LE BOUCAN - BBQ SMOKEHOUSE

STUB REVIEW - LE BOUCAN

HEARTY, MEATY, AND UTTERLY AWESOME

Their website:  http://www.leboucan.com/v1.1/home/index.php

1886 Notre-Dame St W, Montreal, QC H3J 1M6

Telehone:(514) 439-4555

Reservations: http://www.opentable.com/le-boucan-reservations-montreal?rid=48649&ref=1068

Price range:  $20+ for one person including drink, meal, and tip

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Mouthwatering Summary:  Heaping helpings of hearty good food! It's a tiny place, but the flavour is massive!

Meal to try: Five napkin burger and a BACON BROWNIE for dessert! 



Hello folks! Been a while again - sorry about that! I thought I was in the clear, and then the holidays happened. Followed by the start of an amazing new job (that among other things, interestingly enough, requires me to actually blog all the time now)! Phew! Been busy busy BUSY. But, things are settled into a nice, neat rhythm now, so off I go back into blogging for fun! 

So, the other day, one of my good buddies told me that Le Boucan is my kind of place. He didn't say why, he just said, "Trust me". Well, seeing as how he knows me very well (I mean, I was his best man, after all), I decided to give it a shot. Upon sitting down, the first thing I noticed was the wall menu. 

Particularly THIS bit:

Yeah, okay, I can see why my buddy pegged me for a fan-in-the-making! I mean, it was the first thing I asked about. Brownies with BACON?! HELL YES. Now, normally I don't start with describing desserts, but with bacon brownies, I just have to! So, here it is ($7):

So, on the outside, it's pretty hard to tell the difference between the bacon brownie and a regular brownie. And truth be told, even when you open it up, it's hard to tell. It's not until you take a solid bite that it hits you: This thing was AMAZING. The brownie part was dark and gooey and very chocolatey. That's not the draw, of course. The draw was the bits of thick chewy bacon laced throughout the brownie. The bacon was there, and you will taste it; the salty-sweet mix just made the brownie a killer dessert, and the dollop of ice cream on top just added to the wonderfulness. You must eat this! And then, you must run a marathon!

Okay, bacon-induced mania has passed... Back to my usual speed! First, an appetizer - the Le Boucan Nachos ($15):

This nacho plate justified its 15-dollar price tag in two ways. First, it had a hearty volume of seasoned, roasted (or is it smoked?) chunks of white chicken meat. The chicken was just fabulous! Second, the salsa was just loaded to the hilt with diced vegetables and seasonings. It was very, very, very fresh, and the actual volume of liquid in the salsa was the smallest I've ever seen. That's not a bad thing, mind you - once the nachos were all gone, we actually ate the rest of the salsa with a spoon. That's not something that happens any day - it takes an exceptional salsa to make me do that!

Next, a chicken salad ($14)!:

Yep! Chicken salad!
...

Don't scoff - such things do exist at bbq smokehouses! They just happen to be...bigger. Here's the salad again, from a different angle so that y'all can see the actual size of the thing. It's humongous.

And interestingly enough, it was actually pretty good. There were two critical elements that actually turned this thing good. First, and most notable, is that huge mound of crispy deep-fried shallots, seasoned with...something chipotle-like. I could eat that stuff forever - it's an addictive substance. Second, there's chunks of bbq chicken breast meat. Same meat as with the nachos - so, quite good! And the rest of it... well, it's just a lot of salad. Basically, none of the other stuff that makes me happy - I'd order this again, only for the chicken and fried shallots.

And now: Sandwiches. One thing I tried was the five napkins burger with cheesy corn and fries ($16):

Oooooooh yeah, this burger was very aptly named. The thing was thick with sauce and toppings and meat and was just plain enormous. Seriously, the burger is just massive. I had to put some serious effort into squishing it down to a thickness that I could comfortably chomp down on. Do you know how big that makes this thing? I mean, I have a really big mouth! And I still had to compact it before taking a bite! Here's the burger from another angle:

So, yeah, biting into this burger is fulfilling! The thing had cheese, bacon, bbq sauce, and a ton of other garnishes, all of which blended pretty damn well perfectly in my mouth. It's the type of burger that makes my mouth water on sight alone, and which keeps me begging for more (against my better judgment). The cheesy corn was interesting. It was corn giblets absolutely smothered in a melted cheese/cream concoction. The sauce was ooey, gooey, and good. Oddly enough, it had the slightest hints of bitterness to it. Dunno why, but it worked. And the fries were nice and crispy. The strange thing though? They tasted like bbq chips. Go figure!

Another great sandwich here is the chicken sandwich with white bbq sauce (served with coleslaw and potato salad) ($15):

It's another awesomely thick sandwich - I mean, just look at it!

In it, there were chunks of tasty roasted chicken, and the white bbq sauce tasted like they mixed wine and cream and chipotle together. It was to KILL for! As for the potato salad and coleslaw, it was the coleslaw that won out, as far as I was concerned. Basically, I'd order the cheesy corn and coleslaw as sides.

Beyond sandwiches, one other thing that we had to try was a full rack of ribs (my buddy who ordered th ribs also ordered plus a double helping of green salad to soothe his guilty post-Christmas-eating conscience :P) ($28): 

Lemme tell ya:  The ribs were GOOD. We ripped that sucker apart in record time - torn between wanting to savor it and wanting to inhale it. I hate it when that happens, but that should tell you something about the quality of the ribs. You owe it to yourself to give them a go! As for the salad...what salad?

And now, back to dessert. This restaurant set itself apart by serving bacon brownies. What else do they do to their dessert? Well, one answer: They deep fry their apple pie. Lordy, our collective arteries cringed at the thought, but our mouths and stomachs gave out a thoroughly resounding yes. We HAD to try this! When it arrived, it looked like this ($7):

Though small, it did not disappoint. It's basically a McDonald's Apple Pie, except done very, very, VERY right (yes, that IS possible). The shell was thick but crispy, and the pie filling was very well flavored. The dollop of ice cream on top completed the dish, and I do recommend that you take every bite with the ice cream. It's the like two were just perfectly made for each other. 

Phew! That's it for now - just made my mouth salivate from reminiscing. Go try this place if you haven't already!

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Mouthwatering Montreal - Le Boucan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.