Today, we tried the best burger in America.  Seriously, the best burger in America.  At least that’s what Bon Appetit and many others have said about the burger at Au Cheval.

People typically wait hours to get a table at the small, but stylish diner in the West Loop.  Today we got lucky and only waited 15 minutes, during the lunch rush.  We’d never been to Au Cheval before and were excited.  We even texted our son, Sebastian, to taunt him about being there.  We were seated in the back of the slightly cramped restaurant and hardly looked at the menu.  After all, we were there for the burger.

As the waiter took our order, we learned the single comes with two four-once patties and the double comes with three.  Good to know, as Tom was planning to order a double, but two patties are plenty.  Theresa got the “normal” single, which comes with a slice of Kraft American cheese on each patty, a dollop of Djionnaise and homemade pickles.  Tom got his burger “Au Cheval” style, which is the same, but with a fried egg on top.  Along with the burgers we opted to share an order of fries.

As we waited on our food we sipped our drinks, Pear cider for Theresa and a Union Jack IPA for Tom, and took in the restaurant.  Au Cheval is small, crowded and noisy, but in a good way.  There’s a nice vibe, and everyone seems to be happy to have a table or a seat at the bar.  We even saw one booth that managed to squeeze six people into a space clearly made for four.

After about 15 minutes, our food arrived.  First up were the burgers.  They looked great and were too messy to eat without cutting in half.  Tom’s was especially messy with unctuous egg yolk dripping over the sides, blending with juices from the burger.  The burgers were really good, but not far and away the best we’ve ever had.  In fact, about halfway through we realized they were quite salty, almost too salty.  The fries, on the other hand, may have been the best we’ve ever had.  Having lived in Belgium, we like to think we know our fries and these were up there.  Thicker cut, they were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  They were served with an awesome garlic aioli but were just as good without it.  One order is plenty for two people.

We would definitely go back to Au Cheval, but we would not wait hours in line.