The Bay Area is home to both old-school burgers and new wave creations introducing ideas like buns toasted in beef fat, laab patties, and triple cheese blends. There’s no need to choose between smashed or thick patties or traditional and modern when you can have it all.
Our Favorite Burgers Across the Bay Area
Zuni Cafe (San Francisco) is a staple in the city, but it’s easy to overlook their burger in favor of much more flashy dishes. The burger is pretty eye-catching in its own right with as it towers with bacon, charred onion, house-made pickles, and bleu cheese on slices of rosemary focaccia instead of buns.
Beep’s Burgers (San Francisco) is a retro burger spot dishing out thick quarter-pound Angus beef patties with classic toppings like lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. Their secret ingredient is a blend of mayo, ketchup, paprika, and cayenne. The best part? The burgers here are only 8 bucks.
True Laurel (San Francisco) technically doesn’t serve a burger, but we would argue that once you take a bite of their patty melt you’ll agree it’s up there with the best burgers in the bay. Their patties are made with dry-aged beef and crisped with lacy edges. We love that it’s served on a slice of bread well-toasted in tallow (beef fat). It’s filled with cheese, caramelized onions, and pickles for a simple sandwich that adds up to more than a sum of its parts.
Jo’s Modern Thai (Oakland) is known for their experimental Thai cuisine focused on fresh, colorful plates. You don’t want to sleep on their laab burger made with a fried pork patty, lettuce, cucumber, herbs, shallot, laab dressing, and makrut lime mayo. It’s a burger unlike any other. You won’t find any fries here, but if you’re used to pairing your burger with something crispy, we recommend their fried wings or to balance with freshness, get the crunch catfish salad.
Nopa serves one of the top burgers in the Bay Area thanks to their dedication to making everything from scratch. The patties are ground fresh daily using grass-fed chuck. They’re then grilled over almond wood and served on freshly baked brioche buns. They’re finished off with a blend of Gruyère, cheddar, and blue cheese.
Causwells is a modern American bistro that takes pride in their straightforward, yet expertly crafted burgers. The Americana burger is a classic with American cheese, Causwells sauce, lettuce, pickle, and onion. The Fancy Pants burger is dressed up with peppered pork confit, melted onion, taleggio cheese, butter lettuce, tomato aioli, and toasted brioche.
Maillards was named best smashburger in the Bay Area by both the SF Chronicle and SF Gate. We love the Maillards double that comes with two thin, crispy patties, caramelized shallots, American cheese, Maillard sauce, and housemade pickles on a Martin’s potato roll.
The Laundromat is a popular bagel shop, pizzeria, and natural wine bar, we included it in our ultimate breakfast guide. But it also serves a great burger that flies under the radar. The charred, juicy patty is complemented by their rich and savory sauce and pillowy buns.
Our Favorite Burgers at Off the Grid
Rock Club Burgers is a rock n’ roll-inspired burger truck with exciting names and flavors to fit. We love the Metallica with bacon jam, BBQ sauce and pepper jack cheese. The Korn burger cleverly plays on the name by adding Mexican-street-style corn, BBQ pulled pork, and cilantro. Our favorite is the Queen—a double beef patty topped with bacon and a crown of crispy fries protruding from the top bun. We appreciate that they go the extra mile and use homemade buns in all their burgers.
Satay by the Bay This food truck took the best of two worlds—grilled beef skewers and miniature burgers—and turned them into one. These sliders are mini versions of the truck’s popular satay sandwich, which comes filled with grilled marinated chicken, mayo, cucumber, jalapeño, and cilantro and Satay by the Bay SF’s signature peanut sauce.
Capelo’s Barbecue serves their famous brisket between two soft buns and tops it with pickles, onions, and a sweet or spicy sauce. The meat is smoky, tender, and juicy. We love their pulled pork sandwich topped with a sesame slaw before being drizzled with a savory porklicious sauce.
Bacon Bacon features a bacon double cheeseburger loaded with the classic toppings like lettuce and onions, but what takes it to the next level is their selection of optional toppings. You’ll want to try the bacon jam to boost the bacon flavor. Then, you’ll need to add pickled onions to balance the richness of all the other ingredients. Don’t forget to order a side of fries or, even better, add the fries into your burger for a streamlined eating experience.
Curveball specializes in sliders which are tiny sandwiches so you can feel less guilty about eating multiple in one sitting. Their curveball slider is filled with braised pork belly, American cheese, grilled onions, chipotle mayo, and housemade barbecue sauce. The fastball is a mini cheeseburger with beef, ketchup, and grilled onions. The screwball is their take on a fried chicken sandwich with celery slaw, red onions, buffalo sauce, and bleu cheese. Their vegetarian option is the mushroom melt made with roasted crimini, grilled onions, swiss cheese, herbs, garlic, and truffle oil.
Whether you’re a fan of crisp, lacy smash burgers or thick, juicy burgers, we’ve got you covered. Visit our catering page to bring burgers to your next event, we’ll get the grill fired up.
