Montreal Burger Week was a huge success. More than 30 restaurants in town – from fancy eateries to old-fashioned diners, took part in this competition, developping creative recipes exclusively for the event. And people really got into it. The combination: burgers, special prices & social media definetly worked well. I’ve never seen burger joints so packed. Everywhere I went, I saw crowds of people looking for more than just a simple patty between a bun. I personally had a lot of fun.

Montrealers had 7 days for voting on the internet. A group of  food critics and sports celebrities were also invited to give their verdict. The judges’ winner is yet to be announced but the list of the People’s best 5 burger makers is already available on the Burger Week Montreal website. Luckly, I had chance to try the top 3 most popular ones. Here is my opinion about each of them:

Burger Bar Crescent

What else montrealers could crave more than a juicy burger? A  damn good poutine, of course! It doesn’t surprise me that Burger Bar Crescent’s Hangover Burger ($15) was crowned the people’s best burger. Besides a a 6 oz AAA beef patty, caramelized onions, Bacon, American Cheese and a Fried egg, this “Frankenstein” burger was topped with a mini poutine. Technically, I can’t really say I tried this burger because I just couldn’t eat whole thing myself. It was too big to fit my mouth. So I had the burger separately  and then a friend helped with the poutine. Shame on me…  Both parts were delicious, though.

M:Brgr

M:Brgr came up with not only one, but three exclusive burgers for the Burger Week Montreal: the Kobe BWK, the Gheto Brgr and the Poutine Brgr (another supersized one). My choice was the gourmet Kobe BWK. For $10, I had my fresh bun with Kobe beef, pecorino cheese, arugula, cherry tomatoes, grilled all-beef salami with chili ketchup. The balance of flavours and presention were just perfect. Meat was well seasoned, although the Kobe beef itself didn’t add much to the recipe.

I arrived at Art:Brgr really eager to try the Volcano burger ($15).  But a 50 minutes  wait for my order kind of turned me off. The place was full and they had a hard time managing the crowds. The volcano was topped with portobello in white wine and garlic butter, fresh avocado on a bed of thin sliced homemade chips and spicy jalapenos covered with Swiss cheese, homemade aioli tomato sauce and an egg. Honestly, I found it a little bit too much. The ingredients were ok together but sometimes, less could be more.