Jesse Burgess's top five burger joints in London

As the presenter of TopJaw, Jesse Burgess has spent years wandering the streets of the capital, probing top chefs and famous foodies on their favourite London haunts. One question that often incites a passionate response from guests (and commenters) is, “best burger?”. Here, we fire that question right back at Jesse, giving him the challenging task of choosing his top five favourite burger joints in London…

The return of the chunky steakhouse burger. According to the ever-eloquent Chef Jackson Boxer, making the burger from trim and off cuts means only 10 burgers are available per service. Elusive, exclusive and delicious but NOT a marketing ploy (I’m told). The excessively thick, rare, heavenly juicy patty is made from high quality beef destined for the stock pot, it’s topped with a young Gorgonzola and Champagne stewed onions all partnered with a house made potato roll. One between two people is more than fine. Close your eyes and enter Nirvana… if you’re lucky enough to secure the goods. Pretentious? Maybe. Worth the bun fight? Absolutely.

Elliot Cunningham is a master of the flame, cooking all his delicious food the primitive way, over one big fire – he makes a burger as a mere plaything but, like all his food, it's exceptional. Formerly using goat meat, but more commonly a dry aged beef blend with a tantalisingly high 40% fat content, he tops the patty with a dill mustard mayo, American diner cheese and couples that within a specific milk-potato hybrid roll, the supplier of which is kept secret and only known to three food vendors… The Lagom burger is the burger chef’s choice of burger.

One of those three brands fortunate enough to have the city's best sesame-seeded hook up is Bleecker. Bleecker for me is like an old friend who never fails to make you happy. Zan Kaufman is a wonderful individual who decided to jack in the corporate lawyer life to pioneer London's burger scene to what it is today. Rare-breed, grass‑fed beef, dry aged for 30 days, but I do believe much of the secret lies in Bleecker’s signature seasoning… my God it’s good. If Crunchy Nut cornflakes spent seven figures on perfecting the sugar bliss point, Bleecker has nailed the salty equivalent. You can never, and I mean NEVER go wrong with a Bleecker burger.

Now I have purist tendencies when it comes to burgers – I forever felt uneasy during the days of towering burgers, where chefs competed to see how much they could fit within a bun like a greasy game of sloppy jenga – onion rings, chili con carne, fried mozzarella, waffles, fried eggs etc. all crammed in. Simplicity is key when it comes to burgers… BUT a burger complication that I will accept is from Black Bear Burger. Chef Stu Downs created a phenomenal ‘Brisket Burger’, where 12 hour beer braised brisket is paired with the dry aged patty along with pink pickled onions and a garlic mayo. That, my friends, has to be the best £14 you can spend. Full stop. You know what, I’m going to have one this evening, I’ve given it too much head space.

The newest establishment out of this bunch. New York–born chef Adrian Farina wanted to put a ‘table burger’ on the menu – not a main dish but too substantial to be a starter. Instead this burger is to be an additional shared item, behaviour I can really get behind. In essence it’s a true cheeseburger, but in the way that the Ferrari 355 is a true sportscar, nothing unnecessary, nothing complicated, yet creates tingling sensations. A reasonably thick HG Walter sourced patty boasting a punchy 50% fat content, served as close to red as possible, surrounded by diner cheese, chopped pickles for extra texture and encased in a Martin’s potato roll. One of London’s best burgers created by a New Yorker, shock.

For more from Jesse, read his review of Kinkally in Fitzrovia...