The Silk Mill Ale and Cider House in Derby seems to be a pretty decent place to stop off for a pint of beer and a decent plate of pub food. They have a whole lot of tasty sounding stuff on the menu. The menu seems to get updated quite often so even since I visited it has changed a bit.

Looking today online I would have been tempted by their Pie3 which is a triple offering of pies “Rabbit, tarragon and grain mustard pie with carrot and swede rosti lid. Mutton, smoked garlic and rosemary hotpot pie and beef and stout cottage pie with a devilled kidney fritter.”

I would also fancy sampling the Fish Supper which is described as “Tea battered fillet of haddock, mushy peas, chipped potatoes and malt vinegar mayonnaise” for £12.95, mainly to find out what ‘tea batter’ is.

As it happened though we had seen a board that said ‘Burger Depot’

The Burger Depot Chalkboard

Sadly we did not come to the Silk Mill on the Monday when they have the Burger Depot evening, but we had already seen the sign and had burgers in mind. On that night they say that the serve “9 different burgers designed by the Silk Mill team to satisfy connoisseur and voracious burger aficiandos”

 So with that in mind, I just needed to go classic to find out how good there ‘everyday’ type of burger was.

The Conventional Burger

The Conventional Burger was described on the menu as “Ground Beef, Red Leicester & Smoked Bacon Burger, with Iceburg Lettuce, Onion Marmalade, in a White Bread Bun served with Chipped Potatoes”

I do have to say though that it was quite a thing of beauty. I am not usually able to show in a photograph how good the food looks on my phone, but this time I was quite pleased with the picture, it really captured the moment.

The bread roll surrounding my burger was kind of ciabatta like, and it was a bit chewier than I usually like but it did the job of holding everything together which is a bonus . The burger patty itself was really quite a decent, solid meaty affair. I enjoyed the molten cheese oozing over the top, although I would have liked a little more cheese, but it was tasty enough. The bacon, well bacon is always good, I suppose it could have been crispier. As for the salad? Well for once there was just the right amount in my bun for my delight.

All in all a pretty damn good burger! and I do fancy coming back for the Burger Depot Night now!

You can find the Silk Mill on the streets at 19 Full Street, Derby and see what they are up to on their Twitter Feed and on their Facebook Page