Haché Fulham

Great service and child friendly.

Haché is a pretty brilliant little French burger bar on the Fulham Road. It was in many ways lightyears ahead in the “gourmet burger revolution” and it is still up there given the “burger of the moment” a very strong run for its money. It manages to do this while providing good side dishes, good service and even a pretty – even vaguely romantic! – setting. Well done. Following an refreshment of décor in spring 2012 Haché seems ready to defend its deserved placed amongst Londonds best – and original – burger focused restaurants…

Have been using Square Meal for quite a while now but only realised that I'm constantly taking and not giving back to other users! I've been going to Hache on Fulham Road for many months now and it is one of the most consistently good restaurants made even better by its value. I love a good burger, one that is full of flavour, not over seasoned, cooked just right (rare for me) and with a huge choice of toppings from goats cheese to a fried egg or mushrooms and peppers. Not once have I been disappointed with the food. OK, it's not Daniel Boulud good when compared to his out of this world foie gras burger, but for one third the cost you can't argue with it. And the fact it is on a different planet compared to the insipid dry excuse of a beef burger at Sophie's Steakhouse just a few doors down just seals the deal for me. The service can be a bit hit and miss – they have good days and then other days when you wonder if they've woken up at all. But always friendly which is nice. Love it.

Moving back to the States after two awesome years in Chelsea, we had our ‘Farewell London’ meal in Hache on the Fulham Road. We've eaten at most of the restaurants in the Chelsea area but by far our favorite has been Hache. Not only do they serve the best burgers we've had anywhere we've been, (Millers Diner in Chicago comes pretty close) but its cool atmosphere, with its glittery lights and mirrors it was always a great experience – in fact we never had a bad experience there. So Hache, we'll miss you, but, as they say, we'll be back. In the meantime, expect a lot of Americans from the Michigan area coming in to see why we're so crazy about this place. Hilary Steger

I have only ever been to Hache a handful of times, largely because when I do get time on the weekends to eat there, the place turns into a Kid's nursery and the accoustics, coupled with the screams and loud yapping of other peoples little darlings, become just too much for me to cope with. The service has never been entirely friendly nor efficient, however they did always have one of the best burgers around. I went back again yesterday and the restaurant was less than half full. We ask for a ‘comfortable’ table and the waiter looks at me and actually has the nerve to say “As you can see we are quite packed…” – which I thought was more than laughable, but I was in no mood to argue. Despite oodles of comfortable banquette seating in various sections of the restaurant, he plonks us down on literally the worst table he could find, sandwiched in between two large parties and, rather more annoyingly, a pillar. Great. Anything that we needed, included menus, ordering of food and drinks, condiments and extra napkins, we had to stop what we were doing to grab his attention as no doubt we would never have gotten to even see a menu! I order my usual Catalan burger, which is a normal beef burger topped with Chorizo and chutney with a side of Hache ‘Frites’… And from what I can remember, the food was always good here. What arrived was anything other than good. Chewy, not crispy mock-frites and a beast of a burger cooked for much longer than needed for ‘medium’ was a big bland slab of dull grey meat. Not flavoursome, not tender and NOTHING like the burgers they used to serve. The Chorizo is now a cheap substitute for what used to be wonderful juicy sausage of proper cooking Chorizo and the bun was dry and hard and the smattering of flour on top of it made it even harder to swallow. How utterly disappointing. The fact that the staff STOMP around like elephants on the wooden floors make it feel like you are at the summit of an earthquake, which does little to make you feel better. It seems the waiter has seated every other party of 2 at nice, plush banquette tables for 4 since we walked in, so perhaps his absent personality made a come back after we were seated. I can definitely tell you it may a come back when it was time to pay the bill. He is very lucky I paid service charge… I dont believe I should punish everyone just because 1 person had absolutely no interest in looking after us.

Armed with the Timeout 2-4-1 burger offer, we visited Hache yesterday lunchtime on our own quest for the best burger in town. Hache is a little more upmarket in contrast to the likes of GBK, Ultimate Burger, The Fine Burger Company etc. and somewhere you can linger if you want to. The restaurant was pretty empty (thanks to the Marathon?) but we didn't mind as it was quiet and relaxed although I should imagine this place can get quite busy. The burger menu is probably the most extensive I've come across; divided into beef, lamb, venison, chicken, fish and vegetarian, each section has a number of variations. For the carb conscious, there are a few salads or you can opt out of having a bun but where's the fun in that? Not being in a ‘meaty’ mood, I chose the Jerk Chicken, a nicely seasoned chicken breast served with mango chutney while the other half went with a cheese and bacon burger and a side of frites. The food arrived promptly, was piping hot (I hate it when you get tepid fries) and it was all very good; the burgers themselves are certainly up there as some of the best I've had to eat recently. The ciabatta buns were fresh but not too doughy, an important factor when you're trying to eat a burger in a relatively civilised fashion and we were only sorry not to have any room left for dessert. A slice of banoffee pie did sail past us to another table and it looked pretty good as did the potato wedges which we also spied across the room. If you want a good burger and like to sit and enjoy your meal at leisure then Hache is your best bet. It is a touch more expensive than several of the other chains but the presentation and overall package (lengthy menu, home-made mayo, really good burger buns) certainly gives this place an edge. Frankly, anywhere that gives you complimentary smarties with the bill gets my vote.