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I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about burgers and what makes a burger “a burger”. After this lengthy conversation, it planted the burger seed in my head. I haven’t had a really good burger in the longest time and I was fiending for one. Something came over me, a feeling of desperation; almost to a level where I was self-diagnosing a burger deficiency. I heard a while back that Burger de Ville had opened up a second location on St. Laurent and I decided to go check it out.
If you’re unfamiliar with Burger de Ville, they pride themselves on using fresh, never frozen, “100% Canadian beef”, which coincidently is my middle name. You pick up an order sheet and check off the kind of burger you want along with the fixings and sides. I ordered the cheese burger, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup and mayo from the list of 16 different complimentary toppings – which includes three different types of mayonnaise and mustard.
As you can see, the burger is as honest and simple as it gets. Great beefy flavor cooked to a kind of perfection little red riding hood would approve of – in the updated version of the story – as we all know, bears don’t eat bowlfuls of porridge anymore. Unlike most places who like to cook their burgers to resemble a scouring-iron wool pad, Burger de Ville cooks them juuuuust under, leaving them with a touch of pink in the middle.
My friend was feeling adventurous that day and decided to go all out, ordering the bacon burger. It was topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onion, ketchup, old fashion-grainy mustard, and jalepeno hot peppers. You can’t really sugar coat it and there’s no mount of flowery writing that can explain this, but let’s face it; bacon always makes everything taste better. Not that the burger needs help in the taste department but there’s just something about bacon.
Of all the sides there are to choose from, we chose a side from the poutine menu. We chose the straight up, classic poutine from the choice of their house specialty poutine as well as w tex-mex option. Like I’ve said before, the key to a successful poutine is that the sauce MUST be hot enough to melt the cheese, and there must be a congruent harmony between cheese and gravy and when there is… this is what happens.
You throw some ketchup and pepper on those home-cut fries and you kill it like a boss. A.BAWSS. Chewy and squeeky, the cheese curds were nicely melted and the fries, crisp; simple.
The only discrepancy I had with the burger was with the “lettuce” – they use mesclun – little dainty baby salad leaves nestled atop a big fat burger is totally wrong. Albeit, it’s not a big deal, when you’re grunting and eating meat cooked over fire, the only kind of vegetables that should be involved is scenario is ketchup and bacon. Burger deVille is a palce for solid burgers, the kind your fat uncle makes for the family barbeque in the summer. Nothing fancy, you go here cos you want a burger, a good burger, a good burger made the way you like it.
Burger deVille
5282, boul Saint-Laurent
(514) 507-5050
I should also mention that they serve steak as well. I saw a few people eating it that afternoon, so it’s probably something worth checking out too.
8 comments
I am really lucky cause my dog’s vet is across from the one in Mtl West…there we order verbally…until most recently I was wearing orthodontic braces and could not bite down teeth first on a whole hamburger; having just gotten them off I intend to head straight there (don’t tell anyone that it just might be during passover) ssshhhh….walk down Westminister and the smell is like someone barbecuing in the backyard
I went to Burger de Ville once and I don’t think I’ll be going back any time soon. I liked just about everything about my meal there except for one thing – the patty. It was too lean, too finely ground, badly shaped and overcooked. It didn’t taste like much either. How a burger place can get everything right but the meat is beyond me. They should have built their burger from the meat up.
I certainly hope they will figure that out and improve their product, but until then I’ll be spending my burger money at Five Guys. They blow Burger de Ville right out of the water. The patty is moist, flavourful, crumbles beautifully and is griddled. I prefer griddled burgers, but I guess that’s not the majority opinion in Montreal.
Keep up the good work. I really like the blog.
Monsieur Ghislain.
Natalie:
Biting down into a big fat juicy burger is part of the magic, but I remember when I had braces, I cut my burger up into smaller pieces… desperate times called for desperate measures!
Monsieur Ghislain:
I’m sorry to hear you had such a bad experience compared to the one I had. I guess it’s a matter of consistency and quality control…? I mean, the order window is huge and you’re able to see right into the kitchen. On that day I think I remember seeing at least two or three grillmen, so that’s a variable in itself and whether or not they’re the ones there everyday would also be a consideration in consistency.
Yes, Five Guys is on my list, I’ll get there hopefully soon. Well the fact that Five Guys’ burgers stay moist and flavorful is because of the exact reason you mentioned, it’s *griddled*. All the juice that’s coming out of the meat is being retained by the flattop and isn’t dripping away as it would on a grill, so it gets sucked back up into the patty… amazing.
Thanks, I appreciate the comment!
My husband has lunch @ Burger de Ville on a weekly basis (Montreal Ouest location) – he simply adores it and insisted on having me try it. In my opinion, my burger was pretty good however, I felt there was flavor missing from the beef yet a definite 9/10.
I like mesclun on my burger.
Jason let me stop you Five Guys is disgusting when compared to Burger De Ville, I will describe their fare in one simple word, ‘processed.’
Everything from the patty to the cheese and bun everything feels mass produced and nothing you wouldn’t be able to recreate at home with a short visit to the supermarket frozen section.
Their prices aswell are a joke, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
[…] worse you would think I would break my Passover with a decent hamburger at Ville de Burger like Shut Up And Eat (Jason) described in his […]
Some people have nothing better to do then to criticize. If you did not like burger de Ville do not come back. They gave other valued customers. Trust me.