Lewis Hamilton’s vegan cheeseburger tastes just like McDonald’s, and Neat Burger is coming to a city near you The founders of Neat Burger, a new plant-based fast food chain, say expansion is going to be fast

If Neat Burger really is veganism’s answer to Five Guys, as prophesied by co-founder Ryan Bishti, Lewis Hamilton will be sitting on another goldmine, and one that would bear fruit long after he’s hung up his racing gloves.

The world’s major fast food chains have all been testing plant-based menu items over the last few years; some have displayed promise. But Neat Burger has just upped the ante: it’s a ready-for-market plant-based vegan restaurant with a celebrity backer (who, by the way, was not the only A-lister keen to get behind the project).

By next year, Bishti says there’ll be 14 sites across the UK: a handful in London first, Manchester will probably follow; Bristol, Brighton, and Edinburgh are all likely. As is New York. In 2025, Bishti, who made his money in nightclubs, says there’ll be more than 100 across the world.

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“We’ll be on every continent,” the entrepreneur tells me. “We’ve had interest from all over. And we’re about to sign a major partnership with a high-profile drinks brand. Expansion is going to be fast. To begin with, in the UK, we’re concentrating on major cities. You could say we’re aiming to be the vegan Five Guys, yes.”

Burger taste test

At the London launch on Monday, the kitchen team, led by chef Douglas Santi, is turning on the grills for the first time.

The food cooks quickly: diners will be sitting down with their meals within two minutes of ordering, Santi says. I try a standard cheeseburger. It is simple: a Beyond Meat pattie with Violife vegan cheese, tangy ketchup, pickles, and a squishy floury bun made by Miller’s Bakery in London.

It tastes like a 99p McDonald’s cheeseburger: soft, a hint of beef, lots of tangy acidity, and a melty slathering of what I would suppose to be cheap American cheese were I not already aware of its plant-based composition. The texture is pleasing, as are the fries, which aren’t a world away from what you get in Burger King.

Santi is particularly pleased with the McDonald’s comparison. “That’s what I was going for,” he says. “We’re a fast food restaurant and it’s a proven favourite. Except here, all the produce is organic – the products are better for you, much healthier and lighter.



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“We’ve worked hard to capture the taste of a classic burger with new, alternative ingredients. We’re not trying to convert anyone, but I don’t see the point in eating beef burgers anymore when these exist. This is a sustainable option that tastes delicious.”

Santi, from Tuscany, Italy, has worked for such gastronomic legends as Paul Bocuse and Alain Ducasse. Most recently he was executive chef at Restaurant Ours in London. He’s been developing the Neat Burger menu for six months and says he used the Ours kitchen to do so.

“I’ve been vegan for the past six months to get in the mindset of a plant-based lifestyle,” he tells me. “I have a burger every day. I think we’ve got something special here.”

Bespoke sales pitch

One of the early criticisms of Neat Burger is the fact it is reliant on Beyond Meat, a product now available to buy in Tesco (Neat co-founder Tommaso Chiabra was an early investor of Beyond Meat, so there are astute ties).

How hard would it be to make this dish at home? Santi says the basis of his patties are made by Beyond Meat, but other ingredients have been added: “We’ve added other things to create a unique burger. It’s a secret mix, like KFC’s chicken seasoning. It’ll always be secret.”

There’s that “bespoke” sales pitch ever-present in plant-based dining. Greggs was the first.

Signature burger offering

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The cheeseburger established a high bar and the signature burger is less impressive. There’s none of the vegan cheese but lots of caramelised onions, which are not unpleasant but don’t sit as comfortably on a pattie made of pea protein and coconut oil as they do a hunk of beef.

The burger sauce, another Santi creation, is much the same as any another, despite its lack of proper mayonnaise. It’s a tasty morsel, but not so reminiscent of McDonald’s. It might be more Byronesque.

Co-founder Stasi Nychas arrived to Neat Burger from Byron and has helped steer the concept towards higher-end, “quality” fast food. Given a burger and chips at Neat is about £13 (burgers are around £8, sides are £3.50), the price point is much higher than other fast food chains, maybe devastatingly so.

It’s the cost that might prove to be a telling barrier to Neat becoming a national, or international chain. People can only save the planet if they can afford to.

Nychas is confident nonetheless. He says: “We are a fast food brand, but at the moment our main competitors are independent restaurants in East London, which tend to have a higher-quality product and a higher price point.

“We’re obviously not the first to launch plant-based burgers. The demand is there. The difference is we’re going to scale. We are trying to do better quality, healthier fast food which will appeal to everyone.”

The chicken burger

Neat’s chicken burger is made using a fillet by another US plant-based producer, THIS. Bishti says it’s modelled on a McDonald’s chicken sandwich, formed only of a crispy “breast”, lettuce, and plant-based mayonnaise. Santi says the precision is in the pea protein, which can be “stretched” and made to appear “fibrous” much like meat.



The burger’s no bad thing, but it might struggle against KFC’s Imposter, which is made with Quorn, something increasingly popular in the UK, and inexpensive. Neat’s LA-style look, with notes of turquoise, privilege and whimsy, might also fail to capture the imaginations of British diners outside London.

The most important aspect of all this is that the UK doesn’t yet have a plant-based fast food cheeseburger available everywhere, with continuity across the board, no frills or unnecessary pretence. If Neat Burger rolls its prize asset out as quickly as proposed, we could see a lot more self-proclaimed flexitarians about. It is sure enough the easiest way to care about the planet to date. It’s just whether people outside central London are willing to spend £8 to do so.