The 37 Best Burger Joints in the World

Glowing red neon and a tight menu of smash burgers and waffle fries in a downtown Phoenix storefront that used to pour rum cocktails. Bad Jimmy's is a casual burger shop that moonlights as a cocktail bar, which explains why half the room looks like they just escaped a nearby venue. The rotating specials reward repeat visits, and vanilla soft serve finished with olive oil is the kind of thing that sounds wrong until it doesn't. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top smashburger spot.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

Somewhere between a diner and a log cabin, this cash-only Tempe burger shop has been grilling patties over a live mesquite fire since forever. You order at the counter while the smoke does its thing, then dress your own burger at the condiment table. Sizes run from a modest fifth-pounder up to a full pound of beef, which should cover most life situations. An old-school Valley institution, and the zucchini fries are not optional.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: The Great One · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

Holsteins is a casual burger-and-milkshake joint in the Arts District, relocated from its long run inside a Strip casino to a spot where nobody has to walk through a slot floor for a patty. The burgers are stacked high enough to require a strategy, and the boozy shakes arrive buried in doughnuts and marshmallows. Come hungry, wear something you can afford to get sauce on, and plan on being full for a while.

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1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

A smash burger counter inside The Churchill, Phoenix's shipping-container food hall, Stoop Kid pulls double duty: bagel sandwiches in the morning, crispy patties the rest of the day. The kitchen keeps things small and precise, with homemade dill pickles and a fried-egg option for those who treat lunch like a commitment. Grab a beer from next door, find a table in the shaded courtyard, and wait for your name.

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2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hamburgers · Best of Phoenix
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1. White Guide Fine Level · White Guide

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

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The Brulee Burger, with its torched sugar crust on the bun, explains the whole ethos of this Scottsdale burger shop in one order. The chef here treats fast-casual comfort food as an excuse to get weird in the best way, battering and frying patties, folding blueberry-habanero compote into guacamole, stacking corn-muffin fritters between the buns. Guy Fieri has been by, and the memorabilia is on the wall to prove it. Napkins: take several.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

The burgers get a splash of red wine on the flat top, which is either the gimmick or the whole point depending on how you order. Harvey's is a neighborhood dive bar on 16th Street, bright green walls, pool table, jukebox, and cheap burgers that come with fries. Weekend happy hour runs weekend mornings, and last call stretches to midnight. The regulars who never needed a menu figured all this out a long time ago.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Hamburgers · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

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2. Eat. Talk. Repeat. Burgers: John · Where to Eat in Las Vegas
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The Arcadia Burger, topped with grilled onions, guacamole, and the house sauce, is the one to order at this drive-thru-only burger shoppe with no indoor seating whatsoever. The double-stacked patties are properly juicy, the fries are the obvious companion, and the milkshakes invite mixing flavors in combinations you'll immediately claim were your idea. Phoenix New Times put it in the top ten burger joints in town, and the neighborhood regulars roll through like they know something.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

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Carl's is a two-sided counter with sixteen stools, a griddle, and staff who treat small talk as a clerical error. The burgers are lacy, paper-thin things, so you order a double the way you'd order a second coffee, and the housemade root beer comes along without discussion. The tamales under chili are a pleasant surprise. Bring cash, and if anyone asks about the Shake Shack rumor, you didn't hear it from me.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

White tiles, pastel trim, and a cartoon burger grinning at you from the wall set the tone at this retro counter-service burger joint on downtown Mesa's main drag. The team behind Tacos Chiwas and Espiritu kept things deliberately simple: a short menu of semi-smashed burgers, hot dogs, loaded fries, and aguas frescas. The Sonora burger, stacked with griddled cheese, chiltepin, and bacon, is the one people talk about.

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Club Frills is a cocktail bar dressed as a 70s basement, with fake wood paneling, a disco ball, and tabletops that are marble only in spirit. It wears the dive costume without the sticky floors or the low prices. The drinks run low-ABV and funky, often in colors not found in nature, and the kitchen turns out a burger built around diced olives. It was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service.

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Dino's is an East Nashville dive that has been feeding the after-hours crowd since the 1970s, mostly with gooey cheeseburgers meant to talk a hangover out of existing. You can sit at a diner table in the dim main room or out on the covered patio, and the punk rock restroom is considered part of the visit. The bar pours Coors, Shiner Bock, and mezcal, Campari, even Malort, and the line peaks right after the bars close.

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The line at the walk-up window is your first clue that this is a burger spot worth queuing for. It's a smash burger operation, the kind that keeps a rotating daily special on the board and double-fries the fries for good measure. The menu also runs a Philly cheesesteak riff for those who need something to argue about. A second location is coming to Highland Park.

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A mounted St. Bernard stares you down from the wall, which tells you most of what you need to know. This old-school saloon in a sleepy mountain town between Snowbasin and Powder Mountain has been pouring drinks since the frontier era, and the cash-only, no-fries-ever policy suggests it's not softening up anytime soon. The staff is cheerfully gruff, the service is slow, and the burger is the reason skiers make the detour.

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A burger joint built around an actual cattle partnership, where the menu maps Oklahoma's regional traditions with quiet conviction. The onion burger is here, and so is the theta, with hickory sauce and grated American cheese and a strict no-onion policy that locals will defend without irony. The El Reno coney, dressed in sweet mustard slaw, fills out the picture. This is a place where the menu doubles as a short course in what this state considers non-negotiable.

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1. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Burgers

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Burgers

Rosemarie's is a casual beach-town burger and beer joint on Coast Highway, the kind of place where flip-flops count as dressing up. The wings are fried in duck fat and come in flavors like honey buffalo with ranch zig-zags and blue cheese crumbles, teriyaki, and mango habanero. Eater listed them among San Diego's best chicken wings. A dozen runs under twenty bucks, and the draft list rotates, so the pairing tends to sort itself out.

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A fully plant-based burger shop where the patties, cheese, and buns are all vegan, yet every meat-eating friend you drag here tends to go quiet mid-bite. Counter service, casual prices, shopping plaza setting. The menu runs from a straightforward classic to pineapple or jalapeño-topped builds, with loaded fries worth the mess. Phoenix New Times has named it among the top burger joints in the metro two years running, vegan or otherwise.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Vegan Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Vegan Burger · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

Life-sized Spider-Man watches you eat your burger, which feels about right for a counter-service spot where the menu hangs on the wall and you can hear the flat-top sizzling from the register. The patties come on sweet King's Hawaiian rolls, loaded with things like mac and cheese or pastrami, while Marvel films loop on the TVs and kids work free arcade games. Gyros and other diner bites round out the menu for anyone not in a superhero mood.

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2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

Butcher & Sons is a casual burger counter in Roma with a few siblings around the city. The Bowie comes with roasted poblano and fried tortilla, which is what happens when a burger grows up in Mexico City. There's a plant-based Yorke for vegetarians, and a monthly burger cooked up with a guest chef, sometimes from places with tasting menus. Order the bacon-wrapped fries and plan around the s'mores pie.

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A tiny counter-service burger joint just off the Saint-Germain drag, doing smashburgers on potato buns that arrive in a state of structural collapse. You'll go through a pile of napkins and call it a fair trade. Cheese is American, the sauce leans pickle and mustard, and the one other option is a portobello that doesn't feel like a consolation prize. Order the housemade ketchup, which tastes faintly of apples, and the fries.

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SuperNormal is a burger counter in Sylvan Park, and the move here is the packaging. Your burger and fries ride side by side in a bright orange cube with three vent holes punched in the lid, so the steam escapes and nothing goes limp on the drive home. It's fast-ish food with the design instincts of a gallery gift shop. Nashville Scene gave it Best Presentation/Packaging in 2025, which tells you where the effort went.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Presentation/Packaging · Best of Nashville

Gabby's is a no-frills burger counter that was smashing patties onto a hot griddle back when that wasn't yet a personality trait for every new restaurant in town. The menu stays short: grass-fed burgers, hot dogs, fries, and shakes, with a secret menu named after regulars, though you'll have to know the password. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville for Best Burger. Order at the counter, wear whatever you like.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Burger · Best of Nashville