My favourite London burgers in 2024

To all the burgers I've loved before

I’ve known since Braise was but a twinkle in my eye that one day it would feature a list of my favourite London burgers, and it’s only taken me so long to put together because I wanted to be confident that I could stand by whatever list I put down. I’m fussy about burgers, unnecessarily so, and have spent too much time by half thinking about the principles behind their construction, ingredients, and preparation. 

I abandoned over-elaborate plans for a series of burger crawls to whittle down a shortlist - admirable in principle, impractical in practice, and woefully so if I ever intended to apply the same approach to any other category of restaurant or dish. But I did know that to do this justice I’d have to take the time to go out of my way to track down a few burgers that had so far eluded me.

Since this is the first list of its sort on Braise, but likely not the last, I want to establish a few ground rules for lists at large:

1. This is subjective, as it should be. These aren’t London’s best burgers, but only my favourites. Most of them are found somewhere near where I live, and almost all play to my tastes, namely for smash burgers with simple toppings — think a McDonald’s double cheese with a little more care applied, and you’re on the right track. There’ll be no inch-thick patties, no blue cheese sauces or messy salads, and absolutely nothing with ‘dirrrty’ in the name.

2. They’re not ranked. It’s hard enough picking a few favourites, I really don’t want to make any more decisions after that.

3. I’ll share the places that didn’t make the cut as well as those that did. Some of those also-rans will be great spots that nearly make my list, others big names that aren’t worth the effort. But if you’re going to trust my recommendations, you should probably know what I think they’re better than.

4. I’ll also share the places I simply haven’t been, or at least the ones that I sort of suspect I should have been to. That empowers you to write me off as an absolute idiot for daring to write a London burger list when I haven’t even eaten the one from Blacklock.

That’s enough preamble. Here are the five London burgers I love the most right now, and think you will too.