If Bourdain said his favourite restaurant in LA was In-N-Out Burger, why can’t burgers be our favourite in London? If they are your thing, you might as well be chowing, sliding, scooping, shovelling, and pushing the metropole’s best down your meat pipes. Sit back, don’t eat for a week, and let us reveal the finest combinations of buns and meat.
Manna Burgers @ Arcade Food Hall | Battersea Power Station & Bloomsbury
In the newly opened Arcade Food Hall inside the iconic Battersea Power Station (and indeed in the original Arcade), Manna has opted for a suitably more laidback approach to burgers: simplicity. Bake Street co-owner Feroz Gajia set it up and is drawing in the punters with his overhanging smash burgers, with blackened char on the outside hiding a beefy & rich centre, and all folded into a cloud-like bun. And that’s not to mention the chicken burgers – the Nashville Hot comes with hot & tangy cayenne butter, while another chicken burger literally drips with hot honey.
When you’re done burgering, the Nashville Hot Tenders and waffle fries await…
Details: Manna, 103-105 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1DB | Click here to view the menu and reserve a table.
Blacklock | Soho, Shoreditch, City, Covent Garden
Want to know London’s worst kept secret? We’ve got a feeling you probably already know.
The much-lauded steak restaurant Blacklock has ground up its meaty expertise and moulded it into patty form. Blacklock uses premium grass-fed meat from farmer Phillip Warren in Cornwall, here served up as two thin patties for maximum tasty surface area and sandwiched between a sesame bun. Extras include oozing cheddar cheese, gherkins, and a wild spicy sauce. Swallow this delicious secret and proceed to de-classify the information.
Details: 28-30 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DZ | Click here to view the menu and reserve a table.
Patty & Bun | Battersea, Canary Wharf, Hackney, London Bridge, Bond St, Oxford Circus, Liverpool Street
Patty & Bun, aka, The Nominal Deconstructionists, use a mad-scientist secret patty recipe using 35-day aged rib eye Aberdeen Angus beef. The result is, simply, delicious. And yet, each month they release an equally insane, equally meticulously considered special burger that is always worth checking out. But that’s not all. They do classic chicken burgers, breakfast burgers, and even their dessert, a malt ice cream sandwich, has been burgerised. Put bluntly, Joe Grossman and his team, bloody love burgers.
Details: Click here to view the full addresses and reserve a table.
Slow Richie’s | Peckham
Booze. Burgers. Hot Sauce. There aren’t many better ways to simultaneously let your hair down and electrify your follicles with chilli heat. Slow Richie’s monthly specials are the stuff of burger wet dreams. Recent guests have included a Mac and Cheese Burger with crispy shallots and pickled chillis, and a beef patty with roast chicken, mozzarella, parmesan and marinara sauce. If that’s not wild enough, there’s the battered haddock and hot sauce burger, or the haggis burger. Slow Richie’s approach is: why the f*ck not?
Details: 18 Peckham Rye, SE15 4JR | Click here to view the full menu and reserve a table.
Black Bear Burger | Brixton, Clerkenwell, Hackney, Canary Wharf
Other than constructing a wonderfully alliterative and meaty title for their brand, Black Bear Burger also provide some of the best burgers in town. All the burgers come sandwiched between a delicious sesame bun – not too thick, so you’re not just filling up on bread. The “Black Bear” features dry-aged, grass-fed beef, onion jam, garlic mayo, dripping cheese and smokey bacon. Other options include the “Brisket Burger”, or the “Miso Bacon Burger”. And you’ll even get a little complimentary soft scoop with your bill.
Details: You can scan their menu and reserve a table at one of their locations here.
Mondo Sando | Camberwell
It’s no surprise that Jack McCrae’s much-hyped “sando” joint is also pumping out some of the best burgers in London. A burger is a sandwich subset, duh. The star of Mondo Sando’s burger output is the “Burguez Merger” with a grilled lamb & beef merguez patty. The North African spice combined with the burger’s cheesy, juiciness is evidence of a genius sandwich-smith at work.
Details: Grove House Tavern, 26 Camberwell Grove, London SE5 8RE | Visit their website for more information.
Burger & Beyond | Soho, Shoreditch, Borough, Camden
Burger & Beyond have been officially named as Seven Travel’s third best burger in EUROPE. Such heady heights have been reached by dry-ageing their grass-fed Swaledale beef for between 28-45 days in fridges walled with salt. This creates a burger that is… beyond good. The “Bougie Burger” comes with 2.0 steak sauce, “marrownaise” and beef fat onion. The truffle tots are a must, too. At their new Soho store, they also offer a bottomless burger and booze deal. It’s that sort of insanity that grants Burger & Beyond top billing on the London burger scene.
Details: Click here to reserve a table at one of their locations.
Four Legs at The Plimsoll | Finsbury Park
Legendary burger “The Dexter” started life at the Compton Arms. It received some of the greatest critical acclaim ever lavished on the humble burger. Now, the same chefs, Ed McIlroy and Jamie Allan, have taken over The Plimsoll, a traditional boozer with mismatched crockery, small tables and pub stools, where they serve delicious grub. “The Dexter” burger thrives because of its simplicity: patty, gherkins, cheese, burger sauce, and onions in a brioche bun. That is all.
Details: 52 St. Thomas’s Road, Finsbury Park, London N4 2QW | Click here to make a reservation.
Hawksmoor | Bank, Borough, Covent Garden, Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Spitalfields, Canary Wharf
What happens when the refined approach of one of the best steak restaurants in London is funnelled into the construction of a burger? Well… the result is exactly as you’d expect: incredible.
Elevating their craft is the grass-fed British-native longhorn beef patty infused with bone marrow, plus the use of fine British Ogleshield cheese. For an extended burger range, pull up a stool at their floating bar The Lowback, where a scampi po-boy and a sincere Big Mac tribute are both available. Burgers have never felt so aristocratic.
Details: You can browse the full menu and reserve a table on their website.
Bleecker Burger | Bloomberg Arcade, Victoria, Spitalfields, Shepherd’s Bush
What did the corporate lawyer say when she ate a burger? We wish this was a joke, but it’s actually the origin story of Bleecker Burger, for she said: how do I make this? Twelve years after the fact, Bleecker St Burger is going strong thanks to the quality of their burger. The wet, bright yellow, American burger cheese is spot on, as is the perfect burger sauce, the smashed patty, and the option of a black pudding slither to give the brain a little jolt of unexpected joy. The National UK Burger of The Year winner 2020 was victorious for a reason.
Details: Click here for more information.
Need something to wash all that food down? Have a look our guide to pop up bars in London.