There are burgers, and then there are burgers involving bone marrow, truffle and a bottle of Champagne.
The latter are now being served at Milk Burger, a new Westbourne Grove restaurant taking the distinctly Notting Hill approach of giving comfort food a rather luxurious upgrade.
The restaurant opened on 5th October with executive chef Jorge Paredes in charge of the kitchen. His CV runs through Sabor, AGORA and OMA, where he was head chef when the restaurant earned its first Michelin star. At Milk Burger, that fine-dining experience is being redirected towards burgers, sandwiches and sides.
The menu’s most unapologetically extravagant proposition is the Bone Marrow & Truffle Burger, alongside a Cuban sandwich and Spicy Smash burger. Desserts include soft serve and fried cherry pie, with Champagne intended not as an afterthought but as part of the restaurant’s central proposition.
Founded by hospitality entrepreneurs Alina Kosichkina and Dima Zakhodiakin, Milk Burger is pitched somewhere between neighbourhood burger joint and grown-up restaurant: somewhere you can eat with your hands while drinking something that comes with a cork.
The pair previously built a portfolio of 32 restaurants in Kyiv before relocating to London following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Milk Burger is their first opening in the capital, and the site has some burger history of its own: it housed a burger restaurant for almost 20 years before closing during the pandemic.
The interiors have been designed by David Archer, whose previous projects include Chiltern Firehouse and The Standard. Burgundy tiles and stainless steel give way to pale blue and soft timber, with the design details extending all the way down to the printed burger papers and matchboxes.
Kosichkina says the concept reflects a broader appetite for food that is less complicated without being less considered.
“I take burgers very seriously,” she says. “People are tired of overly complicated food, but at the same time we care more and more about the quality of what we eat.”
Her ideal is a burger or sandwich made from the best ingredients and paired with “great Champagne, wine or a cocktail” — served somewhere attractive enough to linger without requiring the ceremony of a traditional fine-dining restaurant.
For Paredes, stripping things back doesn’t mean lowering the standards.
“A burger doesn’t give you anywhere to hide,” he says. “The produce, the seasoning, the technique all have to be right.”
In other words, Milk Burger is betting that London’s appetite for high-low dining still has plenty of room to run. And really, if bone marrow, truffle, Champagne and fried pie can’t persuade Notting Hill to eat a burger, nothing will.
Milk Burger, 50 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5SH. Open daily, 12pm–9pm. Walk-ins only.