For the longest time, Burger King and McDonald’s had it all sewn up. Back then, the thought of an onion ring actually inside the burger would have been met with sharpened pitchforks and nationwide protests.
No longer. The burger renaissance arrived, and now we want our patties smashed to pieces, layered to four times the height of a Big Mac, and virtually impossible to eat without a bale of kitchen roll in easy grabbing distance.
The game has changed indeed, and if your burger isn’t heaped with candied bacon or crisps, is it even really a burger anymore? Anyway, here are the best in all of Greater Manchester.
Almost Famous
Almost Famous had queues snaking through the Northern Quarter with its first secret shebeen up the stairs on High Street way back in 2012. It’s since expanded, with a spot in the Great Northern and another in the NQ, not to mention branches in Liverpool and Leeds. Brash and braggadocious, its stacked burgers can induce the meat sweats at 40 paces, and long may they reign.
49-51 Edge St, Manchester M4 1HW and Unit 2, Great Northern, Peter St, Manchester M3 4EN
Burgerism
Originally serving up from a factory unit in Salford, Burgerism is quickly becoming the city’s go-to homegrown burger, now with a dark kitchen in Ardwick and its first standalone shop in Gatley too. They’re straight up, no frills affairs; single double, cheese, with bacon, veggie or all of the above, and they’re all the better for not being simple but devastatingly effective. The wings and chicken burgers are also ludicrously good.
18 W Ashton St, Salford M50 2XS or 7 Stonepail Rd, Gatley, SK8 4EZ
That Burger Place
Born in Swinton, cult burger flippers That Burger Place, founded by chef Ryan McDermott, have modelled their patties on the Californian style of extreme smashing. They’re squashed thin so that the edges crisp up, and then layered with stuff like American cheese, ‘bacon rain’, and their secret burger sauce. Their signature ‘California Dreaming’ burger got itself a nomination at the National Burger Awards. Enough said.
160 Bolton Road, Manchester, M28 3GA
Yard Burgers
The best burgers in South Manchester are being sold out of half a shipping container in a car park behind a tattoo parlour and a fishmongers. Sale-based Yard Burgers isn’t estranged to a bit of experimentation, notably with the Wafflin On, which finds the beef served up between two waffles and scattered with Frazzles. But it is at its best without the gimmicks. The Snobby Cow, with caramelised onions and truffle mayo, is a smash hit, and the towering Dirty Manc takes some beating too.
9 Claremont Road, Sale, M33 7DZ
Honest Burgers
Starting with a small kitchen in London’s Brixton Market, there are now Honest Burgers across the country, with monthly and regional specials always on the menu. A reliably great burger, in either smashed or original style, and a great chicken burger going on too. Oh, and those rosemary salt fries.
What’s Your Beef
Another National Burger Awards contender, What’s Your Beef use fabulous, dry-aged, grass-fed beef in their patties, even branching out into the lamb sphere with a kofta-inspired number. Come for the burgers, stay for the sides of duck fries and tater tots.
Hawksmoor
Hawksmoor doesn’t just do steaks. They do a very, very decent burger too. Theirs comes with soft, Brie-like Ogleshield or Stichelton blue cheese, and there’s no smashing here, just a sturdy lump of beef - served as you wish - in a great bun. No messing about.
184 to 186 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WB
Five Guys
OK, there’s now a Five Guys on every street corner, but there’s a reason for their proliferation. They flip a mean burger. The smashed patty. The crisp shards of bacon. The sweet-but-not-too-sweet sesame seed bun that gets squished when they wrap it up. The bag chips. OK, it’s not a budget option, fast food-wise, coming in at the £12 ballpark for a meal, and vastly more if you throw in a milkshake - compared to half that at Maccie’s - but there’s really no comparison at all.
The Old School BBQ Bus
Yes, it’s a bus, yes, it does barbecue, and yes, it’s in Oldham. While ribs, steaks and pulled pork are the focus at this US-inspired festival of carnivorousness, hidden under a tent attached to an old US school bus, the burgers at the Old School Barbecue Bus are something to behold too. Heaped with Swiss cheese, bourbon barbecue sauce, bacon and other wonderful things, and served on a corn roll from Robinson’s of Failsworth, these burgers are a piece of work.
Alford St, Hollinwood, Chadderton, Oldham OL9 7LP
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