“I’m A Food Journalist – Here Are My Top 5 Burgers In London”

If a sandwich is my favourite food, then a burger is my favourite sandwich (does that count?). Burgers and pizzas have been having a huge moment in London over the last year, as top chefs and restaurants muster up the courage to compete with each other on each front, and compete they do.

1. Best affordable burger

Hanbaagaasuuteeki, Another Double Cheese Burger, £9

There is a right way and a wrong way to eat at Hambaagaasuuteeki (there is also a right way and a wrong way to pronounce it, but I’ll let you know when I figure that out). First of all, you do not go alone. You go arm in arm with a group of known allies who are neither on a diet nor apprehensive of the sight of kimchi. The burgers here are not simple, nor are they traditional; they have not been done before. 

Shrimp plays on burger patties and miso loads fries, honey gochujang sticks play side to kimchi-loaded hotdogs. The Szechuan fried chicken burger is some of the best fried chicken in central, and the blue cheese burger is a more decadent bite of the lot: all of it is delicious, all of it is 100% something you’ll only want a couple of bites of before trying something else. But there is one burger, one shining ray of simplicity that is the 50s style double cheeseburger — the potato bun is soft, the sauces are not over the top nor do they leave you dry, the meat is juicy although thin, and it is £9 across the street from Victoria station. A bargain, if you will, and sue me for calling it better than Bleecker. 

Where: 36 Buckingham Palace Rd, London SW1W 0RE
Website: www.instagram.com

2. Best expensive burger

Bar des Pres, Wagyu Smash Burger, £38

I’m not sure if I had this meal in a delirium of a long work day, if I was looking through rose coloured lenses at my newfound friendship with Cyril Lignac, or if I was caught off guard by the joy that filled my body during a burger-sushi dining combination; but this burger is the best burger I’ve had in a long, hot minute. That being said, it is quite the steep excursion, sitting pretty at £38. 

Would I pay for it? Honestly? Yes. 

If I, myself, just got paid, I would pay for that burger again, and I would pay for it happily. Perhaps it would mean eating toast for lunch over the next week, but it’s worth it. I think my colleagues, flatmates, partner and any loyal readers of The Handbook’s food and drink section might have clocked that, seeing that this juicy, fluffy, cartoonesque burger has stumbled into our guides and socials pages more than once now. More to come, I’m sure — my mouth is watering. 

Where: 41a S Audley St, London W1K 2PS
Website: www.bardespres.com

3. Best new(ish) burger

Acre, Chilli Cheese Smash Burger, £22

Acre might be a year old, but to me, Thomas Straker’s restaurants have an air of eternal youth. They’re squeaky clean and a bit immature in a cool, Golborne Road kind of way. Acre’s prawn toasts and pastas are delicious, the cocktails fun, but the burger — a little shout of a listing off to the side of their menu — is the thing to return for. I’d call Acre a fabulous date spot if it weren’t for this burger. It’s messy, almost filthy, hitting the plate with fat as the pink sauce drips down your pinky and towards your shirt’s cuffs. It’s a sexy burger, so sexy it probably only suits a 100th date, not even a 10th. Its cherry on top is pickled chillies. Oh boy, Straker’s done it again. 

Where: 60 Golborne Rd, London W10 5PR
Website: www.acre-london.com

4. Best looking burger

Dumbo, Cheeseburger, £10

The Parisian turned London “hole in the wall” burger spot in Shoreditch, Dumbo, fits the bill for best aesthetic of a burger, simply because it fits the aesthetic of a burger. It’s a polished kitchen grill set up, with retro interiors not meant for eating in, more so a pavement-facing ordering window which calls out orders as they’re served up for diners to find a place to plop down and have a taste of the simple little burger. 

Inside those white takeaway boxes sits a potato bun, one so perfectly round and golden, with the dark brown, caramelised skirts of a strong man’s smash patty peaking out from underneath and a golden, melted, beautifully plastic-looking slice of cheese resting atop. Dumbo fits the aesthetic because it is the aesthetic, exactly what our hungry little minds imagine when we dream of a burger; it’s exactly what I imagined when I sat down to write of them. 

Where: 119 Bethnal Grn Rd, London E2 7DG
Website: www.dumboparis.com

5. Honourable mention

Taq, Dove Blackboard Taco, £9

It’s hard not to mention Dove in a conversation on burgers. Lucky for this list, I haven’t had the Dove burger. But I have had the Dove burger taco over at Taq, and that deserves the chat. I do believe that some of the tacos at Taq were better than the famed Dove taco, but that’s not to say the dish is not phenomenal, and it’s definitely not to say that it isn’t worth the hype — it absolutely is. 

The meat, sourced truly and properly from the genius spearhead Jackson Boxer, is greasy and wet in the most complimentary of manners. Because of its quality, the grease is produced naturally and organically in a way that has the whole room light up as they watch the silver platter land in your lap. It’s impeccable, really, and a fabulous way to spread Dove’s wealth to more corners.

Where: 141 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS
Website: www.taq.london