Hamburger Review: Haché London

Haché at 24 Inverness street in Camden.

I was really eager to go to this one. Since Haché have won the Time Out award for best burger, and have received great reviews overall it was on the top of my to-visit list and see for myself.

The place was very friendly and welcoming and the menu looked good (probably a bit abuzz for my taste). So I ordered my standard Burger or as they call it "steak au naturel" (medium rare), the chunky fries with chili sauce and onion rings as sides. Since they did not offer any milkshakes, I ordered a Coke.

Let me start with the Burger, because I am not sure if it should be called that. This is exactly what I had expected. Someone who is looking for a burger might find Haché a bit pretentious. It is fancy and extravagant, but to their defense not expensive. Something you will taste with your first bite is that their meat patty is a french steak Haché (if you want the definition look it up on their webpage). Although it was perfectly cooked, I would not call it a Hamburger, but a "french minced meat sandwich". Haché's burgers come in a bread that is too much bread roll and not enough burger bun. In fact it is ciabatta. They use rocket instead of lettuce, and the plates are garnished as you would expect it at a upscale restaurant, and not in a burger joint. Do not get me wrong here, the food was outstanding; but just not a real hamburger.

Now the side-dishes, were actually disappointing. The fries were mushy on the inside and the onion rings had hardly any onions in them, but consisted of pure batter (but they looked delicious).

My overall assessment is,.... well I can not give one, since this is not a burger place. But what they offered was delicious, well prepared and without a doubt tastier than most of the other "real" burger places I have visited. In their defense, I do not think that Haché tried to take a burger and turn it into something better. They simply took something else and called it a burger. Haché is for the french, for women, for anyone that likes style and does not mind pretentiousness, or thinks that this combination of protein, carbs and fibers will be much healthier than others. If you are looking for something new, want to impress a girl without spending over 40 pounds, or just want a "french minced meat sandwich"; Haché is your place. But if you are looking for a Hamburger that is nothing but that, you are better of with GBK. As for the onion rings,... Hamburger Union had better ones (which was about all they had).

Rating: 6 out of 6 (but on the "french minced meat sandwich" scale)

http://www.hacheburgers.com/