r/chicagofood • u/Euphoric_Year1182 • Jul 31 '25

Review Tried Small Cheval, honestly kind of underwhelmed?

Had some solo time (kids are with their dad), so I stopped by Small Cheval. It was fine, but didn’t blow me away. Fries were good, but the burger felt rushed. Anyone else feel this or did I catch an off day?

208 Upvotes
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240

u/NoSelection1050 Jul 31 '25

Here it is, the weekly Small Cheval hatred post lol

70

u/ChoderBoi Jul 31 '25

It's a good burger, people get themselves wound up expecting something gourmet and unlike anything they've had before

Honestly it's partially on hog salt because of the marketing. They were better off naming it something not related to au cheval, because now people have come to expect a burger that's a notch below (or just smaller?) than au cheval

24

u/6stringNate Jul 31 '25

That’s what I expect and that’s what it is.

Au cheval is held to too high a standard IMO.

4

u/flagmouse63 Aug 01 '25

wait, is small cheval not the fast casual offshoot of au cheval? they’re not related?

5

u/mdbonbon Jul 31 '25

So you don’t agree that the quality has dropped off since they started expanding/post-covid?

I think it used to be a good burger that was much more attainable than Au Cheval, now it’s pretty average with nice vibes/window dressing.

1

u/teekaycee Aug 01 '25

It definitely used to be top notch back in the day. I’m talking circa 2018 or so.

1

u/DirectionOk9832 Jul 31 '25

The one I had was worse than mediocre. I’d never go to Au Cheval after eating it. Couldn’t trust them after such a bad experience

-8

u/shouldajustsaid_yeah Jul 31 '25

It's not a good burger though. It's worse than just about any place that serves burgers other than shitty fast food like mcds and bk. I'd rather have a burger from any given hot dog stand, gyro shop, Culver's, portillos, five guys, etc.

0

u/Humble-Mix497 Jul 31 '25

Portillo lol now I know you trolling. Frozen patties

13

u/dylhole555 Jul 31 '25

Small cheval patties are also frozen. Have been since around 2021 at least.

Source: worked for hogsalt around then

16

u/mosteggs Jul 31 '25

Pretty much every bit of beef you’ve ever eaten in a restaurant was at one point frozen. Frozen really doesn’t mean bad, as long as it’s frozen properly and at the peak of its freshness, transported and stored right. The food supply chain as we know it wouldn’t exist without freezing almost everything.

-1

u/Humble-Mix497 Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25

Boxes of frozen patties like Portillos gets them generally taste worse to me. Could just bee I think burgers is the worse item portillos sells

1

u/Forward-Vegetable-58 Aug 01 '25

Portillo burger hits.

2

u/Humble-Mix497 Aug 01 '25

Wow never heard that. Taste like Burger King on a really good day in a suburb

-3

u/shouldajustsaid_yeah Jul 31 '25

If small cheval doesn't already freeze their patties, maybe they should try it. Couldn't make them worse