Handmade Burger Co. @ The Gate Newcastle, yummy burgers + massive sundaes = happy students

We were invited to Handmade Burger Co. in the Gate for the first time as a treat for a dreary Monday evening. The atmosphere was chilled out, casual and friendly and we were received promptly at the door. The décor is clean and modern, and it is set on two floors, with a view into the kitchen as well. This may not be the most romantic place for your 10^th anniversary celebration dinner as burgers are not that easy to eat elegantly but the ambiance was pleasant and the music volume was perfect – having to strain to hear each other is one of the most annoying little things I come across when eating out.

With over 40 burgers to choose from, I was torn between a few of them, I ended up trying to decide on either the “Hot Chilli” and the “Mexican”, both featured handmade salsa and jalapenos but the promise of avocado and fresh tortilla chips in the Mexican made it an easy decision in the end – nachos and burgers are some of my favourite foodstuffs so why not combine the two?! My burger was delicious and the tortilla chips added a nice texture. It wasn’t that spicy so I poured a bunch of their chilli sauce on which tasted great (you can buy a bottle to take home as well). 

The “American BBQ Bacon Stuffed” came highly recommended and Chris opted to try it as it ticked his boxes for something delicious – bacon, cheese, and BBQ sauce. The prices were reasonable considering the burger patties and most of the other yummy offerings are handmade, ours were £9.75 and £9.95 respectively and it gets better - students can get a whopping 25% off Monday to Friday with a valid student ID. They also offer 20 % off your total bill for NHS, military & emergency services so don’t forget your ID!

I set a timer after we ordered to see how long the food took to arrive and I was pleasantly surprised when all our food arrived in sub 13 minutes, I swear time slows down when you’re hungry waiting for your meal. Our server had some sort of superpowers – when he came over to ask how the meal was, I didn’t have the suffer the awkward 5 seconds of chewing before I could reply. He was warm, personable and was honestly a pleasure to talk to.

Chris decided not to have a side but I was starting to get fairly hungry by the time it came to ordering (apparently, I can’t survive from lunch to dinner without getting peckish) so I also opted for some Denver chips, they came topped with a generous serving of pulled pork, melted cheese and HBC’s BBQ pit sauce. For £4.95 I was happy to see that there were enough chips for both of us to enjoy, and by the time I finished my burger the mound of chips looked a little intimidating.

From the second he laid eyes on the menu, Chris was hankering after a Sundae, particularly the brownie and waffle one. I couldn’t make up my mind but unfortunately they didn’t have the ingredients in so we had “The Oreo” in a sharer size which had layers of vanilla ice cream, crumbled Oreos, chocolate and butterscotch sauces and topped with whipped cream (or not in our case, I don’t think I could have managed a mound of whipped cream anyway!). The sundae was delicious and the Oreo bits made for an interesting texture and kept the flavour balanced – usually with desserts I find them a bit too rich as I’m more of fan of savoury food. I can’t wait to go back to try the brownie and waffle sundae, we may make a trip into town just for dessert some time.