CITY’S BEST BURGER?
No tables, just great food
I’ve recently racked up more kilometres on my car than I would have liked, hitting downtown, the Glebe, Gatineau’s Hull sector and Orléans, all in a quest for an excellent hamburger.
Until I found that beaut, in a St. Joseph Boulevard strip mall at a joint that’s too good to be called a joint, but not large or fancy enough to be called a restaurant, I had to be satisfied with burgers that were so-so to pretty good. With those burgers, there was always something to gripe about — too big, too messy, too complicated, too dry or any combination of these shortcomings.
In the Glebe, I found gigantic burgers at the Original Burger Joint, seemingly made for those who think that burgers should be taller than they are wide. Even the teenagers eating with me were daunted. My burger ($15, including a side order), stuffed with mushrooms and topped with caramelized onions, lettuce and garlic mayo, was a hearty jaw-stretcher, best consumed quickly before its moist toppings made the bun soggy and unmanageable.
While the onions and mayo made for a sloppy mess, the meat itself lacked juiciness.
What I liked best at this place were the crisp onion rings and sweet potato fries, plus the availability of local craft beers.
Downtown, at the year-old Bacon Factory Burger Emporium, the burgers were interesting and creative.
But some were also overloaded with one, if not more, extra ingredients. A jerk grilled chicken breast burger, my favourite of three burgers that I sampled, didn’t need guacamole, sriracha mayonnaise and slices of mango, competing with each other.
The house burger — featuring back bacon, bacon, prosciutto, brioche bun, coleslaw and maple mayo — played its sweet notes more strongly than I would I liked. As for the carnivore burger, under its bacon, back bacon, smoked Gouda, roasted garlic mayo and pickles, the beef patty was dry.
In Hull, café-bistro Foubrac began its life in October 2013 with some very good feng shui, opening where the much-missed Odile was. The attractive burgerand-sandwich place has enjoyed enough success to have expanded into the space next door and received its liquor licence.
In my blue cheese burger ($8.99), the meat was a bit dry and over-compressed, but its cheese, roasted peppers, caramelized onions and house mayo did compensate. The duck burger ($9.99) had good flavour.
Worth celebrating, though, were the standout fries ($3.99). Foubrac does great Belgian-style things with potatoes, frying them in beef fat for extra savouriness and pairing them with one of four kinds of mayo, curried, garlicky or spicy). These are the kind of fries that make you fight with your dining companions for the last one. For poutine lovers, there are nine varieties.
Last, but the opposite of least, is OCCO Kitchen, which opened in March in a small Orléans strip mall. OCCO stands for Orléans Catering Company, but it could also be called a takeout joint, given that eight stools and two counter tops are all that’s available for dining in.
Meanwhile, at tripadvisor.ca, OCCO is ranked No. 1 of Ottawa’s 2,200-plus restaurants, although it has no tables and only serves soft drinks, never mind beer and wine.
OCCO’s owner is Mark Steele, who has been executive chef at the Delta City Centre, Ottawa Marriott and Algonquin College. He’s making artisanal fast food, doing as much from scratch and using as many local ingredients as possible.
The burgers here do taste better, above all because of the freshness of their components, starting with herbed, toasted, baked-in-house-that-day buns. Pickles and ketchup are homemade too, as is bacon that’s been candied, but not overly so, and beef that’s been cooked so as to retain some juiciness.
The burgers I’ve tried have been hefty but very manageable, maintaining their structural integrity as long as I’ve enjoyed them.
Along with the bacon cheeseburger at Tante Carole in Chelsea, which I reviewed last week, OCCO made one of the two best burgers I’ve had over the last several months.
Also at OCCO, Steele, a Newfoundland native, does fried cod very well, in the fish taco, fish burger or fish and chips. The chips are spiced, herbed and garlicky.
One only wishes that Steele had the central location and space of Bacon Factory or Original Burger Joint. Until then, I’ll have to rack up the kilometres, driving to Orléans.