1210 Peel
Montreal, Quebec
Metro: Bonaventure, Peel
Train: Gare Centrale, Lucien L’Allier
Bus: STM 15, 24, 36, 74, 75, 107, 150, 178, 410, 420, 427, 430, 435, 715, 747, AMT Terminus Centre-ville
Visit: May 24, 2012
http://www.mcleanspub.com/
Ask anyone who has been around for a long time, it’s not easy. To gain any kind of longevity, you have to be doing something right. In Montreal, there are those iconic places that you can easily rattle off the top of your head. For the last 20 years, one of those places was McLean’s Pub.
576 Victoria
St-Lambert, Quebec
Train: St-Lambert
Bus: RTL 1, 6, 55, 106
Visit: May 17, 2012
http://www.restaurantkapetan.com/
For the second burger in a row, I find myself in the South Shore of Montreal. Like many of the places I’ve been doing on my native shore, they all hold some semblance of nostalgia for me. This particular stretch of Victoria, in the downtown core of St-Lambert, is where all the town’s activity takes place. For me, it’s a street that’s been part of my morning commute during my 2 years in cegep. Over that time, little did I know that there was a restaurant, one called Kapetan.
9395 Leduc, suite 5
Brossard, Quebec
Bus: RTL 14, 35, 135
Visit: May 10, 2012
http://laurochs.com/
One of the most important things for me in this Burger Search is trying to find places close to home. The South Shore of Montreal doesn’t quite have the quality, signature places that the island does. It might be the case when it comes to restaurants, but when it comes to shopping, that’s a whole other story. Quartier Dix30 opened back in 2006. Since then, it has grown exponentially and has become the face of Brossard. What’s the most important commercial sector of Brossard without the possibility of a burger? That’s what I wanted to find out.
6795 Jarry E.
Montreal, Quebec
Bus: STM 33, 44, 193
Visit: May 1, 2012
http://www.hawgsdeli.com/
The one thing I’ve stated time and time again was my disappointment with potential Burger Search locations in the eastern part of the island of Montreal. After 142 burgers, I’ve only really found 1 real burger that was worthy enough to join all the others that came before it. The burger at Hawgs Deli was another attempt to find a place in the east that would be worth the long trek. Hawgs has a lot going against it, but it does have a lot helping it as well.
As time progresses, things keep on moving. That can’t be more true for the Great Burger Search. April 2012 saw the first ever vegan burger attempt by yours truly. While it did leave me wanting more, it did open the door to other non-beef burgers. So, in a little bit of an announcement for the start of Season 4, you’ll see the following: for burgers 160, 170, 180, and 190, they’ll be of the non-traditional variety (veggie, fish, chicken, and mini-burgers).
5375 Queen Mary
Montreal, Quebec
Metro: Snowdon
Bus: STM 17, 51, 63, 166
Visit: April 21, 2012
http://www.yiasou.ca/
Greek food and large group gatherings have become a vital part of my food adventures in Montreal. Ever since I’ve been to my first real Greek restaurant in September of 2011, I’ve been looking forward to every and each opportunity I could get. Most of those Greek outings, even if they were organized by me, came from the head of someone else. This would be the first time that I would be the one to choose the Greek restaurant. The pressure was going to be on my head.
6730 Cote-des-Neiges
Montreal, Quebec
Bus: STM 92, 160, 161, 165, 435
Visit: April 20, 2012
Part of my heritage demands that I find the places in Montreal that serve my kind of food. In the past, I’ve made mention of trying to find the very best in Won Ton soup in Montreal. While trying to find Chinese food in general doesn’t really appeal to me, finding that specific dish does. While I’ve been given many suggestions to sub-par pork and shrimp won tons in Montreal, only a select few were able to tell me where to find the only type of these dumplings worth having. A shrimp-only won ton dumpling is far superior to the one I just mentioned and I think I’ve come across another place that does it.
1196 Peel
Montreal, Quebec
Metro: Bonaventure, Peel
Train: Gare Centrale, Lucien L’Allier
Bus: STM 15, 24, 36, 74, 75, 107, 150, 178, 410, 420, 427, 430, 435, 715, 747, AMT Terminus Centre-ville
Visit: April 17, 2012
http://www.peelpubmontreal.com/
Downtown Montreal has a lot to choose from. If you’re anything like me, the sheer amount of choices will leave you for a tizzy. Despite that, for no matter what you’re craving, there’s something for you. One of the central parts of the downtown core is Peel, a street that can probably lay claim to the busiest pedestrian intersections in the entire city of Montreal. Just as busy as it can be walking-wise, you’ll find an also crowded restaurant scene.
4631 Boulevard Saint-Laurent
Montreal, Quebec
Metro: Laurier, Mont-Royal
Bus: STM 11, 46, 51, 55
Visit: April 10, 2012
http://www.auxvivres.com/
You probably have a few questions going through your mind right now. The first thing you might of thought of was if I got some really bad news from my doctor. I can assure you, this visit wasn’t an order from my cardiologist. The second thought going through your mind is whether or not I finally ran out of burgers to try. You can rest easy, I still have quite the long list of burgers to unleash on the unsuspecting masses in the future. With all that being said, I have to explain how this all came to be and what the results were.
1200 McGill College
Montreal, Quebec
Bus: AMT Terminus Centre-ville, STM 15, 24, 61, 125, 150, 168, 178, 410, 420, 427, 430, 435, 715, 747, 935
Metro: Peel, McGill, Bonaventure
Train: Gare Centrale
Visit: April 3, 2012
http://www.benjerry.ca/
Ben & Jerry’s has played an important part in the last year for me. On this day, I just want to highlight something that they do once every year. On a day in April, Ben & Jerry’s offer a free cone to their customers. Regardless of what kind of weather it is, you’ll find droves of people lining up just for that one scoop of ice cream. For me, it’s been 9 months since I’ve had any chocolate therapy and I wasn’t about to pass this up.
My recent article from Menuism/Huffington Post entitled, “The 5 Most Audacious Burgers in North American yielded quite the reaction. From that, I received not one, but two submissions from readers. What’s unique about all of it is that those readers come from places really far away from my domain of Montreal. So, take a look at what they allowed me to share with all of you.
286 Notre-Dame O.
Montreal, Quebec
Metro: Square-Victoria, Place d’Armes
Bus: STM 14, 36, 55, 61, 75, 129, 168, 715
Visit: April 3, 2012
When I see other blogs and media outlets over-hyping a restaurant, I tend to stay away. For me, it’s more a case of not getting lost in the many voices all saying the same thing. That’s the case with this restaurant. Lately, nearly everyone has been talking or featuring Le Gros Jambon. I wasn’t about to get lost in that shuffle, but something powerful drew me in. You know me by now, if there’s something really worth trying, I just had to be there.
March was a really huge month for Mr. Lew’s Great Burger Search. As they say, actions speak louder than words and that’s exactly what I set out to do. The first thing that was done was the complete overhaul of what the GBS used to look like and what it looks like now. I’ll admit, the first design was out of convenience. The design I chose met all the needs of the GBS going forward. Even though all I had to do was choose a new theme, it wasn’t an easy process, as it took me hours to do. Tweaking it wasn’t any easier. So, I hope you like the way the blog looks like now, because I won’t be changing it for a long time to come.
I’m looking to revamp the ‘About Mr. Lew’ link on the blog and for that, I am looking for questions to answer. I’m not sure if I’m just going to have a FAQ page or something else. I have a few other ideas that include:
1. Question of the Week
2. 5 Questions
So, your input is always important for me. You can send me questions at all times at mr.lew@hotmail.com or you can click the Burger Questions/Feedback link at the top of this page.
Now that I’ve redone the look of the blog and acquired the domain address, you can always suggest new features that you’d like to see.
Burgers are for everyone. Thank you.
-Mr. Lew
9100 Newman
Montreal, Quebec
Bus: STM 106, 113, 123, 406, 495
Visit: March 29, 2012
http://www.ettingers.ca/
As someone who keeps an eye out for new burgers, I am always very pleased to hear when something new shows up. The bigger joy is when a place opens up in an area where you can’t really find something you want. In that case, Lasalle recently welcomed a new restaurant opened by someone who is quite familiar to the restaurant scene. Saul Ettinger’s latest offering is his fourth stab at bringing us the very best in smoked meat and burgers. If we have learned from the other places he had a hand in, this one should be quite something.
