From Bea Vo, who founded Stax and Boondocks comes another USA style restaurant right next to Camden Town called The Famous Flames! This is a Stax sized restaurant i.e. limited seating but the food is great to take away also.
What did we order
We were dying to try ‘The Famous Flames Cheeseburger’, so we ordered a double patty burger [£7.50]. These burgers are made with flame grilled 28 day aged pedigreed Sussex beef and served on Martin’s Potato Rolls with salad, american cheese and mayo. I loved the taste of the excellent quality flame grilled beef in the soft potato roll, and with my favourite kind of cheese melting on top- simple but yummy! I thought this was also better in comparison to the Stax burger, and this is probably because they cook the meat differently here. The flavour of the patty itself is on the plain side, but the components together in the burger work nicely.
The ‘Roasted Mushroom Mac & Cheese Burger’ was a surprise favourite of ours. This is their vegetarian offering, and comes as a fried mac and cheese patty with garlic parmesan sauce, caramelised onions and salad all encased in a Potato roll. The fried patty was perfectly cheesy and the roasted mushrooms gave a nice flavour to it. I love both mac&cheese and mushrooms, so to have these combined in a burger was a wonderful flavour explosion. This is something I would definitely look forward to ordering again.
The honey habanero fried chicken sandwich [£6.50] was their classic chicken tenders doused in honey habanero sauce. I thought this was slightly overpriced for what it was, but it was still very tasty. I love a good fried chicken, and their chicken you can tell is good quality, as it isn’t dry and it is also clean and white throughout.
The classic chicken and waffles [£8.00] you can get here and also at Stax and Boondocks. I would say the chicken is more on the plain side but I still love eating this meal! I love the contrast between the salty chicken and the sweet maple syrup on a waffle. If you want this however you could just go to Boondocks and have it there, as there is better seating. I would stick to the famous flames exclusive items if you want to eat here.
The waffle fries [£2.25] made a nice change from the regular fries in most shops. They were crispy outside and soft within. Next time I am going to upgrade to cheesey waffle fries which come with cheese sauce on top!
We had the chance of trying all the wings [£5.50 for a portion]. Our favourite by far was the Nashville Hot: a spicy wing with a cayenne, butter, brown sugar & garlic coating! This wing had a spicy and garlic flavour and was just hot and flavoursome all the way through, with a very crunchy coating compared to the other saucier wings.
Our next favourites were the classic buffalo (served with blue cheese dressing & celery sticks), the Garlic Parmesan (with roasted garlic, butter, herbs and parmesan) and the Chipotle honey habanero BBQ (smoked chipotle, honey and corriander). These flavours were all classic flavours done well. We also appreciated the size of the wings!
We were not huge fans of the Saigon Caramel (fish sauce, brown sugar, fried garlic & chilli oil) or the General Tso’s (soy, sesame, garlic & red chili), as we didn’t think the oriental flavours worked so well on the wings.
In terms of VFM, yes these wings are on the pricey side. However, the meat is great quality, the wings are CHUNKY and some of them have amazing flavour. Definitely try the Nashville hot wings when you go, especially if you like a little spice!
Overall…
We enjoyed eating at The Famous Flames, and we thought it was generally better in comparison to Stax! I think their burgers here were better, and we also loved the new menu items, from the chicken tenders to the mac&cheese burger to the wings.
Our menu items we recommend to order are the classic cheeseburger, nashville hot wings, mac & cheese burger and the honey habanero fried chicken sandwich!