Blend, Paris

Blend

44 Rue d'Argout

75002 Paris

Meal for two with beers: 38 euros

It's August, and London is awash with US imports. Londoners are spending hours queuing for honest-to-god, real American burgers. Critics are vying with each other to be most underwhelmed by the experience. They must be laughing at us in Paris. They don't need a US import. They have Blend.

Tucked away off Rue Monmartre, Blend is hip, compact and crowded. The burgers aren't burgers as we know them. They are steaks cut by hand, cooked rare and stuffed into an unusually light brioche bun. Often, fancy toppings mask inferior ingredients. Not here. Each burger works perfectly. The sweetness of caramelised onions is perfectly matched to the stringy punch of two cheeses. Creamy goats cheese is enlivened with herbs. Tiny nibs of sweet potato frites come with a creamy sauce pungent with garlic. Beers are eclectic and global, but include a blonde brewed in Paris. 

Blend offers something different: the burger as a thing of elegance rather than an instrument of dirty decadence. It would be a wonderful addition to the London burger "scene". Until the owners decide to defect across the Manche, at least it's only two hours to Paris. Less time than it takes to queue for a Five Guys*. 

*If you're really pressed, there's always the Blend book.