Photo by Alex Ward
Burgers are a big part of my life. I vividly remember the day Burger King announced that it was opening a branch in my home town. This was exciting stuff, and for a while all was good, but eventually my palette matured and I realised that fast food chains just wouldn’t cut it any longer.
Luckily I moved to London and I am now spoilt for choice and regularly gain weight and get heart burn from eating some kick ass burgers. I thought it would be good to list my top five burger joints in London so you too can partake in my gluttonous ways.
1. Meat Liquor
Photo by Alex Ward
This is probably the granddaddy and most well-known of the burger joints in London. It was one of the first of the new breed of street food vendors to open up a restaurant, and its success has been unbelievable. The Burgers are juicy and they have a great selection of traditional and not so traditional burgers, and the sides are out of this world.
The buffalo wings and deep fried pickles are so good I would have no hesitation in killing a man for them. The chili cheese burger and dead hippie are both highly recommended and the cocktails are suitably strong and tasty. Great design and atmosphere make this the go to place for a night of burgers and cocktails. Also they do a triple chili challenge which consists of the chili burger, chili cheese fries and chili dog. Go ruin yourself trying to do this in under 3 minutes.
Photo by Alex Ward
2. Lucky Chip
Photo by Facebook.com/LuckyChip
Lucky Chip was another street food vendor that started out in a van and now has a residency at the Queens Head. His burgers are themed on films or movie stars such as the Kevin bacon (bacon cheeseburger) or the John candy (double cheeseburger with special sauce and extras) and he’s been known to do a Breaking Bad themed menu with blue crystal meth as an extra. Because Lucky Chip does residencies you get to check out some great London bars as well.
Photo by Alex Ward
3. Honest Burgers
Photo by Facebook.com/HonestBurgers
Everyone kept telling me they were the best so I thought I should finally check them out. They teamed up with Brew Dog recently to create a beer infused burger called the brewburger and trust me, it was delicious, so it’s worth going for this burger alone. Did I mention it’s topped with Candied bacon and a beer BBQ sauce as well? There are a few branches open across London so it shouldn’t be hard to find one.
4. Stokey Bears
Photo by Facebook.com/StokeyBears
Stokey Bears is a new player on the block with a recently opened restaurant in stoke Newington. It has a huge burger sculpture on the wall and bottomless independent, organic soda from Square Root soda. The burgers are juicy, delicious and worth a trek into yummy mummy territory to get one. The Angry Bear topped with The Ribman’s HolyFuck sauce is one worth trying if you are into spicy burgers (Warning: this hot sauce will cause you pain and suffering).
5. Mother Flipper
Photo by Facebook.com/MotherFlipper
These guys won’t be as easy to find as the others on the list, but you can normally see them at Brockley market on the weekends. One of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten was made by these guys and as a bonus they do delicious breakfast muffins as well. (Think McDonalds’ breakfast but way, way better.) If something is good it’s worth searching for, so why not pop down to a local market or check their website for their current location?
So that’s my top 5 burger joints in London. As mentioned above we are spoilt for choice in London and many more places could have been mentioned so if you have a favourite burger place let us know.
Enjoy the burgers and don’t blame us for your expanding waistlines.
Words by Alex Ward
