Corazon, a new iteration of Peckham’s Daddy Bao, and Catch Me, a fish restaurant reboot linked to Club Gascon chef Pascal Aussignac.
Bleecker recently switched its beef supplier from south London specialist The Butchery to Mayfair royal warrant holder Aubrey Allen, and caused something of an inadvertent storm in the process. Kaufman told Eater that the new supplier could “soon see the return of the Bleecker Black,” a cult-followed black pudding riff on the base burger that inspired fiendish devotion in its brief time on this Earth.
A former lawyer, Kaufman founded Bleecker in 2012 after arriving from the USA, and the burgers are consistently cited as among the city’s best. The Westfield opening adds to its three other sites: a restaurant at the Bloomberg Arcade in the City; a Victoria burger bar, and the original unit at Old Spitalfields Market in Shoreditch.
Westfield London, meanwhile, is on a huge restaurant kick: Stevie Parle’s buzzy Soho pasta restaurant Pastaio and a new Korean fried chicken restaurant from renowned chef Judy Joo are in the pipeline; award-winning Indian restaurant Copper Chimney and sushi brand Yo!’s latest brand pivot, Yo! Kitchen, are already open. Prolific restaurateur Alan Yau will open a branch of his Turkish restaurant brand Yamabahçe; moreover, Propel’s newsletter reports that the Michelin-starred restaurant group, Lima — run by Gabriel and Jose-Luis Gonzalez, will open a new Venezuelan brand, specialising in arepas, called Sabroso this month.
Bleecker Burger is now open.