The best burgers in Southampton and shaking our own cocktails

One of the things I love about being a blogger, especially in Southampton, is that I get to see a lot of the new restaurant launches pretty early on, and learn about all the great new businesses in the area.
I'm also a really big fan of supporting local businesses and independent companies, particularly if they are local!

One of our absolute favourite Southampton businesses is Mettricks. I've talked previously about their coffee houses (now numbering five!!) and their great coffee masterclasses, and now is the turn of a little something new from the Mettricks gang!

Welcome to Vospers*, a rather gentlemanly and cosy burger restaurant, steeped in Sotonian history. Unlike your normal burger place, it's no diner, but rather one of a kind wooden tables and deep leather chairs with a mish mash of old wooden chairs and antique furniture. Think an upscale Mettricks with burgers, and more alcohol!



After placing our food orders - which I'll come back to - we had our first session making cocktails. Now these aren't your generic juice cocktails that you'd find in Wetherspoons or Vodka Revs, but classy and sophisticated cocktails which pack a punch. Roger our mixologist, took us through, two at a time, on the cutest personal bar ever, how to make our drinks. The first - the Last Word- was a gin based cocktail, using just a few ingredients, and really delivered that cocktail feel.

^^ how sophisticated is this?!?!? ^^

Next up our food was delivered. 

All the burgers on the menu are named after quintessential Southampton history and present a broad range of burger choices. I chose the 1908 burger, a beef patty with maple cured bacon, caramalised balsamic onions and honey goats cheese, with a sweet potato fries. 

Here I should admit that actually I'm not normally a huge burger fan. I mean I do enjoy burgers, but I don't usually choose them if there's other things on the menu. I have to really really be in the mood for them. But since this burger, well I've had some serious cravings, because it was so damn good. 

I usually find with burgers that I'm just not that into the buns, but this one was so good. To be honest, the whole combination was fab, and I am dying (metaphorically) to try a few of the sides on offer, especially the salt and pepper squid and the sweet and spicy sriracha wings.

After polishing off our burgers we got onto our second cocktail of the night, a rum swizzle. I'm pretty sure this was a hit with everyone around the table, especially when the above golden pineapple joined the table! Talk about blogger porn!! This cocktail was definitely my favourite, with plenty of kick, but not so strong it makes you wince. Plus so very pretty!  

The last few standing, finished off the evening with a tequila margherita which was also very good and brought the night to a close beautifully. 

Vospers really is a welcome addition to Woolston (set just outside the main city) and will definitely be a hit amongst the developing Centenary Quay and Woolston Waterside. The attention to detail in both venue decoration and menu, with so much of it locally sourced, is so lovely to see, and is one of my favourite things about the Mettricks group, and what Spencer (the owner) is trying to achieve!

So do Vospers have the best burgers in Southampton? This gal says hell yeah. And I'm definitely going back with my boys!

Photos of me courtesy of Anna.

*meal and cocktail masterclass provided in exchange for review - all opinions are my own as always. Thank you to Alice at the Sotonbloggers for organising.