CAFE LOCAL - BURGERS, SANDWICHES, BRUNCH, AND HEARTY FARE

STUB REVIEW: CAFE LOCAL - 

THEIR PULLED PORK MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER

 

Their website:  http://cafelocal.wordpress.com/

200 Rue Saint Viateur Ouest, Montreal, QC H2T 2L4  Telephone:(514) 274-3651

Their menu:  http://cafelocal.wordpress.com/menu-3/

 

Price Range:  ~$15-30 per person including one drink, meal, tax, and tip

 


*This restaurant is a Mouthwatering favorite! 

Two of my fave sandwiches! Black N'Blue and pulled pork!

View Larger Map

Café Local is just lovely. Its staff, decor, and overall ambiance is warm and inviting, and the inclusion of a fireplace makes Café Local a great place for date night in winters. Some years back, I was introduced to this place by a friend who was (and is) a very enthusiastic fan of Café Local. And I have become a big fan ever since myself.

Why? Well, the two words that best describe my first visit are "flavor explosion".  Hell, I came back twice the following week just to have more! Friends, the foods that caused this initial flavor explosion were the pulled pork yam-frie poutine and the pulled pork sandwich served by Café Local.

To illustrate, on a recent trip I got a yam-frie poutine ($8.50) (no pulled pork in this case - I was just recovering from a heavy weekend of celebratory eating - having pulled pork twice in the same meal was just a bit too much) (and for the uninitiated, poutine is a dish of fries topped with gravy and cheese curds or shredded cheese):

Yam frie poutine. Heavenly...

Look at the gloriously orange sweet potato fries. Growing up, I'd never been exposed to the possibility of anything other than potatoes being used in making french fries. Then, one Thanksgiving about eight years back, I was introduced to the notion and there's been no turning back ever since. It's a real shame that only a few places in this city serve yam fries. Café Local is one of the few that do, and theirs are hard to beat. The yam fries here are crisp on the outside and nice and soft and chewy on the inside.  Used as the base for a poutine, these fries positively sing. The gravy is also not your bog-standard poutine sauce. It tastes like a pretty well-herbed concoction and is well set-apart from the sauce you find in most poutines. Well worth trying, even if poutines aren't your thing. On more decadent visits, you guys really need to order a pulled pork poutine with yam fries. That particular dish also has caramelized onions and cranberries as toppings, and is to KILL for!

The other primary reason for why I keep coming back is the pulled pork sandwich ($12.50 during supper hours, $7.99 during lunch hour if you skip the sides):

Pulled pork sandwich closed.

Pulled pork sandwich opened. So, so, so, soooooooo worth the trip.

Oh man, what do I say about this sandwich. Oh, I know: The truth! As I see it! To wit: This is my favorite pulled pork in the city! Pulled pork is supposed to be tender, and at Café Local it's the tenderest (is that even a word? Well, you get what I mean). It is just soft and juicy and each bite brings with it a huge whack of flavor. I would eat a ton of this on its own with no sides. The beauty of the sandwich though, is that they figured out how to really well-complement the pulled pork. The sandwich boasts caramelized onions, spiced sour cream, and cole-slaw as toppings to the excellent pulled pork (itself very nearly swimming in fantastic bbq sauce). Additionally, the bun is a fine-herb focaccia. Altogether, the sandwich is sooooooo tasty.

Their burgers are very good as well. After the pulled pork and the yam fries, my other main reason for eating at Café Local is the burgers. To illustrate, here we have:

The Burger (imaginative name, yes? :P) ($11.75 during supper hours, $6.99 during lunch, if you skip the sides): 

Half pound of beef = half pound of goodness...

...Overflowing with goodness...

This beauty is a half pound of beef, served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, mustard and garlic mayo on a Kaiser bun. Your basic burger, except that it's AWESOME. This thing has both flavor and HEFT, and Lordy, does it ever make me happy!

The Black N’Blue ($13.75 during supper hours, $8.99 during lunch if you skip the sides):

You just can't go wrong with a half-pounder with bacon!

And again, overflowing with goodness!

This burger is made up of a half pound of cajun beef, blue cheese, garlic mayo, bacon, caramelized onion, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickles on a Kaiser bun. It thick with meat and toppings and meaty meaty goodness. The blue cheese a sharp little kick (a tingle if you will) to the taste buds.  Overall, this burger is sure to satisfy the carnivore deep down inside.

Now, they do serve breakfasts, and there are table d'hotes and other items as well. I like those lots, but in the end, I see Café Local as a sandwich/burger (and poutine) place because I come here primarily for those those items. In fact, I would heartily say that 9 times out of 10 I'm here for sandwiches and poutine (note the use of the word "and"). That said, their multiple cheese mac&cheese ($13) is something I come for now and again too, because when I jones for a macaroni and cheese, I like there to be a diverse array of cheeses. Now, I realize the apparent absurdity of charging 13 bucks for mac&cheese when we've all come to see that as dirt-cheap student food. BUT, Café Local manages to justify it by putting in mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, tomato sauce, cream, bocconcini, and panko. If you're like me (and why wouldn't you want to be? :P), you'll splurge and add the pulled pork and caramelized onions for a $3 charge. As I say in the title - their pulled pork makes everything better. Anyhow, my cameraphone died when I ordered the mac&cheese, so I will post photos at a later update. Just note that the mac&cheese is also worth your while if you like cheese and other hearty ingredients.

Phew. I need food now. And so, I sign off and go to eat. Y'all outta do the same thing!

***********************************

Map of restaurants I have reviewed:




Mouthwatering Montreal - Café Local is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.