MacWild is a Scottish steak house that I visited for the first time recently. I do miss the quality beef, salmon and haggis ever since I left Scotland. Joke aside, the truth is I haven’t been to a proper Scottish restaurant, so I was interested to see what the execution of the food will be. End of the day Scotland is the country with the highest percentage of Michelin star chefs per capita.

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How tasty is the Motherf*#$&r? – 8.5/10

Mac and wild had only one burger on the menu ( ok they had a vegetarian one, but it doesn’t count ). I saw venison on the menu and my eyes sparkled. It is rare to see it in a restaurant especially here in London. Being a sucker for good meat I ordered the venimoo. A double patty burger, one beef, one deer.

The burger had:

• Venison Patty
• Beef Patty
• Cheese
• Béarnaise
• Caramelised Onions
• Shredded salad
• Brioche

So this is the only time I have tried the two types of meat in the same bite and is precisely what I expected. You can’t feel the beef. But I have to assure you, the venison was absolutely smashing. The beef patty on its own wasn’t bad at all, but its character was lost when you have such a dominant flavour from the deer. The beef was tasty, high quality and right cut – what you expect from a steak house, but it simply didn’t fit the whole picture. The game meat has a specific flavour, and the best part is you don’t need more than salt and pepper to make it right as long as the quality is there… it is that strong. So the venison was a lovely experience, and I want to repeat. I would like to try cooking it to get a better sense of its flavour profiles.

The cheese was a nice cheddar that was strong enough to be felt among the other flavours and was finishing off with a bit more nuttiness. I would have loved a bit more of it or just remove the beef patty, and it was going to be perfect.

The salad was very light, maybe a bit too much. I would have prefered a bit more in quantity or none at all. In between some of the bites, it was helping clear the heavy flavours so you can re-experience them again, which is what you want from greens like these.

I really liked the caramelised onions and the bearnaise they rounded up the flavours of the burger well and provided a lot of umami and sweetness to the bites which went great with the patties.

Seeded brioche is something you can’t go wrong, especially when it is so well toasted.

Honestly, this could have been a 10 if it didn’t have the beef patty.

Burger joint venue and overall experience? – 8/10

It is an amazing place with unusual food. I tried the best scotch egg. I had marvellous mac and cheese with haggis. The food made me very happy and it was different from you regular British restaurant. I heavily recommed it!

Quirkiness level of the experience? – 9/10

Sadly it is rare that I have venison and it is a treat in my book. It is even rarer that you try beef and deer patty in the same burger.