Find Out Where the Best Burger Resturants Are in LA
Los Angeles is home to countless burgers with near-cult followings. It makes sense: Southern California is where the modern American burger was created, since powerhouses like
In-N-Out and McDonald’s got their start in sunny SoCal. While spots like The Apple Pan,
Pie ‘n Burger and
Father’s Office will always be timeless hits, here’s a look at the new guard of amazing LA burgers.
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Ledlow
Chef Josef Centeno has made a big splash in Downtown LA’s historic core, opening restaurant after restaurant. We don’t have any complaints about that, since each spot is as amazing as the last, and Centeno can be trusted with just about any cuisine. But when we want burgers we’re heading to
Ledlow, his American comfort-food concept. The griddled 6-ounce cheeseburger brings together a house burger blend with beef suet, cheddar and Emmenthal cheese, garlic aioli, lettuce, onion and green peppercorn mustard.
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Plan Check Kitchen + Bar
Plan Check has made headlines for its burger innovations — think ketchup leather. But the hype is backed by the quality of its creative and delicious offerings. The Blueprint Burger is a prime example, with smoked blue cheese, pig candy, fried onions, roasted garlic steak sauce and peppercress.
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Belcampo Meat Co.
Another restaurant-slash-butcher shop,
Belcampo Meat Co., does classic really well. The Fast Burger is made with a 3-ounce organic, grass-fed beef patty sourced from Belcampo’s own Shasta Valley cattle, plus American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and house sauce. No need for ketchup here: The farm-to-table ingredients speak for themselves.
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The Cannibal
At
The Cannibal in Culver City, you’re told to “Trust Your Butcher!” and you should. The restaurant doubles as a full-service butcher shop that sources only humanely raised animals. Chef Francis Derby, a Long Island native with a background in fine dining, makes a dry-aged short rib-blend patty served on a Parker House roll with harissa-onion soubise, provolone cheese and raw red onion. For anyone craving even more onions, the burger comes with a side of beer-battered onion rings.
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Photo: Kristin Teig Photography
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Baltaire
Long home to a cavernous chain restaurant, the space that now houses
Baltaire has been remarkably transformed to become this chic steakhouse. Executive Chef Travis Strickland is the man behind the Butchered Burger, a patty made with prime brisket, chuck and short rib (ground and blended in-house) and complemented by butter pickles, sauce gribiche, diced red onion, sliced tomato, shredded lettuce and cheddar cheese.
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The Nice Guy
The Nice Guy is one of Los Angeles’ most-exclusive establishments, with chic decor and a no-photos policy that has curried favor with A-list celebrities. If you can get inside, get the burger. The grass-fed beef patty is wedged inside a brioche bun with caramelized onions, arugula, housemade chile aioli, candied bacon and the house “American Cheese,” a mix of fontina, cream and two-year-aged feta.
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Burgerlords
People don’t usually head to Chinatown when burger cravings strike, but
Burgerlords wants to change that. Tucked inside Far East Plaza, the tricky-to-find burger stand keeps things simple with a small menu of classic and vegan options. It has to — the kitchen measures only about 200 square feet. Follow the ’Lords
on Instagram to find out when they’re releasing limited-edition specials like the vegan Eastern Bacon Cheeseburger.
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Shake Shack
After years of traveling across the country to brave lines for the pleasure of
Shake Shack in New York, Angelenos have finally gotten their own outpost. The Roadside Double is an order exclusive to Los Angeles diners, inspired by Southern California tradition. A take on the French Dip, which originated in Los Angeles, the double cheeseburger is topped with Swiss cheese, Dijon mustard, and onions simmered with bacon and beer.
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Petit Trois
Chefs Ludo Lefebvre, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo brought a certain
je ne sais quoi to an otherwise mundane LA strip mall when they opened Trois Mec and bistro
Petit Trois. The latter is home to one of the city’s most-decadent burgers, the Big Mec. While the description on the Bar a la Carte menu simply reads “double cheeseburger,” the Big Mec is much more ornate than that. A patty of equal parts skirt steak and rib eye — blended in-house — is drenched with a foie gras-laced bordelaise sauce and finished with Russian dressing and pickles.
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Little Dom’s
Little Dom’s may look and feel like a storied haunt, but the Los Feliz restaurant has been around only since 2008. The Italian-American go-to offers one of the best patios in the city for street-side dining, and one of the best burgers, too. Chef Brandon Boudet’s wood-grilled hamburger is a massive beauty served with Burrata, pickled green tomato and Niman Ranch bacon. On the side are garlicky fried potatoes, a Little Dom’s favorite.
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Love & Salt
Tucked in Manhattan Beach, Love & Salt is a little outside of Los Angeles proper, but the burger-loving masses are happily lured to this beach-adjacent hangout. The folks at
Love & Salt never intended to do a burger, but legend has it that customers kept requesting an off-menu burger from Chef Michael Fiorelli. He gave in and made one with Wagyu beef, caramelized onions, aged cheddar, house pickles and tomato aioli, a combination that became so popular it landed a permanent spot on the menu as the "Downlow" burger.
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Alma at The Standard
Chef Ari Taymor’s aesthetically on-point darling,
Alma at The Standard, serves an arugula-heavy burger that’s hard to put down once you take your first bite. It’s a flank and brisket 50-50 beef blend, with a brown butter bearnaise sauce, caramelized onions and aged white cheddar. Fans love to hope that the decadence is offset by that pile of arugula.
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Paley
Paley’s Chef Greg Bernhardt worked tirelessly with a meat specialist to create the Britt Burger at the dazzling new Hollywood restaurant Paley, named for the man who created CBS. The result is as legendary as the place’s namesake, with a precise blend of chuck, brisket, short rib and New York dry-age trim. The burger’s cheese is just as noteworthy. "I wanted a cheese that could stand up to the grind of the beef as well as the sauce component,” Bernhardt said. “The raclette has a certain funk that does the job better than, say, a sharp cheddar. We also turn it into a mornay, or cheese sauce made from milk and roux, to get that crazy cheesy-sauce effect.”
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Badmaash
This is not your traditional hamburger. First of all, it’s not made with beef.
Badmaash changes the game — and the patty — with its Spiced Lamb Burger. The key to the incredible flavors in this burger lies in the in-house efforts, from grinding and roasting the imported Indian spices to freshly butchering the whole lamb legs daily.
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Cassell’s Hamburgers
The story of
Cassell’s Hamburgers began in 1948, but today the restaurant looks better than ever after reopening on the ground floor of the Normandie Hotel. The decor and menu, by Chef Christian Page, pays homage to the classic American diner with elevated touches like wine and beer offerings and housemade sodas. Cassell’s grinds its Colorado Angus whole chuck and brisket daily to make the burger patties that nestle inside a Parker House bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle.
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Connie and Ted’s
Connie and Ted’s, a New England-inspired seafood restaurant from LA chef and icon Michael Cimarusti, boasts a burger that rivals any fresh catch of the day. It’s a straightforward pairing of Hook’s four-year-old cheddar, pickles, onion, lettuce and Thousand Island dressing.
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Lamill Coffee
Lamill Coffee has roasted high-quality coffee in Southern California for almost two decades, but didn’t expand into a cafe until opening in Silver Lake in 2008, with a solid all-day dining menu to match the brew. While warm doughnut holes are never a bad call in the morning, the burger is a standout savory reason to swing by later in the day. It’s made with a 7-ounce Boulder Valley burger patty, juicy roasted tomatoes, Hook’s cheddar and romaine slaw, and served on a brioche bun.
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Fritzi
Chef Neal Fraser’s Art District venture
Fritzi is famous for its chicken — whether fried or rotisserie cooked — but the burger wins fans with its unique barbecue-like flavors (and side of potato waffle, which is a hash brown-waffle hybrid). Fraser cooks a Nueske’s bacon-beef blend patty for nine hours sous-vide, then tops it with fontina fondue, iceberg lettuce, Calabrian relish, with thousand island dressing.
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Salt’s Cure
Salt’s Cure, Hollywood’s hottest butchery-slash-restaurant-slash-bar, brings together lots of good things. The butchery element means you’re getting the highest-quality meats a burger can hold; the talent in the kitchen means that the high-quality meat is getting cooked in the optimal way; and the great bar program means you can enjoy top-notch libations before, during or after your meal. The 5-ounce bacon cheeseburger uses grass-fed beef complemented by house-cured thick-cut bacon, Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel cheese, red onion and fresh greens.
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The Garden Bar
After you’re done strolling Rodeo Drive — whether you’re actually shopping or just people-watching —
The Garden Bar at Montage Beverly Hills serves a hearty burger to help you refuel. Tucked into the luxuriously fluffy bun along with it is Cabot cheddar, crispy shallots and The Garden Bar sauce, and the burger comes with a side of thick-yet-moist steak fries.
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Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse
Nick & Stef's Steakhouse is a great spot for a power lunch in downtown Los Angeles, but just because it’s a steakhouse doesn’t mean you need to ball out with a steak. The Nick & Stef Burger offers black Angus beef, Grafton's aged cheddar, Nueske's applewood-smoked bacon, hen of the woods mushrooms, beefsteak tomato and truffle aioli on soft-toasted brioche with a side of hand-cut fries.
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Hinoki & The Bird
This is one of the trickiest burgers to actually order. Century City’s
Hinoki & The Bird serves its Okonomiyaki Burger only during its limited Early Bird menu service, but if ever there was a reason to dine at 5:30, this is it. The housemade honey potato bun holds two patties, sharp cheddar, hot pepper relish, okonomiyaki aioli laced with bonito flakes, and tonkatsu sauce.
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Pono Burger
LA is experiencing a wave of Hawaiian flavors that goes beyond poke restaurants.
Pono Burger takes pride in
pono, Hawaiian for doing things the right way. This is true of the restaurant’s burger lineup. Chef Makani sources local ingredients from trusted farms to craft signature burgers like the Piku “Fig” Burger with an organic beef patty, housemade drunken caramelized fig jam, organic beef patty, Brie, Niman Ranch bacon, toasted hazelnuts, arugula and balsamic vinaigrette.
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Santa Monica Yacht Club
The nautically inspired
Santa Monica Yacht Club is a seafood dining destination by James Beard Foundation Award-nominated chef Andrew Kirschner, and it also offers one handful of a burger. The burger includes timeless elements like cheddar cheese and pickles, with some special additions like pancetta and a soft egg.
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Everson Royce Bar
Despite its wildly simple makeup, the burger at
Everson Royce Bar has amassed a serious following. “It’s very straightforward,” says Matt Molina, the bar’s James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef. The Single Burger’s prime beef chuck patty is seasoned with only salt and pepper, and served on a grilled egg brioche bun with creamy Dijon mayonnaise, dill pickles and Tillamook cheddar. It’s so classically appealing it doesn’t need anything else.
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The Tripel
Former Top Chef competitor Brooke Williamson has a knack for opening restaurants Angelenos love, such as Playa Provisions and
The Tripel, both co-owned and co-helmed by her husband, Nick Roberts. The Tripel Burger is made with a blend of duck confit, por, and aged beef dressed with truffle pecorino, arugula and house apricot jam on an onion brioche bun.
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Easy’s Burgers
Like Burgerlords,
Easy’s is a walk-up-window burger destination hidden in Chinatown. Though small and simple, it’s been brought to the Los Angeles dining public by industry legends Alvin Cailan (Eggslut) and Jeremy Fall (Nighthawk Breakfast Bar). In addition to making no-frills burger classics, Easy’s serves up interesting burger iterations, too, like the Hiro Burger with yuzu kosho mayo, provolone, caramelized onions and avocado puree.
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