Le Burger Week 2021 reviews: Part 2

It’s the final day of le Burger Week, the cross-Canada food festival that began on Sept. 1 and marked its milestone 10th edition with a two-week run. Over 1,000 restaurants across the country have participated by offering special edition burger creations to those who are dining in, picking up or ordering through DoorDash, the delivery service working with the festival (as they did for Poutine and Pizza weeks this year).

Here is our second batch of Burger Week 2021.

Sea Burger, Seasalt

The Old Port bar and seafood specialists at Seasalt created a great sandwich for pescetarians wanting to get in on Burger Week. I was skeptical about le Burger de la Mer, mostly because it looks ridiculous in the promo photo, with two pieces of fried calamari stacked under the bun, forming a wobbly seafood tower. In practice, the calamari was presented on top of the bun, more of an accessory to the burger than an ingredient intended to be part of the burger bites. But they did add to the seafood goodness of the dish, which featured an excellent crabcake patty, a lobster tail (this is why the burger costs $24), marinated red cabbage and a perfectly soft potato bread bun. The restaurant’s house remoulade added subtle tang, but it was the patty that really stood out. (Lorraine Carpenter)

REBL Burger, Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce

Man, what a letdown — and from a burger chain, no less! Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce’s offering for Burger Week, the REBL burger, plays it safe with a combo of ingredients that seem impossible to disappoint, especially from a place that claims to do only two things: burgers and brunch. The burger in question is purported to feature two richly caramelized three-ounce smashed patties, Monterrey Jack, caramelized onions, a secret sauce and an absolute shit-ton of pickles. In the picture, the burger is served on a Dic Ann’s-thin smashed-bun and the whole lot gets topped with a couple of chicken nuggets. The burger I got came on a sky-high bun (no smash whatsoever) that was bone dry, with a glob of meat and congealed cheese that, only after being stripped of its bun, was revealed to be, in fact, two patties. The bun to meat ratio was all off with that mound of meat being completely lost at sea and the special sauce, as far as I could tell, was just some sort of condiment medley — a poor approximation of Big Mac sauce. True to form, however, the burger was loaded with pickles, which I like, but even all that tangy brine couldn’t save this woeful burger. I originally ordered this burger because, in my days of getting knee-bucklingly drunk and wandering into a burger place, I’d often debate between getting a cheeseburger or nuggets — this burger seemed like the best of both worlds. In the end, it was just a couple of soggy nuggets held against their will on a pretty crappy burger. Oh, and I never figured out if the REBL stands for something or if it’s just a rebellion against good naming conventions and tasty hamburgers. Anyway, better luck next year. (Clay Sandhu)

The Samson, Bucky Rooster’s

As a massive fan of Bucky Rooster’s chicken, I was at first disappointed that the Saint-Henri hotspot’s entry for le Burger Week this year wasn’t a chicken burger. Instead, the restaurant put together the Samson ($13.92), two surprisingly satisfying slider-style burgers, comprised of mini Jamaican-style beef patties (as opposed to conventional burger patties) from Patty Paradise, onions, pickles, cheese and ketchup, between two potato buns. All in all, a delicious and unique offering, but given the opportunity to try one of the their “Fly the Coop” chicken sandwiches, I may have gone that route instead. (Tim Salhany)

The Heartbreaker, Burger Fiancé

There’s a lot going on with the Heartbreaker, the Burger Week entry from Old Montreal vegan restaurant Burger Fiancé. Sautéed mushrooms and onions, mozzarella “cheeze,” smoky mayo, veggie-bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and onions and a supposedly BBQ-glazed house patty made with black beans. It smelled amazing and the first couple of bites were full of complementary flavours and textures, but then it got a little… boring. I suspect the option of choosing an Impossible patty would have been better than the house patty, which was a bit dull and (as is often the case with vegetarian patties) pretty messy. (Lorraine Carpenter)

Read our first batch of 2021 Burger Week reviews here. To browse Burger Week options in Montreal, please visit the festival’s website.

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