A burger is a poor man’s steak. An excellent classic burger needs a decent quality ground beef with adequate fat marbling cooked to perfection — served between some sort of soft white buns.

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80 High Resolution Photos of DC’s Best Burgers

Nearly a year ago, I compiled a list of best burgers in DC. For the last couple of months, I have been eating more burgers in Washington DC metro to update DC’s best burger list – at least that was my excuse for eating all those burgers. Everywhere I ordered some sort of cheese burger cooked “medium rare”. If I got my burgers cooked medium, which most of the times it did, I considered it perfectly cooked.

I would like to point out the presented photos are photos of the real burger served to me during the visits, snapped on the spot without any props. They should be more realistic depiction of the burgers – unlike highly decorated publicity photos found in ads and other media.

My list is divided into the best burgers and some of other memorable burgers in DC.

Best Burgers in DC

Here’s my line up of some of DC’s best burgers. The best aspect of burger joints are highlighted inside the parenthesis.

Ray’s Hell Burger [Best Burger]
Rays in Arlington is still the best burger place in the DC metropolitan area. The simple reason is that Rays serves its burgers as requested. Rays is not afraid to give its customer burgers cooked medium rare (145 °F/ 63 °C). Generally all other places, even nice sit down restaurants, serve burger cooked at least one more step further, i.e., you always get burger cooked to at least medium or medium well when you order it medium rare. The generous 10oz beef patty cooked right results in extremely good Rays burger – the best I ever had. Having said that, Rays also serves probably the worst French fries with its burgers. I liked it when it didn’t used to serve fries. Now, it serves an obviously mass produced frozen fries that are not even of good quality. Go there hungry for burgers and skip the fries.

Good Stuff Eatery [Best Fries & Sauce]
Prez Obama Burger made with bacon, onion marmalade, roquefort cheese and horseradish mayo sauce, shows the creative and playful nature of menu of Good Stuff Eatery. The best items on Good Stuff Eatery are Spike’s village fries -topped with thyme, rosemary and Sunny’s hand-cut fries sprinkled with sea salt. The flavorful fries are complemented by playful creative variety of mayo based sauces with old bay seasoning , sriracha sauce (rooster sauce),  chipotle, and mango flavors. The strongest flavor was the old bay based may sauce and mango didn’t have a bit mango flavor. It seemed like the fries were divided into two categories of diners; one who are adventurous eater and others who never explore beyond – sea salt and good ol’ ketchup. Burgers are slightly smaller for my personal preference and snack fries are big enough to share between two nibblers. Shakes at $5.25 were disappointing. The flavor and consistency was similar to melted ice-cream in a 16 ounce cup. After burger and fries, shake was too much for me to finish, I barely finished half of it. However, I have heard good things about the shakes from many of my sweet-toothed friends.

Z-Burger [Best Onion Rings]
The burger in the Z-Burger is very similar to that of Five Guys in terms of their burgers and toppings. There is no point in trekking to the Z-Burger if you have Five Guys around the corner except to get their onion rings. The onion rings at Z-Burgers are the best in the world. The onion rings at the Z-Burger are huge, have more dough and seems freshly made. They are definitely not mass produced onion rings we get in every other restaurants and feels more like fried dough. Onion ring sauce was a mediocre mayo/ketchup/chipotle sauce. In my opinion, onion rings are good without the sauce. Z-burger also has a huge selection of shakes – I have yet to find any disappointing flavors, thus go with what you are in mood for.

Big Bun [Great Burger Salad]
Big bun is a burger joint hidden off near Ballston metro – literally hidden because it takes a few minutes find the place for anyone unfamiliar with it.  You have option of ordering beef, chicken, mahi mahi, or portobello mushroom burger in a bun or with greens as a burger salad. Some of the topping are unusually healthy/delicious- namely sprouts, grilled pineapple, avocado, and fried eggs.   Even, it’s slightly off beaten path, Big Bun is highly recommended for any burger and salad lovers.

Big Bun’s Angus Burger

Big Bun’s Mahi Mahi Burger Salad

Elevation Burger [Best Quality Ingredients]
After years of hearing Virginia friends brag about the Elevation Burger, one sunny afternoon we drove there. Elevation burger serves 100% organic grass-fed beef burgers. Burgers were made to order and tasted very similar to the Five Guys. Shake was decent and thick but not overly thick like an ice-cream. Fries were cooked in olive oil and tasted like normal fries without any olive smell. The Elevation Burger has a vegetarian burger as well, which is slightly dry, but has a decent flavor.  If you just care for the flavor, there is no point in driving to the Elevation burger. If you care about eating a quality meat, which happens to be 100% organic and grass-fed, the Elevation fits the bill.

Five Guys [Best Chain Burger]
Five Guys is undoubtedly the best fast food burger place is Best fast-food chain burger. With more than 750 burger joints across the country, Five Guys consistently serves decent made to order burger. I am not sure if it uses better quality meat than it other giant fast food competitors – the quality may be identical. In my opinion, the Five Guys burgers are good because they are grilled-to-order, the burgers don’t wait for you inside a wrapped up in paper in some kind of industrial food warmer.

Lindy’s Red Lion [Creative Burger Menu]
Lindy’s Red Lion in a friendly neighborhood hole-in-a-wall burger place that epitomizes the neighborhood local burger restaurants. It has most inventive burger menu. For instance, Neapolitan Burger with pizza sauce, black olive, provolone cheese or Davy Crockett Double Burger with BBQ sauce, bacon, fried onions. Lindy’s serves either sirloin burgers, veggie burgers or turkey burgers. A single burger is served in a regular hamburger bun, while double burger gets served in a six-inch soft sub roll. They also make their fries in soybean oil, which gives it a unique aroma and flavor.

Rogue States Burgers [Closed Now, Best Late Night Burger]

Closed now. Hopefully they open in new venue soon.

The late night kind of burger is Rogue States Burgers because there isn’t any other place where you can get similar quality of burger that late in night. I didn’t know it even existed until a Dupont resident kept on marveling about how late it opens. I ended there just before it close its door, after one of those over extended happy hours. Burgers were cooked to order and fries were good but not as memorable. There were burgers with different flavors, however, the hot burger was too hot for my preference.

Other Burgers in DC

Here’s my line up of some of the other memorable burgers in DC. The reasons they are memorable, both positive or negative, are stated with them.

Palena
Palena is a sit down restaurant that often tops list of one of the best burgers in DC and country.  Palena’s burger meat was cooked to order and had a decent flavor. It was served with thin slice of melted cheese between bread with some sort of creamy spread. The Palena Cheese Burger came with side of pickled vegetables. The Palena burgers are good. However, the burger is barely better than any decent burger found in many sit down restaurants. Simply, it didn’t live up to its overhyped fame and price.

Thunder Burger
Thunder Burger serves a decent quality meat cooked to the requested done-ness.  The burgers were juicy but their challah bun couldn’t withstand the juice from the meat and turned into mushy mess soon after. Thunder Burger has ambiance and pricing similar to bar and lounge.  It felt and tasted like I was eating burger in a restaurant but not a burger joint. Even with disappointing bun, the Thunder Burger is still the best burger in the Georgetown.

Fuddruckers
For price it charges, Fuddruckers DC may be one of the most over-priced burgers I have ever had. Avoid unless you love their salsa and other assorted topping bar for burger or just love their melted cheese. I happen to love their melted cheese dispenser.

Guarapo
Guarapo in Courthouse Arlington, just a few blocks away from Rays. served perfectly cooked Mama’s Burger. The burger is made with 8 oz sirloin beef pimento cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo (fresh salsa) and fresh guacamole. I absolutely liked the fresh salsa and guacamole on my burger. PS. I also like it’s name – Mama Burger.

The Cheesecake Factory
I never thought of The Cheesecake Factory as having a good burger. Their burgers, known as Glamburgers, are made with charbroiled Kobe or Angus beef served on toasted brioche bun. I was quite surprised by decent quality of the Cheesecake Factory burgers.

J Paul’s
J. Paul’s Burgers are simple and grilled as requested and served on brioche bun. Since J Pauls already serves variety of seafood entrée, this place is good for burgers when not everyone in your dining party eats beef. The burgers are average restaurant burger but this is the place I started developing my appreciation for a good burger.

Disclaimer
First, this is my personal list of favorite burgers in DC and in no way is any methodological burger ranking . I also don’t claim to have eaten every noteworthy burger in DC metro. However, I did eat more than two dozen burgers – mostly in places recommended by friends and hyped in the media.  I would love some more suggestions for good burger places in DC for next year’s update since couple of more specility burger restaurant are opening up this year as “DC has gone burger crazy”.

El Zarape
Right outside of the San Diego airport I went to eat late lunch in a small taquería, El Zarape. It was recommended by a San Diego native friend Eric. The taquería had charming non-chain ambience with the menu written on a blackboard. As recommended by Eric, I chose pork chili verde and fish tacos.

El El Zarape’s Menu

Food at El Zarape was exquisite and the salsas were amazing. My favorite sauce was the roasted tomato sauce. If I go there next time, I would order two of Eric’s other suggestions, chile relleno burrito and carne asada tacos. I didn’t get to try the other two places suggested by him, Cuatro Milpas and Cantina Mayahuel. According to him, servers in Cuatro Milpas don’t even speak in English – you order in Spanish for ridiculously great Mexican food. Cantina Mayahuel is supposed to be a quaint little tequila bar with great food, especially Tasajo style torta.

I learned about the Gaslamp quarter in downtown San Diego from a stranger while waiting at the airport.  The Gaslamp district got its name from ubiquitous gas lamps used in San Diego from the late nineteenth to the early part of the twentieth centuries.

Sultan Shawarma
The chicken shawarma sandwich at Sultan Shawarma in the Gaslamp quarter was a perfect pre-supper snack.  Shawarma is slow roasted meat grilled in a conical configuration on a big rotating skewer (like rotisserie).

Meat is usually marinated beforehand and is also flavored by adding onions and tomatoes on top of it. Maybe we were hungry at that time, but the homemade chicken shawarma was succulent and had a great flavor. One of the best shawarmas!

Dick’s Last Resort
We stopped by Dick’s Last Resort in Gaslamp quarter to get some drinks since it looked festive with all the Christmas lights. At first we were surprised by tongue in cheek service when our server tried to be rude. Later we realized the place was infamous Dallas based Dicks last resort chain, which resorts to funny and rude service. That’s why napkins were tossed everywhere to appear like no one cares – however the bathrooms were clean.

A meal of deep fried alligator bites and some other fried stuff went smoothly with their 24 oz Miller Lite drink special.  Our server tried to be rude and funny, although sometimes it came out offensive, but we still tried to have some fun with him. I can see that some people had funnier servers. Surprisingly, the service was decent even though they were supposed to be rude. It’s a fun place, but not for everyone.

Kono’s Café had the longest line for breakfast in Pacific Beach. They were serving amzing looking sub-five dollar egg burritos.

Cafe Coyote
Old town San Diego with museums and shops surrounded by agave plants is a definite tourist attraction.  We were drawn to Cafe Coyote after we saw a lady making fresh tortillas right on the patio outside the restaurant. A couple of tortillas were just a few dollars and there were a lot of  flavor options.  It was one of the best tortillas I ever had. The accompanying optional sauces made it my favorite place to snack in Old town, San Diego.

After that snack, we went to another Mexican restaurant for a meal. The restaurant remains nameless. However, being a Mexican restaurant in a border town, I was expecting a decent meal. Sadly, I have to report that it was one of the worst Mexican meals I ever had. Maybe it was a fluke but I was disappointed.

Next on the list was to try some of the west coast chains.

La Salsa
La Salsa, a Los Angeles based Mexican food chain, is, according to my California based cousin, famous for their fresh salsa bar.

Their taco salad and quesadillas were decent. Most importantly, I was surprised by their frozen alcoholic Margarita. It was better than I expected – maybe because I like margaritas with a slightly higher volume of tequila.

Yard House
Our early happy hour started at the Yard House in the gas lamp district. Yard house has an unbelievable draft beer selection of 150 beers or something. Hundreds of beers on tap makes it very difficult to choose –  we ended up choosing a sampler – indeed a good call.

In-N-Out
Many California native swear by In-N-Out burger. For our late night snack, animal style double-double burger with two patties seemed fitting. Animal style is basically any burger of choice with beef cooked with mustard and served with grilled onion pickle, lettuce, and tomatoes. Burgers at In-N-Out are very similar to the DC based Five Guys chain. Burgers were very good for a fast food chain and it was a good last meal before leaving San Diego.

New York style Chinese food
One of the funniest and somewhat existential food experiences I had was seeing a sign for Chinese food – it was for New York style “fine” Chinese food. There aren’t just New York style pizza and bagel shops any more.

The dining experience in Salt Lake City Utah challenged my beliefs on food culture. I stand corrected – now I believe a monochromatic city can have a vibrant diverse ethnic and local dining and drinking experience

First things first, beer. You would think predominately teetotaling Mormon Salt Lake City would have a non existence brewery scene. For being the 126th largest city in the United States, the city has impressive microbrewery selection. I had the pleasure of enjoying various brews, especially from two breweries, Wasatch and Squatters . My favorite brew had to be Wasatch brewery’s Polygamy Porter and Evolution amber ale.

Next we move to America’s favorite food, the burger. Downtown Salt Lake City has many burger joints. My choice was Acme Burger Company, a restaurant completely devoted to burgers. I was pleasantly surprised to find Indian style Tandoori burger along with bison burger. Obviously Tandoori burger is one of least popular, but the fact it’s on the menu speaks volume. My Tandoori chicken burger was perfectly spiced and cooked.  The portion by itself was comparatively small and little on expensive side. However, Acme is highly recommended for any burger lover, either you like Tandoori style or very old fashion bison meat.

Most popular ethnic food in Salt Lake City, Mexican and South American.  I saw more Mexican and South American restaurants, such as Brazilian, in Salt Lake City than American restaurant. All the street food/carts vendors were in essence Mexican taco stand.

On recommendation of a friend, we tried Blue Iguana. The ambience of restaurant was inviting, except for too many sombreros on the wall. The restaurant was famous of its mole sauces. Most Americans think mole poblano as the mole sauce. Mole poblano is type of mole prepared with dried chili peppers, nuts, cacao and other ingredients such as spice, onions, garlic, etc.  However, mole (which means sauce) can refer to any Mexican sauce, with its own nuisance and can be very time consuming to make.

My enchiladas amarillas came with corn tortilla rolled around a filling of roasted pork (carnitas) smothered generously with mole amarillo.  Enchiladas were good but mole amarillo, which means yellow sauce was better. I didn’t get to try more famous Iguana, the Red Iguana – next time maybe.

Another Mexican food stop was locally Utah based burrito chain called Barbacoa. The store was basically carbon copy of any ubiquitous Chipotle, except it has eco-friendly delivery option via its bicycles. By the way barbacoa refers to slow-cooked meat (whole animal) cooked in hole in the ground covered with leaves in Mexico.

Rumbi Island Grill is another Utah based tropical (Hawaiian?) themed casual dining chain. They have island inspired entrée consists mainly rice bowls, sandwiches, and salad – a good value.

Bayleaf Cafe is newage American restaurant serving globally inspired comfort food. The description sounded good but the restaurant had the slowest service for lunch even when it was not busy. Apart from that, the food was mediocre at the best.

Another surprise to me was number of Nepali/Tibetan/Indian restaurants. On a rough count Salt Lake City had at least four Nepali restaurants. I can’t vouch for their Nepaliness of their food. However, after walking through Himalayan Kitchen, it seemed more like a nice generic American-style Indian restaurant. If you want authentic Nepali food, ask a Nepali friend or politely ask waiter what Nepali food you can get.

I have to admit that the Salt Lake City’s food unexpected diversity maybe attributed to Mormon tradition of sending off missionary throughout world or huge population of outdoor traveling group of people. Nevertheless when people travel, their palates mature and change.

More photos on DesiGrub’s Facebook page.

Best Burgers in DC (Updated April 2011)

The Best Burger = high quality ground beef cooked until moist pink just start to disappear served between a toasted flour bun preferably with a slice of melted cheese on the meat. Other frills including extravagant toppings, sauces or different type of buns may add flavor to an already good burger but can’t improve a mediocre one.  My quest to find the best hamburger in the Washington DC took me to these five places.

The Burger Joint

I was really excited on opening of a new The Burger Joint few minutes away from my work in Dupont circle. My cousin (who drove in from Richmond, VA) and two of his friends made plans to eat at this well reviewed joint. On our arrival, we noticed that their fancy psychedelic disco lights were still turned on but the joint was closed for a training. After debating other dining options, such as sushi, we used our smartphones to track down another location in old town Alexandria. My cousin really wanted to eat lamb burgers and I really wanted to eat whatever was their most popular burger. I got 7 oz “The Wellington” burger. The flavor of mushrooms and caramelized onions with sauce served on highly enriched French Brioche bread was good. However, even after conversation with the cook about getting a medium rare burger, I got slightly rubbery well cooked one. At the same time, a friend who ordered an entirely different 10 oz burger well done got burger with bleeding red in the middle.  I could not get past the fact that the burger cost me 30-50% more than a burger at any other sit down restaurant such as J.Paul’s and Sequoia.

The Burger Joint's Wellington with sweet potato fries

The Burger Joint's Wellington (Yes lots of musrooms!)

5 Guys

Compared to any other fast food chain, burgers at Five Guys are good. Although you can’t request the doneness of your burger, the flavor of fresh meat comes through in medium well cooked burger. There are larger numbers of free toppings and sauces. Five Guys’ fresh potato fries are delightful as well. Be careful though, a regular burger and fries would be a too big lunch for a normal day, unless you are sharing the fries. Some of their locations give away free roasted peanuts in the shell while you wait. Few locations, such as the one in the Georgetown, also serve decent selection of beers.

Silver Diner

Diner burgers are hit or miss. I despise when a diner serves a generic frozen quarter pound beef cooked well with bread from chain grocery store. Silver Diner is a small chain based on DC area and it serves 8 oz burger usually cooked medium or medium well. Their burgers are comparable to any of the regular sit down restaurant’s burger.

Silver Diner's Avocado Bacon Burger

Founding Farmers

Founding Farmers claims to serve ground to order beef.  After about 30 minute wait in rainy weekday, two of us were seated in large cafeteria type table for dozen people. It was slightly awkward after they started to bring more people to our table. I ordered their The Fresh-Ground Cheeseburger. Maybe my expectations were high, but their burger tasted exactly like a regular burger at any mediocre restaurant. On the menu, I didn’t find any mention of quality of beef such as “grass-fed beef” or “organic”. Instead it just stated how the meat was processed; “ground-to-order”.

Founding Farmer's The Fresh-Ground Cheeseburger

Ray’s Hell Burger

Ray’s hell burgers epitomize simplicity of the hamburgers. Their 10 oz burgers are made from good quality ground beef (at least tastes like it) cooked exactly as requested served a toasted flour bun. Out of many burger places I have been to DC and elsewhere, Ray’s is the best burger I have ever tasted. Ray’s many free options for toppings and some fancy ones such as Foie Gras with truffle oil for 10 bucks. This time, I got fontina cheese burger cooked with recommended warm center (medium rare) with free toppings; cognac and sherry sautéed mushrooms, sautéed peppers, and  hot green piranha sauce on side — all under 10 bucks.  On the side note, they accept cash only. If you eat beef, my suggestion is to go to Ray’s Hell Burger  to start appreciating this simple American food, hamburger.

Ray's Hell Burger

Ray's Hell Burger with recommended red warm center