Sometimes, a burger’s just gotta be a classic. Patty, onions, pickles, cheese, bread. Nothing too special, nothing too grand. You’d be forgiven for believing The Heart of Gold at Foxglove is such a burger.

It is unassuming, comes wrapped in brown paper and starts leaking juices the moment you pick it up. For all intents and purposes you’d think Foxglove were playing an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ philosophy from their Smashtastic Mr. Fox last year. But just one bite of this burger, and I realised this wasn’t a refinement of a classic.

This is the evolution.

The patty is beef brisket and venison, but it’s not the combination of flavours that make this burger sing, it’s the grind of the mince. It feels steaky, it feels meaty, it feels like the texture of the patty was made for carnivores with strong canines, who want to feel that power of tearing the meat away. It captures all of the delight of gamey texture without the bitterness of the wild that a lot of venison can let linger. It’s a celebration of what makes meat meat, and as I swallowed chunk after chunk of perfectly rare beef, it tapped into a primal instinct that reminded me why I love burgers in the first place.

I ordered a side of fries to go with it and I’m implore you not to make the same mistakes as I did. The burger is all you need. It may seem basic and classic at first glance, but there’s unmatched technique here in this Heart of Gold. It’s meat at its most pure.