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A burger with onions and melty cheese sits on a plate at Gus’s Chop House. — The off-menu burger at Gus’s Chop House.

NYC’s Top 15 Burgers Right Now

From the simple White Mana burger to an off-menu stunner in Carroll Gardens

by Robert Sietsema and Luke Fortney Updated May 30, 2023, 4:40pm EDT

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The off-menu burger at Gus’s Chop House.

| Gus’s Chop House/Teddy Wolff

by Robert Sietsema and Luke Fortney Updated May 30, 2023, 4:40pm EDT

Yes, there’s reason to believe the hamburger as we know it may have been invented in New York City in the 1820s, where it was named after a North Sea port, and sold as street food to German sailors along the docks around Chambers Street. By the mid-1800s, it was a staple of Delmonico’s and other fancy places. So it’s no surprise that New York City is a hamburger town, and we love to eat them whether expensive or budget-friendly — in every part of the city. Some options on this list are local icons, while other newfangled ones have become must-tries. From the head-turning burger at Rolo’s to the frankly weird upside-down burgers at Fairfax to one of the city’s best diner burgers, here are the ones we recommend ordering.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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JG Melon

This Upper East Side mainstay dating to 1972 is a paragon of bar food. Sure the turkey club and chef’s salad are up to par, but the burgers command the most attention, especially when they pop up enticingly at the pass of the semi-open kitchen. The ground beef is fresh and the patty arrives deeply seared from the flat top, but still pink and juicy. Rippled cottage fries are the classic accompaniment.

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1291 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10021

Visit Website

A cheeseburger with pickles and purple onions in a paper boat. — JG Melon’s juicy specimen is a classic bar burger.

Also featured in:

16 Good Restaurants on the Upper East Side

Pig Beach BBQ

A great barbecue joint proves to be a pretty good place to look for a tasty burger. At the sprawling Astoria location of Pig Beach (the Gowanus original is closed), the modest-sized patty benefits from the wood smoke, and the cheese is applied with an unstinting hand, making for a gooey mess. Yes, the burger doesn’t look like much, but it’s delicious nevertheless.

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35-37 36th St Ground Floor, Astoria, NY 11106

Visit Website

A hand holds up a compact burger in a bun with melted cheese streaming. — The burger at Pig Beach BBQ.

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White Mana Diner

Looking like a spaceship that landed by a nest of highway overpasses long ago, this spot has been located in Jersey City since 1946. Before that, the building started off as a minor attraction at the 1936 World's Fair in Flushing, Queens. Today, it serves classic sliders with cheese and pickles, small enough that you can eat two or three at its curving Formica counter. It was once open 24/7, but hours are now 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Open in Google Maps

470 Tonnele Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07307

A thin cheeseburger sits on top of a cupcake wrapper, with a stack of pickles on its bun — The simple burger at White Mana Diner.

S&P

Many worried when the Court Street Grocers took over the old Eisenberg’s that it wouldn’t be as good. Well, it is, and that includes the burger. It has been rehabilitated like it’s a burger of long ago — a modest patty, smothering American cheese, raw onions, plain dill pickles, and most importantly, glorious quantities of mustard. (Note that the burgers range form $9 to $12 — a deal these days.)

Open in Google Maps

174 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

Visit Website

A hand holds a modest cheeseburger. — S&P’s retro cheeseburger — no it’s not a smash burger.

Hollywood Diner

The diner burger is making a comeback, and we’re beginning to realize it is a burger unique enough to have a category all its own. Similar to the smash burger, it’s seared, but on both sides, and the thicker patty is also cooked all the way through. While this makes it drier, it’s still great because double American cheese is annealed to both sides of the bun before the burger is assembled. Hollywood provides one of our best examples.

Open in Google Maps

574 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Visit Website

A plate with the halves of the bun side by side and the patty on one and pickles, slaw, tomatoes, lettuce on the side. — The Hollywood Diner cheeseburger.

Also featured in:

25 Essential Places to Eat in Chelsea

Fairfax

Maybe this burger at the all-day Fairfax, looks like a stunt burger, with more emphasis on appearance than taste. But you’d be wrong — topped with smoked cheddar and barbecue mayo, the flavor is sweet and smoky, with the potato sticks providing welcome crunch and extra salinity. And what’s with the goofy upside-down bun?

Open in Google Maps

234 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014

Visit Website

A burger with the bun upside down and potato sticks on top. — The burger at Fairfax in the West Village.

Also featured in:

Nowon

First offered at the late East Village bar Black Emperor, this simple burger now lives on at chef Jae Lee’s Korean-American restaurant Nowon. Eater critic Ryan Sutton extolled the cheeseburger for its simplicity: a blend of chuck and short rib on a sesame bun with American cheese, kimchi mayo, and a hulking pickle skewered on top.

Open in Google Maps

507 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

Visit Website

A cheese burger placed on a white plate with a pattern along the border. The cheese burger is sandwiched in a sesame bun with a giant sliced pickle on top held together by a toothpick. — The Nowon cheeseburger, elegantly topped with a pickle spear.

Also featured in:

Burger By Day

Burgers have invaded Chinatown in a big way with Burger By Day, occupying a mini food court that also boasts bubble tea right over the D train stop. The BBD smashburger comes with a pair of patties smashed into oblivion, the sear so profound the thing crackles when you bite into it. American cheese and the counter’s special sauce, which is pink and on the sweet side, finish up the package. A dozen burger sizes and configurations make it hard to decide.

Open in Google Maps

242 Grand St, New York, NY 10002

Visit Website

Two patties with cheese on top held by a hand. — The smash burger at Burger By Day.

BK Jani

The burgers served at this Brooklyn Pakistani restaurant were so popular that owner Sibte Hassan outgrew his original home in Bushwick. He relocated to this expanded space in Williamsburg two weeks before the pandemic, where his fat, juicy patties now live on. The burgers here pack heat, without feeling heavy, and come with a grilled tomato slice and dab of mint chutney. There are additional locations inside Dekalb Market and at the Hugh food hall.

Open in Google Maps

679 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Visit Website

A white paper plate sitting on a table at Pakistani restaurant BK Jani featuring spicy fries, tamarind ketchup, and a burger — A burger from BK Jani with spicy fries.

Also featured in:

Rolo’s

When a burger creeps toward the $20 mark, without fries, it’s held to a different standard: We expect better beef, a cheese that holds its own, and maybe a spoonful of jammy, caramelized onions to tie things together. Rolo’s in Ridgewood hits all the marks with its double cheeseburger, throwing a pickled hot pepper on the side like it’s an old-school Italian sandwich shop. It’s rich and meaty, the kind of burger you might not want to share but will be thankful you did.

Open in Google Maps

853 Onderdonk Ave, Queens, NY 11385

Visit Website

A hot pepper lounges on a plate next to a burger overflowing with crisp bacon. — The Rolo’s burger comes with a long hot pepper.

Also featured in:

Pera Ždera (Peter Eater)

A pljeskavica is a Balkan burger that features a combination of meats, often pork, lamb, and beef — though Muslim versions omit the pork. This particular rendition from a snack shop in Glendale features the onion-laced patty on a round bread called pogacha, dressed with a spicy red-pepper ajvar relish. The mascot is Popeye’s hamburger-eating friend Wimpy, who is known as Peter in Belgrade.

Open in Google Maps

66-31 Myrtle Ave, Queens, NY 11385

A burger in a mottled and irregular bun with some angry looking red sauce visible on the bottom half of the bun, lettuce, too. — Pljeskavica is a Balkan burger.

Also featured in:

40 Inexpensive Dining Destinations

The Long Island Bar

In 2013, Joel Tompkins and Toby Cecchini restored and re-opened Long Island Bar, a neighborhood fixture since 1951. Today, in addition to offering fabulous mid-century design, there’s the diminutive single dry-aged patty burger with pickles, cheese, fancy sauce, and fries. If you’re really hungry you can get the double-patty Long Island burger, but the former is sufficient and won’t weigh you down.

Open in Google Maps

110 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Visit Website

A small American flag attached to a toothpick sticks out of a burger oozing with yellow cheese. — The burger at the Long Island Bar.

Also featured in:

The Essential Cocktail Bars of New York City

Gus's Chop House

Like many of the bigger burgers on this list, the off-menu one at Gus’s is best when shared. Grab hold of the bun and watch meat juices flow as you divide this burger with a steak knife that’s probably meant for the pricier lamb loin. The patty is made from a blend of pork, chuck, and dry-aged beef, then topped with raw and caramelized onions, aged cheddar, and cornichons. To note, this burger isn’t listed on the menu, and there’s a limited number made each night.

Open in Google Maps

215 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Visit Website

A burger with onions and melty cheese sits on a plate at Gus’s Chop House. — The off-menu burger at Gus’s.

Also featured in:

Red Hook Tavern

Whatever you heard about big burgers being “out” hasn’t fazed Red Hook Tavern. This restaurant from the team behind Hometown Bar-B-Que, in the same neighborhood, is known for its burger, a $28 patty topped with American cheese and a couple rings of raw onion. It’s served on a bun speckled with sesame seeds and a small mound of cottage fries.

Open in Google Maps

329 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Visit Website

Dry-aged burger with American cheese, white onions, and wedge fries — Potato wedges have since been swapped out for cottage fries.

Also featured in:

Yellow Magnolia Café

If you’re looking for a burger quite literally “in the garden” drop by the Yellow Magnolia Cafe in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Mounted on a toasted brioche and mantled with gruyere, the patty is made with ground beef cut more coarse than usual and cooked medium rare, resulting in a more chew that explodes with beefy flavor, and a yellow slice of tomato further amplifies the cafe’s signature color.

Botanic Garden, 990 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225

Visit Website

A burger cut in half with pickle slices in front and salad on the side. — The burger at Yellow Magnolia Café.

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JG Melon

1291 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10021

This Upper East Side mainstay dating to 1972 is a paragon of bar food. Sure the turkey club and chef’s salad are up to par, but the burgers command the most attention, especially when they pop up enticingly at the pass of the semi-open kitchen. The ground beef is fresh and the patty arrives deeply seared from the flat top, but still pink and juicy. Rippled cottage fries are the classic accompaniment.

Open in Google Maps

1291 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10021

Visit Website

A cheeseburger with pickles and purple onions in a paper boat. — JG Melon’s juicy specimen is a classic bar burger.

Pig Beach BBQ

35-37 36th St Ground Floor, Astoria, NY 11106

A great barbecue joint proves to be a pretty good place to look for a tasty burger. At the sprawling Astoria location of Pig Beach (the Gowanus original is closed), the modest-sized patty benefits from the wood smoke, and the cheese is applied with an unstinting hand, making for a gooey mess. Yes, the burger doesn’t look like much, but it’s delicious nevertheless.

Open in Google Maps

35-37 36th St Ground Floor, Astoria, NY 11106

Visit Website

A hand holds up a compact burger in a bun with melted cheese streaming. — The burger at Pig Beach BBQ.

White Mana Diner

470 Tonnele Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07307

Looking like a spaceship that landed by a nest of highway overpasses long ago, this spot has been located in Jersey City since 1946. Before that, the building started off as a minor attraction at the 1936 World's Fair in Flushing, Queens. Today, it serves classic sliders with cheese and pickles, small enough that you can eat two or three at its curving Formica counter. It was once open 24/7, but hours are now 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Open in Google Maps

470 Tonnele Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07307

A thin cheeseburger sits on top of a cupcake wrapper, with a stack of pickles on its bun — The simple burger at White Mana Diner.

S&P

174 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

Many worried when the Court Street Grocers took over the old Eisenberg’s that it wouldn’t be as good. Well, it is, and that includes the burger. It has been rehabilitated like it’s a burger of long ago — a modest patty, smothering American cheese, raw onions, plain dill pickles, and most importantly, glorious quantities of mustard. (Note that the burgers range form $9 to $12 — a deal these days.)

Open in Google Maps

174 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

Visit Website

A hand holds a modest cheeseburger. — S&P’s retro cheeseburger — no it’s not a smash burger.

Hollywood Diner

574 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011

The diner burger is making a comeback, and we’re beginning to realize it is a burger unique enough to have a category all its own. Similar to the smash burger, it’s seared, but on both sides, and the thicker patty is also cooked all the way through. While this makes it drier, it’s still great because double American cheese is annealed to both sides of the bun before the burger is assembled. Hollywood provides one of our best examples.

Open in Google Maps

574 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Visit Website

A plate with the halves of the bun side by side and the patty on one and pickles, slaw, tomatoes, lettuce on the side. — The Hollywood Diner cheeseburger.

Fairfax

234 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014

Maybe this burger at the all-day Fairfax, looks like a stunt burger, with more emphasis on appearance than taste. But you’d be wrong — topped with smoked cheddar and barbecue mayo, the flavor is sweet and smoky, with the potato sticks providing welcome crunch and extra salinity. And what’s with the goofy upside-down bun?

Open in Google Maps

234 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014

Visit Website

A burger with the bun upside down and potato sticks on top. — The burger at Fairfax in the West Village.

Nowon

507 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

First offered at the late East Village bar Black Emperor, this simple burger now lives on at chef Jae Lee’s Korean-American restaurant Nowon. Eater critic Ryan Sutton extolled the cheeseburger for its simplicity: a blend of chuck and short rib on a sesame bun with American cheese, kimchi mayo, and a hulking pickle skewered on top.

Open in Google Maps

507 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

Visit Website

A cheese burger placed on a white plate with a pattern along the border. The cheese burger is sandwiched in a sesame bun with a giant sliced pickle on top held together by a toothpick. — The Nowon cheeseburger, elegantly topped with a pickle spear.

Burger By Day

242 Grand St, New York, NY 10002

Burgers have invaded Chinatown in a big way with Burger By Day, occupying a mini food court that also boasts bubble tea right over the D train stop. The BBD smashburger comes with a pair of patties smashed into oblivion, the sear so profound the thing crackles when you bite into it. American cheese and the counter’s special sauce, which is pink and on the sweet side, finish up the package. A dozen burger sizes and configurations make it hard to decide.

Open in Google Maps

242 Grand St, New York, NY 10002

Visit Website

Two patties with cheese on top held by a hand. — The smash burger at Burger By Day.

BK Jani

679 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211

The burgers served at this Brooklyn Pakistani restaurant were so popular that owner Sibte Hassan outgrew his original home in Bushwick. He relocated to this expanded space in Williamsburg two weeks before the pandemic, where his fat, juicy patties now live on. The burgers here pack heat, without feeling heavy, and come with a grilled tomato slice and dab of mint chutney. There are additional locations inside Dekalb Market and at the Hugh food hall.

Open in Google Maps

679 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Visit Website

A white paper plate sitting on a table at Pakistani restaurant BK Jani featuring spicy fries, tamarind ketchup, and a burger — A burger from BK Jani with spicy fries.

Rolo’s

853 Onderdonk Ave, Queens, NY 11385

When a burger creeps toward the $20 mark, without fries, it’s held to a different standard: We expect better beef, a cheese that holds its own, and maybe a spoonful of jammy, caramelized onions to tie things together. Rolo’s in Ridgewood hits all the marks with its double cheeseburger, throwing a pickled hot pepper on the side like it’s an old-school Italian sandwich shop. It’s rich and meaty, the kind of burger you might not want to share but will be thankful you did.

Open in Google Maps

853 Onderdonk Ave, Queens, NY 11385

Visit Website

A hot pepper lounges on a plate next to a burger overflowing with crisp bacon. — The Rolo’s burger comes with a long hot pepper.

Pera Ždera (Peter Eater)

66-31 Myrtle Ave, Queens, NY 11385

A pljeskavica is a Balkan burger that features a combination of meats, often pork, lamb, and beef — though Muslim versions omit the pork. This particular rendition from a snack shop in Glendale features the onion-laced patty on a round bread called pogacha, dressed with a spicy red-pepper ajvar relish. The mascot is Popeye’s hamburger-eating friend Wimpy, who is known as Peter in Belgrade.

Open in Google Maps

66-31 Myrtle Ave, Queens, NY 11385

A burger in a mottled and irregular bun with some angry looking red sauce visible on the bottom half of the bun, lettuce, too. — Pljeskavica is a Balkan burger.

The Long Island Bar

110 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201

In 2013, Joel Tompkins and Toby Cecchini restored and re-opened Long Island Bar, a neighborhood fixture since 1951. Today, in addition to offering fabulous mid-century design, there’s the diminutive single dry-aged patty burger with pickles, cheese, fancy sauce, and fries. If you’re really hungry you can get the double-patty Long Island burger, but the former is sufficient and won’t weigh you down.

Open in Google Maps

110 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Visit Website

A small American flag attached to a toothpick sticks out of a burger oozing with yellow cheese. — The burger at the Long Island Bar.

Gus's Chop House

215 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Like many of the bigger burgers on this list, the off-menu one at Gus’s is best when shared. Grab hold of the bun and watch meat juices flow as you divide this burger with a steak knife that’s probably meant for the pricier lamb loin. The patty is made from a blend of pork, chuck, and dry-aged beef, then topped with raw and caramelized onions, aged cheddar, and cornichons. To note, this burger isn’t listed on the menu, and there’s a limited number made each night.

Open in Google Maps

215 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Visit Website

A burger with onions and melty cheese sits on a plate at Gus’s Chop House. — The off-menu burger at Gus’s.

Red Hook Tavern

329 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Whatever you heard about big burgers being “out” hasn’t fazed Red Hook Tavern. This restaurant from the team behind Hometown Bar-B-Que, in the same neighborhood, is known for its burger, a $28 patty topped with American cheese and a couple rings of raw onion. It’s served on a bun speckled with sesame seeds and a small mound of cottage fries.

Open in Google Maps

329 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Visit Website

Dry-aged burger with American cheese, white onions, and wedge fries — Potato wedges have since been swapped out for cottage fries.

Yellow Magnolia Café

Botanic Garden, 990 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225

If you’re looking for a burger quite literally “in the garden” drop by the Yellow Magnolia Cafe in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Mounted on a toasted brioche and mantled with gruyere, the patty is made with ground beef cut more coarse than usual and cooked medium rare, resulting in a more chew that explodes with beefy flavor, and a yellow slice of tomato further amplifies the cafe’s signature color.

Botanic Garden, 990 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225

Visit Website

A burger cut in half with pickle slices in front and salad on the side. — The burger at Yellow Magnolia Café.

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