Fish Dog - Shoreditch

5-7 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DT

Perfection is a rarity. No matter how good a meal is, there is usually a negative aspect to be found. Service, ambiance, and three courses - a restaurant has many opportunities to make a mistake. On this basis, street food has it easy: serving only one course reduces the likelihood of failure by a factor of three. Then again, street food has a plethora of discerning customers with a propensity for passing comment on Twitter, as well as a host of competitors for comparison in close proximity. Almost perfect isn't good enough if the guys next door are offering something better.

Perhaps it was the last of the summer sun, the lack of queue, or the timing of their tweet ('firing up the fryers'), but my visit to see Fish Dog in R3D Market was nothing short of perfect. For those who don't know this highly rated London street food, Fish Dog is part of the Mark Hix food empire, compressed in to a small yellow van. While the name may conjure images of fish wrapped in a sausage skin, Fish Dog is actually just a slightly different take on standard fish and chips. Moist, flaky white fish fillet is battered and served in a hotdog bun atop a line of mushy peas. Fresh, golden crisp fries sit alongside, and you're welcome to as much as tartar sauce as you can eat. Aside from being washed down with a beer, lunch doesn't get more perfect than this.

Burger Bear - Shoreditch

5-7 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DT

(This review also appears on Hoxton Radio)

When it comes to meat, the pig is the most versatile of animals. Chop, steak, bacon, hock, cheek, belly, rib, shoulder, knuckle, trotter, the list goes on. But what about bacon jam? Has anyone ever heard of that? I certainly hadn't, not until a blogger on Twitter sent me in the direction of Burger Bear.

Appearing three days a week at the #R3D Market, just off Rivington Street, Burger Bear is another of the many many burger stands in London - someone should really create a map. However, Burger Bear stands out from the crowd, sitting as it does in ninth place in the revered Young & Foodish Top 10 Burgers list, and based on my sample of the Grizzly it's worthy of its place.

The Grizzly is a fat piece of meat, charred bacon, and a melted cheese slice, topped with bacon jam, and sandwiched in a no-nonsense bread roll. I've probably forgotten one or two ingredients, but the essence of a great burger is in the flavours merging together so well that the components can't be easily distinguished, just a hint here and a hint there. There's nothing worse than biting in to a burger and tasting the separation between dry meat, cold lettuce, and sickly cheese. It's the only thing a bad burger does well.

The exception to the flavour rule comes in the form of the bacon jam. Such a strange, smoky yet sweet substance - a bacon chutney almost - the taste of the jam is distinct from everything else within the bun and is moreishly delicious. What else would you expect from what is essentially distilled bacon?

Competing in the fourth round of the London Burger Bash in early November, head to Burger Bear soon, sample the bacon jam, and you'll understand why they should make the finals.