Vegan Review: Chosen Bun

Chosen Bun in Marston promise to deliver the ultimate premium burger. A big claim, particularly when you consider just how many vegan burgers are on the market in Oxford these days. When they got in touch with me via Instagram, I was keen to try out one of their two vegan options for myself. The korean chilli barbecue burger sounded pretty interesting, but I decided to go for the classic ‘cheese’ burger. For £11.95, you can get the ‘chosen’ deal – the burger, with a box of chosen chips, and a soft drink can.

Peering into my delivery bag, the first thing I noticed was the fancy packaging. It’s advertised as fully recyclable on the website (although I’m pretty sure when something’s got food grease over it, it has to go in the regular waste bin). The thicker cardboard does give the impression of a ‘higher class’ of fast food. The burger is packaged in a tall-ish cylindrical piece of cardboard, presumably to make sure it arrives to your front door remaining in perfect condition. The chips come in something fairly similar, with circles cut out – perhaps to stop the food going soggy? This is me just making guesses now. In any case, my food did look great when I removed it from the packaging.

Onto the burger itself. It had so much potential. Alas, it just didn’t quite deliver. The patty was burnt, and burnt enough that I couldn’t overlook it, as I couldn’t really taste the beetroot and mushroom patty much at all, it just had that bitter charred flavour from the outsides. They were generous with the cheese slices on top, which is great, though sadly it’s not a melty cheese, and was definitely slapped on at the end after the burger had already started to cool, rather than while the burger was still on the hot plate to allow it to stick to the patty a bit. It slid out of the burger as I ate. There’s a super sweet onion chutney underneath the patty, then a tangy pickled onion and gherkins on top. They were generous with the toppings, and along with the crisp fresh lettuce leaf, a far cry away from the slimy iceberg lettuce I’d usually pull straight out, these did feel like the good quality I was hoping for. The bun itself was also lovely and soft, and again no signs of sogginess. It’s such a shame that the patty was burnt because this definitely had the makings of a fantastic vegan cheeseburger. It’s just all in the execution.

The chips on the other hand, I only have good things to say. The portion size was huge, just how I like it. I could tell some efforts have gone into making sure these are a unique ‘chosen’ offering. They are chunky chips, super crisp on the outside, and fluffy in the middle. They were well salted to my liking, and also very lightly sprinkled with herbs, adding a subtle but delicious extra flavour element. Yum.

I like the fact that Chosen offer Karma Cola drinks as part of their meal deal. I opted for the ginger beer, which was refreshingly zingy, and washed the chips down a treat. This brand have a great ethos and are a much better alternative to your regular coca-cola, using mostly fairtrade and natural ingredients.

All in all, Chosen Burger does have the potential to be a great experience, but they need to work on the delivery of that burger! I’m tempted to go back at some point and try the other burger and see if the patty is any different, or whether they were perhaps just having a bad day.. Have you tried it? Let me know in the comments!

This meal was gifted; the review shares my honest thoughts about the food.