Last year I highly rated El Matador's vegetarian chickpea burger, so was keen to try this year's 'Fuego Burger': Spicy garbanzo patty with wood-fired beetroot, parrilla-smoked mushroom, preserved lemon and olive salsa in an Arobake bun, served with patatas bravas.
The burger is absolutely huge. You will not leave hungry. As promised, the mushroom is smoky and the patty is spicy. I think there was a key problem with the burger however, in that there were no onions, garlic or cheese to be seen or tasted. Without meat (which is not an issue for me) I think these are key ingredients to get a tasty savoury flavour into a burger. Last year's burger for El Matador had feta, which worked really well. This year's burger had aioli, so I don't think a quest to be vegan was behind the burger. The other companion at my table who had the burger commented that each element of the burger was nice, but it was a bit like they were all fighting one another. I agree. I usually like mushrooms, but took mine out because the smoke flavour was so strong. The patatas bravas, on the other hand, were excellent. I award the 'Fuego Burger' 6/10.