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Born and raised in North East England, I packed my bags to move to London in 2014 to study a History degree at Kingston University and haven't looked back since.

Blogging became my new hobby after unfortunately losing my job a few months ago. I like to write about a variety of things that would mostly fit under the 'lifestyle' bracket, with some travel and theatre thrown in there for good measure!

Monday was the last day of the 'Eat Out To Help Out' scheme, so me and my flatmate decided we would make the most of it and treat ourselves to some lunch. We wanted to use the offer of a half price meal to try somewhere new. For a while now we'd been wanting to go to 'Meat and Shake' in Tooting Bec and it was the perfect opportunity to go.

I'm a big foodie and love trying new places to eat out, so thought it would be fun to give my opinions on this southern barbecue joint in South London. This is me pretending to be a food critic.

The Food

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

We ordered:

Kansas City Ribs – £15.80

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich – £12.87

House Seasons Skin on Fries – £3.19

Truffle Fries – £3.69

Diet Coke – £2.50

The kansas city ribs were beautifully tender and quite tasty. You get a generously sized amount on your plate too. I can't say the same for the 'philly cheesesteak' which was bland and overcooked. A good philly cheesesteak should have thinly sliced pieces of steak, but the cuts were too thick and very tough.

Usually I would also expect the bread roll to be slightly toasted on the inside and soft on the outside, but the bread had turned quite soggy from the fillings which wasn't too pleasant.

The cheese also did not have much taste and was quite disappointing. It's a bad time when the best parts of a sandwich are the peppers and onions. I've had some amazing philly cheesesteaks in the US, but I've struggled so much to find a good one in the UK.

The house fries themselves were really delicious! They were crispy and well seasoned. In contrast again, the truffle fries were quite the let down. They were served covered in a truffle mayonnaise, but I was fully convinced I couldn't taste any truffle at all (which sucks because I always get excited about truffle fries). It was just some fries drowning in an abundance of mayo that was thrown on top. The balsamic dressing was also slightly too much. But again the fries themselves were really nice!

Value For Money

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Rating: 2 out of 5.

For the price you get a lot of food, but I personally did not think the price matched the quality. It's also quite expensive for being in Tooting. Maybe we'll have to go back but instead try the burgers. They did seem to have a lot of interesting burgers on their menu. I was very tempted by their Smoking Bandit burger. I also spied another table with the Dirty Fries that looked so good!

We also didn't try a milkshake. So considering that's one of their main things, we'll have to get one next time. They definitely had a really interesting variety of flavoured shakes. From what I could see they looked like a very reasonable size for the price.

Service

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

The service was really great! The staff were super friendly and even allowed for me to make a quick last minute change to our order after it had already been placed (sorry for being that confusing customer). The food also didn't take too long to come after we had ordered.

Atmosphere

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

The decor includes huge light up letters spelling 'Meat and Shake' on a bare brick wall which looks very aesthetic. The tables are wooden and include a lot of booths to give that American diner style feel.

Overall

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I most likely will go back to try the burgers and shakes here at some point, although I can't say I'm too excited to go back. But I feel like I need to give it a second chance and try other things from the menu before I make a solid decision.

I found it a shame not to enjoy my meal when the service was really good. My flatmate, however, really enjoyed her meal so maybe I just picked the wrong things.

For any students, it's good to note they do a 20% student discount if you have an NUS card.

Dietary Requirements

All the meat in this restaurant is halal. There's also quite a lot of food places around this area that serve halal meat.

If you are vegan or vegetarian, this place is definitely not for you (which you might have been able to guess from the name anyway). I don't recall anything being suitable for vegans and vegetarians from the main meals.

Address: 47 Upper Tooting Rd, Tooting Bec, London SW17 7TR

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