Image via Complex Original
Congratulations Toronto—you’re about to eat a burger.
What, you had plans for a shrimp and rice dinner and already prepped the ingredients? Well tough shit, bud! Toss the diced peppers and onions in a Tupperware and forget about ‘em, because after you’re done scrolling past all of these drool-inducing burger shops, you won’t want anything else. Not on this day, National Burger Day, arguably the holiest day of the year. And especially not in this city, which has experienced a burger boom over the last decade to become one of the best in the world at the whole beef, cheese, lettuce, bread thing.
Alright, no more beefing around the bush. Here are the 18 best burgers in Toronto.
Harry's
Burger Drops
Website: burgerdrops.com
Try: American
This pop-up turned permanent amid the COVID pandemic, opening a unique takeout-only storefront in Liberty Village where orders are placed and customers wait outside with buzzers while their orders are prepared.
Both of the Drops’ two burgers are smashed, served on a soft potato roll and sold separately from the skin-on, homemade shoestring fries, which you’re going to need, along with a side of their delightful “drop sauce,” a condiment swamp water of sorts.
Cabano’s Comfort Food
Rosie’s Burgers
Apache Burger
Holy Chuck Burgers
Aloette
Rudy
Website: rudyresto.com
Try: The Rude Dude
Rudy doesn’t fuck with all those fancy extras. Just lettuce, tomato, Rudy sauce and maybe one other topping over a smashed-on-the-grill beef patty. And its menu is at least partially responsible for introducing the majesty of the Maillard reaction (the scientific reaction that happens when ground beef is “smashed” on a hot griddle) to Southern Ontario. Honestly, thanks Rudy.
Gold Standard
Website: breakfastsandwich.ca
Try: The Telway
Time was when Gold Standard was just an obscure takeout window in Toronto’s Roncy area with even more obscure hours of operation. Now that they’ve got a couple spots in the city and have assimilated to the Western world’s concept of time, they’re building some steady burger buzz.
Their signature is the Telway, named after an iconic Detroit burger joint, consisting of a hybrid patty—a mix of brisket, chuck, and sirloin—that’s cooked on a flat top before being flipped over onto raw onions and covered with a lid, so that the onion steam infuses the potato buns. The result is a super soft burger that melts in your mouth. If you wish to extend the melting experience, be sure to pick up a pack of Mom Jeans cookies while you’re there.
Matty’s Patty’s Burger Club
Website: mattyspattysburgerclub.com
Try: The Matty
Matty Matheson may not like the term “celebrity chef,” but he surely appreciates the consistent lines out front of his cheeseburger shop, Matty’s Patty’s Burger Club. The restaurant traces its roots back to a pop-up at a surf competition in Hawaii and now serves basic cheeseburgers to the waves of hipsters looking to soak up the craft IPA consumed across the street at Trinity Bellwoods Park.
He’s got the meat lovers well covered with the 7-oz patty in the Matty and several tiers of smashed goodness in the Patty’s stacked menu, plus something for the vegetarians with Impossible Burger options.
Extra Burger
Website: extraburger.ca
Try: Double Burger
The Extra Burger menu is minimalist, consisting of the smashed single and double burgers, Impossible burger, fried chicken sandwich and crinkle fries, but there are no losers here. The burgers are sizable, topped with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles, American cheese and Extra’s “secret sauce.”
The Burgernator
Website: theburgernator.com
Try: The Burgernator
The Burgernator’s chefs see the burger trade as a battlefield. Thankfully, they’re going about their mission of “ridding the city of half-hearted and overcooked burgers, processed cheese and questionable toppings” by winning over diners one at a time, and not by terminating the competition with sharpened grill tools, which would arguably be quicker.
It’s a Kensington Market favourite for its fresh, made-in-house patties and diverse range of sandwiches, though the fries don’t get many rave reviews.
Aunty Lucy’s Burger Shop
Website: auntylucysburgers.com
Try: Kumasi Burger
This burger shop opened right at the start of the pandemic, but nevertheless enjoyed tremendous success, ending each day with every fry and burger sold out. What makes Aunty Lucy’s unique is their Ghanian take on the North American smash burger, served up with their signature Lucy’s sauce and a side of Kelewele, Ghana’s take on fried plantain, topped with roasted garlic seasoning.
Johnny’s Hamburgers
Burgers N Fries Forever
Website: burgersnfriesforever.com
Try: BFF
On the other end of the spectrum, the highly Instagrammable and completely devourable Burgers N Fries Forever is a culinary argument for maximalism. With locations in Ottawa and Toronto, the restaurant has 10 burgers currently on offer, including options for vegetarian (veggie gravy!), halal, vegan, gluten-free and plenty of premium AAA dry-aged beef. Fries are just as fancy, being hand-cut and double fried, and served with a selection of dips.
The Hungry Moon
Website: thehungrymoon.ca
Try: Deep Impact
It’s easy to spot this food truck in Scarborough’s Street Eats Market—it’s covered in a celestial mural of space eggs and meat-eoric burger patties. It also cost the Hungry Moon’s founders—Filipino-Canadian couple Faye Francisco and Chris Threlked—their entire life savings. They specialize in fusion Filipino burgers, like Deep Impact, featuring crispy deep-fried pork belly, creamy mango coleslaw, and their signature aioli sauce, the Flying Saucer. If you ask us, grub this good is worth betting on.
Woody’s Burgers
Website: woodysburgers.ca
Try: Coronary
What sets Woody’s Burgers apart from the city’s other burger joints are the wood burning grills used to cook the 7oz made-daily patties. They donate a delicious smoky flavour to the burgers and fill the area with the distinctly Canadian aroma of burning wood. The menu includes a selection of internationally inspired items like the Greek, a beef burger with tzatziki, roasted red peppers, cucumber and feta cheese, along with a variety of poutines.
Happy Burger
Website: happyburger.ca
Try: Pastrami Burger
Burg heads in the city have been raving about this new minimalist west-end joint. They specialize in cooked-to-order smash burgers cooked on a chrome griddle, covering in their mayo-based Happy Sauce and served up on buttered Martin’s potato rolls. They’ve got several iterations of the Happy Burger, including one topped with shaved pastrami, which looks beastly but goes down like a beauty.