Food Review: Durty Vegan Burger Club

Danny, the champion of the vegan world

What could be Glasgow’s first dedicated vegan burger restaurant has opened as a weekend pop-up in Finnieston (where else!?). Using The Cran as their base, Durty Vegan Burger Club headed by former Bloc and Vice Munchies sensation Mad Chef Danny currently has two burgers on its “visual menu” along with durty fries. Plans are afoot to expand the menu and offer vegan-friendly desserts as well as more savouries.

Inside the striped back to brick interior, it’s a bit haphazard in design and ethos! It was just like stumbling across a hidden dive bar, that serves good food and drinks. Reminding us of Berlin and Budapest dive bars, with its relaxed feel, we could have sat here for a few hours trying the various different soft drinks on offer whilst the tunes played (there is a DJ!).

The Durty Vegan Burger Club menu currently has two burgers and durty fries. If only more places did a smaller menu to focus on doing what they do well. The lowjack burger with jackfruit and a ringer which is like a chicken burger (a dead ringer to the KFC zinger). The durty fries are topped with ‘nootch’ an umami nutritional yeast, full of vitamin B12, which is a bit like the bonito flakes which are sprinkled on many dishes in Japan.

There’s no licence at The Cran, but that hasn’t hindered them. An array of modern craft sodas are available with various fruit flavours, root beer, green cola and CBD (cannabis extract!) soda, so surely something to suit all tastebuds?

We plumped for a ginger beer and a cherry soda. Both refreshing and much needed this evening.

Food

Here’s the trio posing for a photograph.

The ringer burger was a slightly spicy (not too spicy to worry Mrs Foodie) ‘chicken’ burger topped with lettuce, pickles, sauce and relish. The bun held up well to the assault of toppings and dribbly sauces and how many meat eaters would know this wasn’t chicken if they hadn’t been told beforehand?

The lowjack burger oozed out jackfruit, which has the look and texture of pulled-pork. Again, plenty of sauce, crisp gherkins and a slightly toasted sesame seed topped bun. It has a fruity yet savoury taste so clearly wasn’t meat but was still a decent meat alternative (we’re quite fond of the taste of jackfruit).

What can we say about the durty fries? Crisp fries topped with shredded slaw, chives and sauce. The nootch gives the fries a crack-like addictive quality. These were excellent – best fries we’ve eaten this year probably! Mr Foodie will certainly be back for the fries at the very least!

Verdict

Thumbs up from both of us. Good banter and hugs from the Mad Chef as always, excellent grub and a cool setting which allowed us to reminisce about past holidays in Berlin. Eat in or takeaway, all the food comes in compostable vegware containers. There’s a single toilet in the basement, which is a bit of a work-in-progress.

TL;DR

+ Highly addictive fries
+ Cool dive bar vibe
+ Excellent tunes
+ Vegware packaging

– Toilet needs work