Le Hachoir Visited 9/3/2011 4 Forks

Le Hachoir 4177 Boul Saint-Denis., Montréal, QC H2W 2M5

The one place I really wanted to go to while I was in Montreal was Au Pied Cochon, but alas they didn't have any openings during the busy long weekend.  So we decided to walk around the Plateau area of Montreal and see what we could find.  I did peek inside L'Express, a highly touted authentic French bistro on St. Denis Blvd but after looking at the menu there wasn't anything that really "spoke" to me.  So we just walked around for another 45 minutes...and the area is great!  There were so many different places to eat and hang out.  Finally at 10pm, we decided that we should probably pick at place to eat.  We had walked past Le Hachoir earlier and it had this young, hip vibe, so we came back to it.  Now, I had visions of having sidewalk cafe, bistro meals but this place was very similar to a New York City restaurant.  It's loud, full of young beautiful trendy people and had a very sleek look to it (I didn't notice it at first but later Dan pointed out that it had a surgery theme with large over the head lights like you would find in at dentist or in an operating room).  It's a burger joint which is not something I was really thinking of when I was planning my trip to Montreal but who doesn't love a good burger?

This place was really great.  We sat at the bar and the bartender was this adorable, floppy haired guy and was nice to us even though most people in this area of Montreal speak mostly French.  This place is famous for its tartate and burgers and they have tons of super creative burgers. It was a bit hard to understand because the menu was entirely in French so I did my best to try to translate.  I got the Le Westside ($18) because I managed to understand the words Bison and blue cheese.  Dan got the Le Hachoir ($18) because I thought it said pork and shrimp and mayo sriracha.  The burgers came out on these cute cutting boards with a small side salad and fries.  The burgers were fairly hefty in size and had to be kept together with a toothpick.  The "salad" was literally just a bunch of fresh lettuce in a cup with dressing, so nothing amazing but you could tell it was fresh crisp lettuce.  While they didn't ask how I liked my burger, they cooked it just right: medium rare.  The bun was soft and brioche-like and the whole burger was just amazing.  All the flavors just hit you all at once and even though it was late and I wasn't really hungry I managed to down the entire thing.  The combination of bison and blue cheese packed quite a punch.  I also had a bite of Dan's burger and it was much more shrimp focused but it was different and really tasty too.  For dessert, we split the mango crisp ($8) and it was perfectly baked on the outside and the mango made of a different twist.

Even when we were done with our meal, the place was still pretty bumpin and packed.  It was a great late Saturday night outing and it was fun to hang out where "all the kids" go since it's been a while since I've been out like this.  The prices were a bit steep for just burgers, but I've been to many places in New York that charge the same if not more...it's still a bit hard to swallow paying high double digits for a burger.  Total bill with multiple drinks, dessert and tip for 2: $92   

Photo credit: Yelp