The 15 Best Burgers in London (2026)

Smash burgers and burger bars. Bleecker is the burger I'd send a first-time visitor to. It keeps things simple: the cheeseburger is beef, American cheese, onion and the house sauce in a bun, with no lettuce or tomato, and you choose medium or well done. The cheeseburger is £10.50, the double £14.95, and the bacon double cheeseburger, the Soho operations manager's pick, is £15.95. Fries are £4.75. The beef at the Soho branch is halal (it isn't a fully halal site, since it also serves bacon and alcohol), and there's a veggie burger for £10.50. It's walk-in only and the room on Old Compton Street is small, so there's usually a short wait in the evening. The downside of that plain build: if you like sauce and a big stack, you may find it too simple. It's open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and Leicester Square is five minutes away.

Supernova is the cheapest good burger in Soho and the most focused. There are two burgers, both £10, and both are doubles: two beef patties with American cheese, onions and pickles, finished with either the house sauce or mustard and ketchup. Fries are £4, a pot of cheese sauce £2, and there's a sundae for £5. It's a counter with a few seats on Peter Street, just off Berwick Street, open 11:30am to 11pm every day. There's nothing for vegetarians, and it's tiny, so it suits a quick lunch rather than a sit-down meal. It also has shops in South Kensington and Mayfair. Piccadilly Circus is five minutes' walk.

Heard. is chef Jordan Bailey's smash-burger restaurant at Flat Iron Square, a cluster of bars and food stalls under the railway arches south of the river. The house burger, The Heard., is a double smash patty with jalapeño hot honey and Ogleshield, a melting Somerset cheese, in a toasted potato bun, for £14.50 on its click-and-collect menu. The Boring Burger (double patty with aged Cheddar) is £13, and the Wild Umami, a black bean and mushroom patty, is the vegetarian option at £14. Fries are £5, or £7 with cheese foam and chopped pickles. It takes bookings, and halal beef and gluten-free buns are available on request. It's also dearer than the Soho burger bars: £14.50 against £10 at Supernova. Borough station is six minutes away, and Borough Market about eight.

Black Bear makes a richer burger than the Soho counters, using a blend of dry-aged beef from grass-fed British cattle. The house Black Bear Burger (cheese, smoked bacon, onion jam and garlic mayo) is £12.50, the cheeseburger £11.50 and the miso bacon burger £12.50; the brisket burger is £14.50. Fries are £4.95, and £1.50 more gets you the Cajun ones with habanero honey mayo. There's a vegan version of the house burger at £11.50. The chicken is halal at every Black Bear site, but halal beef is only at its Westfield branch, and there's no gluten-free bun. Exmouth Market is a pedestrian street of restaurants with outdoor tables, and you can book. It's a 12-minute walk from Farringdon, which is the catch if you're short on time. It also has full restaurants in Brixton Village and at Westfield.

Burger & Beyond opened this Shoreditch restaurant in 2018 and it's still the flagship. The beef is dry-aged for at least 40 days, and the burger to order is the Bacon Butter Burger: a dry-aged patty with double American cheese, crispy pancetta and burnt-butter mayo, £14 as a single or £18 as a double. The Bougie Burger, with two patties and bone-marrow mayo, is £22 if you want to go all in. The vegan Oso Yaki (teriyaki and crispy onions on a vegan bun) is £14.50, and it lists halal options. Fries are £4.75 and bone marrow gravy fries £8. It takes bookings and walk-ins, it's card only, and an optional 12.5% service charge is added. It's a short walk from Brick Lane and Boxpark, six minutes from Shoreditch High Street on the Overground.

Truffle Burger started in street food, and Bateman Street was its first permanent shop. The signature Truffle Burger is £11.95: a beef and smoked bacon patty with raclette, fig jam, crispy onions and truffle mayonnaise. The patty is thicker and juicier than a smash burger. The plain cheeseburger is £11.55 and truffle and Parmesan fries are £4.50. The veggie burger (£12.65) uses a Beyond Meat patty with smoked cheese, so it's vegetarian rather than vegan. It's a small room that takes bookings, and a 12.5% service charge is added. If truffle isn't your thing, skip it for Bleecker or Supernova around the corner. Tottenham Court Road is four minutes away.

MEATliquor is the one for late nights: the kitchen serves until 2:30am every day and the bar runs until 3am, three minutes from Oxford Circus. The Dead Hippie, two mustard-fried patties with American cheese, its own sauce, pickles and onion, is the burger it's known for, at £14.25. The Plain Jane, a single patty with cheese, is £7.95. Fries are extra (£5.25), and the chili cheese fries (£10.75) are a meal on their own. The Tempeh Tantrum is a plant-based double for £13.75, and all the chicken is halal. It's loud, with an eight-foot illuminated pickle, which is the point, but it's not the place for a quiet dinner. Book at weekends.

Flip & Sear is a burger counter in The Food District, a food hall on Edgware Road, a short walk north of Marble Arch and the corner of Hyde Park. It was started by two cousins from north-west London. The Classic Beef, a 5oz grass-fed New Zealand patty with American cheese, red onion and its Flip Sauce, is £9.50, and the Classic Double is £14. It sells itself on Wagyu, but that's a £6 upgrade on any burger, not the standard patty. Skin-on fries are £4, and the chicken salt fries (£5) are the ones to get. You order at the counter and sit in the shared food hall, and there's no vegan burger. The Wagyu upgrade takes a Classic Double to £20, which is Burger & Lobster money, so I'd stick to the standard patty. Edgware Road station on the Bakerloo line is five minutes away.

Restaurant burgers. Fallow is a St James's restaurant built around sustainable cooking, and its burgers are on the main à la carte menu at the Haymarket site, a few minutes from Piccadilly Circus. The dairy cow burger (cheese, onion, pickle and lettuce) is £19. The pulled beef burger, made with braised short rib, is £24, and the banh mi burger, with crispy aubergine and soy mushrooms, is a vegetarian option at £19. Fries with kombu seasoning are £7. This is where I'd go for a burger as part of a proper meal, but the extras add up: a 15% service charge and a £2 donation to the Street Smart homelessness charity go on the bill. Book ahead; it's a busy room.

Goodman is a Mayfair steakhouse that dry-ages its own beef in an ageing room on site, and it puts that beef into one burger. The Goodman burger comes with smoked British bacon, Comté, homemade pickles and gochujang mayo, served with chips, for £25, the same as Burger & Lobster's Nebraskan Original and more than twice a Bleecker cheeseburger. It's on the à la carte, not the set lunch menu, and the restaurant is closed on Sundays and at lunch on Mondays. There's no vegetarian burger. Go if you want a steakhouse burger in a smart room near Regent Street; for £25 you could have two cheeseburgers at Bleecker. Oxford Circus is four minutes away.

Burger & Lobster opened in 2011, and the burger is still one of the three dishes it started with; Dean Street is its Soho branch. The Original is a 7oz burger with lettuce, caramelised onion and burger sauce, served with fries: £25 with corn-fed Nebraskan beef or £20 with grass-fed Irish beef. There's also an Oklahoma Smash Burger (two patties smashed with onion) for £15 and a Beyond Meat burger for £16. Cheese is £2 extra on the Original. It takes bookings and walk-ins and suits a group where some want lobster and some want a burger. Stick to the burger, or the £37 half lobster and burger combo if you want to try both. Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square are both six minutes away.

Pub burgers. The Plimsoll is a pub near Finsbury Park run by Four Legs, the chef duo Ed McIlroy and Jamie Allan, who made their name with a residency at the Compton Arms in Islington. Their Dexter cheeseburger, made with beef from the small Dexter breed, cheese, burger sauce, gherkins and onions in a brioche bun, is the reason to make the trip to Finsbury Park, and the rest of the menu (seafood, small plates) gets as much praise. The menu changes and isn't published online, so the price is on the day. It's a proper neighbourhood pub with little decor, and it's five minutes from Finsbury Park station and a few minutes from Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, so avoid home match days and book for dinner. The kitchen may not serve full meals at weekends, so check before you go.

The Admiral Codrington is a Chelsea pub on a quiet backstreet, recently restored, and it's the pub burger I'd pick after the V&A or the Natural History Museum. The house burger comes with Smoked Applewood cheese, pickle relish and fries for £19.50, and a vegetarian burger is available. Truffle and Parmesan fries are £7. It's a pub dining room rather than a burger bar, with a 12.5% service charge, card-only payment and bookings online. The kitchen closes between 3pm and 5pm on weekdays, so time a late lunch carefully. South Kensington station is nine minutes' walk.

Plant-based and street food. Oowee Vegan in Brixton Village is a fully vegan burger bar, so everything on the menu is safe for vegans without asking. The branch's favourite is the BBQ Smokestack: an Impossible patty with BBQ sauce, vegan American cheese, onion rings, gherkins and lettuce. There are fried chick'n burgers, loaded fries and mac and cheese too. Prices aren't on its website, only on the online ordering menu. It's walk-in (no table bookings) and open until 10:30pm Thursday to Sunday. Brixton Village is a covered market four minutes from Brixton station on the Victoria line. For vegan food beyond burgers, see my guide to vegan restaurants in London.

Mother Flipper has been grilling burgers since 2012, and since closing its Brockley restaurant it trades from its long-running stall at Brockley Market, a Saturday food market in a college car park in south-east London. It does beef and chicken burgers, but it's only there on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm, and its prices aren't published online. It's the least convenient burger here, so go only if you're staying south of the river or want a Saturday market morning. St Johns station, on Southeastern trains from London Bridge, is four minutes' walk. Check its social accounts before travelling, as it also runs events.