Bar Boulud Restaurant, London

If you're like so many foodies out there where nothing beats a good hamburger and are serious about finding the best one this might be your calling. Bar Boulud is more than your usual fine dining bistro - it has great food, slick service and modern dining ambience, but they also have a mean hamburger. It goes against every fibre of your body, a flashy place like this to be ordering a hamburger? It doesn't seem right, but it is.

      


You'll be greeted and seated in a bustling dining room full of well dressed, suited and booted folk. It's a French bistro with very French cuisine but with that one anomaly, they serve one of the most decadent tasting burgers on the planet. You could try their usual food, which in itself is exceptional but because you came here with a purpose, you must resist your impulses and remain focussed. When that waiter arrives asking for your order, do not succumb to your surroundings and order a classic dish to fit in with your affluent dining neighbours, order the burger.


     


It is called the Piggie burger - pulled pork on an 8oz beef patty with sweet coleslaw and a kicker of jalepeno mayo in the mix. It has the most divine bun, you get a gnarly butter flavour and great toastie finish. There's really no explaining how good it is, you have to trust the source on this one. We also had exquisite starters of Foie Gras and Saucisson, both delicately soft and flavoursome, the sausage was incredible, and a traditional dish of Coq au Vin. 

  

Bar Boulud is an institution, a bit like somewhere you would go time and time again to get that special dish, when nothing else will do, it'll be like Arnie says, 'I'll be baaack'.