Lined with nostalgic decorations like a museum, Harlem Shake’s patties are as thin as they come. The meat is crisp around the edges with a nice beef flavor, and a slice of American cheese is draped underneath. Burgers can be ordered with a few unusual toppings, like pickled cherry peppers and bacon, called the “hot mess,” or french fries and mayo seasoned with jerk spice. There’s a second location in Park Slope.

A newcomer to Hell’s Kitchen, Lovely’s offers a spare menu centered on a smash burger with cheese. It’s served on a buttered bun with mayo, pickles, and raw onion by default, and a couple of premium sauces are available for an added cost. Traditional fries can be replaced with onion rings, and there are two desserts on the menu: chocolate chip cookies and bundt cakes.

The latest branch of this Israeli chain is found at the Hugh, a food court in Midtown East. On a menu with lamb kebabs and ratatouille, there’s also an unexpectedly good burger. It features a skinny beef patty that’s seared into oblivion on one side, folded over white cheddar, slathered with garlic aioli, and garnished with tomato and pickles. It’s served in a fluffy pita.

The term smash burger may have been popularized in 2007 by Denver’s Smashburger chain, but the concept has been around far longer, dating back nearly a century ago when burgers were thin, cooked to a well-done temperature, and flattened with a spatula during the cooking process. White Mana started life as a kiosk at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows and was later transplanted to a nest of highways at the foot of Jersey City Heights. The burgers are ultra-thin and taste as if they’ve bathed in the grease of the millions of patties that came before them.

Petey’s is a small restaurant in Astoria that’s been serving affordable burgers since 2008. (There’s a second branch in Long Island City.) Anticipating the trend by more than a decade, it makes a near-perfect smash burger without calling it one: thin patties are charred on the surface but remain miraculously juicy inside. With a skateboard theme, the dining room is particularly comfy for a burger joint.

You wouldn’t expect to find a great smash burger at a hot dog restaurant named for papaya juice, but Chelsea Papaya prepares its patties with unusual care, smashing them repeatedly to release excess moisture so that you end up with a paragon of the genre. Burgers are ordered face-to-face from a cook, like at a bodega, and they can be adjusted to your standards: more done, no ketchup, a toasted bun, and so forth.

Shake Shack started as a seasonal stand in Madison Square Park in 2001. Two decades later, it has more than 400 locations scattered across the globe. It’s the rare example of a chain that’s managed to keep up quality while expanding rapidly. Lettuce, tomato, American cheese, and a squirt of Shack Sauce serve as supporting roles for one of New York’s most popular smash burgers. What these patties lack in char, they make up for in size: You’d be hard-pressed to find a burger with more beef for under $10.

When 7th Street Burger opened in 2021 in the former Caracas Arepa Bar space in the East Village, it caused a sensation. The idea is extreme simplicity: It sells only three cheeseburgers (a single, a double, and a vegetarian version made with Impossible Meat) that are seared and smashed flat with a slice of American cheese and a squirt of sauce. It’s smash burger heaven, and the chain has held up as it expands across the city. There are now around a dozen branches.

Though diminutive in size, Mighties in the Market Line food hall, under Essex Market, comes from chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra, who run the restaurants Contra and Wildair. Its connection with the Ends Meat butcher counter a few steps away guarantees the freshest beef. The little Mighties burger consists of a skinny patty, or two, with onions, pickles, cheddar cheese, and a burger sauce that tastes like the one at McDonald’s, across the street.

Beck and Call, a small cafe in Williamsburg, shut down this spring, but its owners held onto the space and opened this new restaurant in its place. It serves natural wine starting at 8 a.m. most days and a version of the McGriddle breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s that’s viral on TikTok, but its smash burger is the best thing on the menu. Two patties are piled on a potato bun with pickles and American cheese. It’s the kind of burger you could easily eat two of.

Smashed became one of the earliest arrivals in the new wave of smash burger spots when it opened in 2021, and it now has a second location in the West Village. The signature burger comes with the choice of one, two, or three seared patties on a potato roll with American cheese, griddled and raw onions, pickles, and burger sauce. Also popular is the Big Smacc, a “smash burger Big Mac,” served on a sesame seed bun.