Whether you like yours sloppy, salty, cheesy or smashed, there are few things more satisfying than a really good burger. Happily, Britain has become extremely good at them, with brilliant versions now found everywhere from pubs and restaurants to tiny independent burger joints.
Here’s our pick of the best…
If you have come up all this way, you will want a sense of place as you settle down for a comforting burger and a pint in a very good pub. And if you’re local, you will relish a bite or two of pure escapism as you relax in a buzzy beer garden. Luckily for you, The Anderson has both covered. Its signature Black Isle is a steak burger topped with bacon and Munro’s haggis, and comes with the option of a flame-grilled or smashed patty. I recommend having the former: it is a great old-school steak house bite, served with fries and an onion ring.
Double smash burger
Opened in 2024 by chef Roberta Hall-McCarron and husband Shaun next to their flagship bistro The Little Chartroom, Ardfern is an all-day café, bar and bottle shop rather than a specific burger spot. Roberta and her team have pedigree, and it shows: this is a Michelin-recognised chef applying serious restaurant talent to the simplest possible cheeseburger. Listed as such, this is a deliberately uncluttered double smash burger with cheese, pickles and bacon mayo. If you’re even relatively close to Leith, you would do well to make time to pop in for one.
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
Sales of battery
electric vehicles hit a record high last year.
Starts at £22,995 for the smaller battery
Available with either a 40kWh battery or a larger 52kWh pack, that offers almost 255 miles, the latest, retro-inspired Renault 5 is both a joy to behold and a hoot to drive.
The interior has been lavished with a level of detail that’s typically reserved for more expensive cars.
4 min read
A champion of EV efficiency
It offers a remarkable 491 mile range on a single charge from the 85kWh battery.
It is a technological masterclass inside with the ability to option screens that span the entire width of the dashboard, including an optional display for the front passenger.
Priced from £37,400
2 min read
It’s a lot of money to part with, but this is arguably all the car you will ever need.
The £89,000 Macan is a premium SUV that somehow manages to blend Porsche’s reputation for dynamics and sporty driving with everyday practicality.
The 95kWh batteries can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 21 minutes from the fastest public charging outlets.
With the business class-style six seat configuration costing a staggering £76,995, it is by far the most expensive Kia ever made, but it backs up its financial demands with a suite of genuinely useful and impressive onboard technology.
It’s fast, goes a long way between stops and charges relatively quickly but the interior is bland, the onboard technology is infuriating and the experience is devoid of emotion.
All of its gadgetry can’t disguise the fact that performance is weak, even for a typically zippy EV, the ride is fussy at slower speeds and it’s not in the least bit enjoyable to drive on a country road.
- While good value (prices start at £17,935) for the 200-mile max range, there are more interesting options from Hyundai, Citroen and Renault for similar money.
- It attempts to wow with tech, much of which hinders, rather than helps.
- There’s no tangible benefit over mounting your phone to the dash.
- Simply an average driving experience, adequate range and slow charging speeds.
2 min read
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Victorinox paring knife
It’s comfortable to hold, with a point sharp enough for scoring pastry.
ProCook cast iron pan
For unbeatable searing and heat-retention, cast iron is the top choice.
Tesco chopping board
Priced at just £22, I’ve yet to find another board that matches it for sheer value and quality.
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Pyrex jug
It is the perfect vessel for blending smooth sauces, melting butter, or warming stock. It won’t stain like plastic and the red measurements never fade.
Salter scales
“I’ve had my slim little set of Salter Disc Scales for over a decade, and I’m delighted to see they are still made to exactly the same reliable design today.”
Microplane grater
It uses photo-etched stainless steel teeth that stay razor-sharp for a decade, something the lookalike copycats simply can’t match.
Braun hand-held blender
It’s an essential for everything from making velvety soup to getting the lumps out of white sauce.
Bodum cafetiere
As well as delivering great results, cafetieres are easy to clean and there’s no ongoing filter paper costs or pod recycling to deal with.
5 min read
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Oxo peeler
What truly sets it apart is the chunky, rubberised handle that absorbs pressure and stays completely non-slip, even if your hands are wet. It is inexpensive and incredibly durable.
Falcon pie dish
Made by fusing porcelain onto heavy-gauge steel for smooth durability, it is dishwasher, freezer, hob, air-fryer and oven-safe.
The golden rules for a happy, secure relationship
Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Amir Levine, author of bestselling book , explains why we behave the way we do in love.
Golden rules for happy relationships
Start with your own behaviours
The foundation of a secure, connected life is being what I call CARRP: that means being consistent, available, responsive, reliable and predictable. All of these qualities can be enacted in small gestures every day.
Express your needs
People need consistency and connection to feel safe. This is not, ‘You hurt my feelings by never replying to me’, it’s more ‘this is the kind of contact that helps me feel secure’.
Golden rules for happy relationships
The appendix ‘inflammation’ rule
If a relationship repeatedly inflames your nervous system, you need to disengage and deprioritise it.
Lean on community
You don’t need hundreds of friends. You need people and places that regularly remind you that you belong.
Stop blaming childhood
Humans are much more complicated than: ‘this happened to you, therefore you are doomed to be anxious’.
Reach for a
secure script
When something unsettles you in a relationship, your first reaction is not always the most accurate one.
If you’re anxious, your brain may jump very quickly to: ‘this is the beginning of the end’. If you’re avoidant, your brain may say: ‘this person wants too much from me, I need to get away’. So one very practical thing you can always do is pause and ask: ‘What would a secure person do here?’
Loneliness elsewhere
When people talk about loneliness, they often assume it means you don’t have enough people in your life. But you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely if those relationships leave you feeling excluded, ignored or disconnected.
What to do
- Build a community that works for your temperament and gives you regular, reliable moments of connection.
- You can still be kind to people while not treating them as someone who belongs in your inner circle.
- Explain what you need. Sometimes people simply don’t realise how you are experiencing them.
- Check in with people: does this person actually feel that I’m reliable? Do they experience me as predictable? That’s the only way that you can start to become more secure.
Do some foods leave
you feeling hungry rather than satiated? Experts say there are…
Foods that leave you hungrier
A bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice
More refined cereals are digested quickly, and fruit juice, whilst one of your five-a-day, contains less fibre than whole fruit. This might mean you find yourself hungry again within 1-2 hours of eating this breakfast.
Swap the orange juice for a whole orange, the cereal for oats and milk or serve it with Greek yoghurt or a boiled egg. This would increase the fibre and protein content; two nutrients strongly linked with fullness.
Foods that leave you hungrier
These pastries are made primarily from refined flour and butter, and are relatively low in protein and fibre.
Toast and jam
Shop-bought packs can contain a lot of white rice, which is digested quickly, and the protein content is often modest.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Vegetable soup
On its own, it is often very low in protein and calories, so hunger can return quickly.
Unless it’s loaded with veggies, it’s probably pretty low in fibre.
Liquids are generally less filling as they require little chewing which may not trigger satiety signals.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Snack bars
They are ideal for a quick pick-me-up, but if reducing hunger is what you’re after, it’d be better to swap it out.
Low-fat yoghurt
A full-fat plain Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds tends to be much more filling due to the protein, fat and fibre.
On an empty stomach, it can actually increase your appetite.
What to eat instead
Instead of thinking about avoiding foods, think about what you can add to them.
- Add beans, lentils or shredded chicken to your vegetable soup and pasta.
- Thicken your smoothies with Greek yoghurt, chia seeds and oats.
- Apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt with berries and hummus with oat biscuits are better snack options than a pre-made snack bar.
- Have alcohol alongside a balanced meal containing protein and fibre.
How to age well
without pain
Will Harlow, a physiotherapist
for the over-50s and author of Independence for Life, shares
the key signs you’re ageing
badly – and what to do about it.
How to know
Ageing well is maintaining the ability to do what you want you want for as long as you want without needing help. Everyone is talking about longevity but what’s the point in living longer if the last decade is painful and you’re [totally] reliant on people?”
The signs to look out for
- The most obvious early warning sign of bad ageing is pain says Harlow.
- Another is losing confidence in doing daily tasks, which can quickly lead to a lack of independence.
- One call Harlow often receives is people calling after having a fall and struggling to get up.
4 min read
How to age without pain
Not just stopping
When people retire, they often put their feet up and stop. Your body really is use it or lose it.
Throughout our entire lives, Harlow says we need between seven and nine hours of sleep.
Social isolation
The lack of connection can increase the risk of premature death by
as much as 29 per cent.
Strength training
It really is the proxy for
overall independence.
The more muscle mass you have, the less chance of heart disease, diabetes, falls and even anxiety, depression and dementia.
The brain can be linked to muscle mass too, Harlow says. It’s not just about being able to lift things. It gives you more energy, better sleep and you’ll look and feel better.
How to age without pain
Daily habits
Do short bursts of exercise, between 30 and 60 seconds, in otherwise dead time during the day.
Stretch in bed
Take joints through a full range of motion for five minutes to loosen it before getting up.
Don’t crash diet
How to age without pain
Harlow advises 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight to stop muscle loss alongside resistance training.
Don’t wait
Harlow finds that many patients put off making a change to their lifestyle until their lives are consumed by pain.
For most people, it’s about reducing the number of times per week you’re exercising, not reducing intensity.
The three ageing tests to do
- Lie completely flat on the floor and get back up to a standing position using any technique. This should take less than 10 seconds.
See how many times you can sit on the chair and stand back up again in 30 seconds. Men should be aiming for more than 14 times and women 12.
The single-leg stand, which involves standing on one leg and balancing for 10 seconds. Everyone should be able to do that and for those under 65, Harlow asks them to do it with their eyes closed.
Despite the job market hiring fewer entry-level roles, employers are still looking for grads…
But you should be prepared to keep an open mind.
We’ve compiled the sectors hiring graduate roles, what degree is required, and what they pay.
The degrees to choose for a career
Hiring in the UK could
finally be on the up
47%
of employers offered entry-level
positions from July.
That is up nearly 15 per cent from the same period last year.
700,000
But graduate unemployment rose to six per cent in 2025 and 700,000 jobless graduates were claiming benefits.
Finance and insurance
- Around 42 per cent of UK finance and insurance employers say they will be open to graduate roles this summer.
- Business loan company Portman Finance Group has taken on 50 graduates over the past four years.
Portman graduates start on £36,000 for the two-year programme and the education you need to apply is a minimum “ABB” of A-levels, and a 2:1 or above university degree. But not in a specific subject.
Trade and logistics
What makes it particularly rewarding is that there’s always something to learn.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of trade and logistics companies will be giving graduates a go this year.
Salaries start at £30,000 with an uncapped bonus, rising to £50,000 plus a company car as a senior account partner.
Technology and IT
More than half (52 per cent) of UK tech and IT firms are actively looking for graduates.
Successful entry-level candidates can earn a basic salary of up to £35,000, with the opportunity to triple that within their first three years of working.
4 min read
Public sector, health
and social services
46 per cent of public sector, health and social services organisations are also ready to take graduates, according to a survey by Manpower.
- For example, Police Now runs a graduate programme into policing. They recruit graduates from any degree field, as long as they achieve a 2:2 or above. Starting salaries range from £31,164 to £42,210 depending on location and rising each year.
Can we treat guests without blowing our budget?
According to Waitrose, a dinner party revival is underway led by younger people trying to reduce the cost of getting together.
Always have bread
People will feast on the
ELLA RISBRIDGER, AUTHOR OF THE KITCHEN BOOK – GOOD FOOD FOR EVERY DAY
bread, and then need less fish/steak/expensive whatever. All small plates restaurants know this: this is why the first thing on the menu is always artisan bread and butter.
Use vegetables as centrepieces
Add pantry items
Graham’s recipes include a braised cabbage with a preserved lemon sauce, a roast cauliflower with saffron, and harrisa roast carrots with mango labneh.
How to host on a budget
Improve the everyday
Guests will always appreciate a stellar interpretation of the ordinary. Think lasagna or curry.
Cooking dinner for your guests is spoiling them – you’re being generous with your time, your effort, and your home. So don’t feel the need to go overboard elsewhere.
Ask for help
Ask friends to bring a contribution, be it a nibble or a pudding.
Big platter energy
[Presentation] can be the key to elevating something . Spaghetti and tomato sauce suddenly looks like a feast when tumbled on a lovely big plate, dressed with olive oil and parmesan and placed in the middle of the table.
Food writer and editor Eleanor Steafel
How to host on a budget
Taco party
Have one expensive filling, like shredded chicken, and two cheaper options, like refried beans, says Ella Risbridger.
Shop-bought ice cream is so easily zhuzhed up with the help of handy toppings, says Eleanor Steafel.
Luther burger
Brilliant burgers are not always about restraint: sometimes you want unbridled joy and escapism in your meal. This is exemplified nowhere better than at Bread Meats Bread and is especially true of the Luther burger, where no bread is involved. This gloriously excessive offering replaces the bun with two toasted glazed ring doughnuts, sandwiching a cheeseburger with candied bacon, spicy honey mayo and crispy onions. Sounds too much, doesn’t it? But trust me, sometimes it’s exactly what is needed.
Founder Mike Phillips devised Fat Hippo as a university business plan, opening the first restaurant in a little Jesmond end-of-terrace in 2010. One suspects his tutors would be proud of the 13-site behemoth Fat Hippo has become. The menu is broad and a gluttonous spirit is rewarded. Options such as the Wild Bill, with its tater tots and jalapeño ranch, or the Fat Hippo, which has onion rings, chorizo and naughty Hippo sauce, come highly recommended, but the PB+JJ is the jewel in the crown. Peanut butter sounds like a stunt until you taste the combination of fat with salty sweetness, smoke and spice through bacon jam and smoked chilli jello.
The Round is in Keswick’s Market Square, just footsteps from Moot Hall, which is the start and finish of the Bob Graham Round – a 42-peak Lake District fell-running challenge. It is not a feat of endurance that I am willing to attempt, but the restaurant’s branding, décor and burger names offer a comfortable alternative as they play on Lakeland fells and the legendary challenge. Its finest burger, the Pike O’Pickle, is named after one of said fells, the Pike O’ Stickle. It brings together Cumbrian beef, smoked bacon, American cheese, house pickles, lettuce, tomato, and burger sauce. It is very good and very of this place. If you find yourself in the unfortunate circumstance of taking on the Bob Graham Round, find solace in this burger.
Started in Dublin in 2013 by cousins Tom and Finn Gleeson, Bunsen first opened up in Belfast in 2017. Its defining characteristic is ruthless simplicity: the food menu, famously, is small enough to fit on a business card. There is a burger, a cheeseburger, a double of either, a soda, a milkshake, and fries. That’s it. They use 100 per cent Irish beef, mincing the meat inside each restaurant, shaping the burgers by hand and adding only salt and pepper immediately before grilling. In a genre full of outrageous toppings, Bunsen’s burger is your argument for doing very little, but exceptionally well.
Double cheese classic
In direct contrast to Bunsen, Craft Burger is unashamedly bombastic in its burger creations and business ambitions. Started by two local lads, the concept has since travelled around the North East and even as far afield as Lahore: franchising opportunities are displayed as prominently as menu options on their website. Crucially for this list, the burgers are very good too. And while the Asian-inspired Naga Flex or the Doritos Heatwave smash are temptations hard to ignore, the double cheese classic would be my choice, combining two fresh Angus beef patties, melted cheese, Craft burger sauce and crispy lettuce on a toasted potato bun.
Tommy Banks is hospitality royalty. His 19th-century pub won Best Sunday Roast from The Good Food Guide in 2024 and Sustainable Pub of the Year at the 2025 Top 50 Gastropub Awards. He also owns The Black Swan at Oldstead and Roots in York, which both have a Michelin star, and has been a competitor and judge on . He also grew up nearby in Oldstead in a farming family and still grows much of his produce. Here the Dexter beef for the burger was reared only one mile away and is rounded out with cheese, bacon, and chicory root jam, making a rarefied thing indeed. That the fries are cooked in pork fat only sweetens the deal further.
Phoenix burger
Founded in Manchester in 2012, Almost Famous started with two rooms, one griddle and a queue that would not disappear. It is the 2010s “dirty burger” craze personified, and it has endured gloriously. They do it properly too: their beef comes through Althams, Lancashire butchers since 1856, using heritage breeds including Aberdeen Angus, Hereford and Shorthorn. But it’s what they do with it that counts. The Phoenix combines the very good beef patties with cheese, bacon, shoestring onions, Frazzles, red chillies, Redneck BBQ sauce, bacon mayo and bacon ketchup. That plus a milkshake and you’re in nostalgic peak-burger nirvana. It feels good to be back.
Another British burger stalwart to have spawned from that “dirty burger” boom, Free State Kitchen is much loved and family owned, serving its American comfort food from a Liverpool townhouse with a bonus garden out the back. Its double French onion burger is basically French onion soup translated into a burger, which is exactly as good as it sounds. I mean good beef patties, garlic butter, Swiss cheese, caramelised onions and Dijon mustard mayo, all on a brioche bun. Impossible not to love.
Slap & Pickle began as a one-off south London pop-up before its first permanent burger joint opened in Leeds in 2018. Now they have two sites in Sheffield and one in Manchester. Their beef patties use 40-day dry-aged beef from Swaledale Butchers, one of Yorkshire’s best, which sets them apart from the start. Their signature burger is the Personal Cheezus, a double patty cheeseburger which is pure joy. But I recommend getting their Han Solo, a single patty hamburger, and asking for it Oklahoma style – with wafer-thin onions smashed into the patty.
Mortadella burger
The Original Patty Men, Tom Maher and Scott O’Byrne, emerged from Birmingham’s formative street-food scene, operating from their “Meat Mansion” gazebo before winning Best Burger at the 2014 British Street Food Awards with their Japanese-influenced Sumo creation. This tells you everything you need to know about their beautiful burgers – be it the Pineapple Express, with its pineapple hot sauce, or the Louisiana Slammer with its lemon pepper mayo and thick-cut pickles. The Mortadella is one of the most original burgers in the British Isles. Topping aged patties with American and Swiss cheese, folds of grilled mortadella, sauerkraut and thick-cut pickles gives you a burger that is like nothing you’ve tasted before. It makes it hard to return to a regular burger, although return you must – unless you live within striking distance of Digbeth. In which case, lucky you.
“Born in a tent, raised in a warehouse” is how The Flavour Trailer describe themselves. And that Brixworth warehouse in the Northamptonshire countryside is now the base for an operation that spans seven food trucks doing God’s work across the Midlands. The Bacon Flavour burger is a truly classic construction that combines locally sourced aged beef with Swiss and American cheese, smoky streaky bacon, iceberg lettuce, pickled red onions, gherkins and the house burger sauce, all in a toasted potato bun. Nothing especially clever there, aside from the on-point cooking and perfect sourcing (and saucing). The Flavour Trailer won Vegan Burger of the Year at the 2023 National Burger Awards, and its beef-dripping-loaded creation The Drip reached the national finals again in 2026.
Hanbao burger
Not a typical burger-based origin story, the founders of Hanbao opened in Worcester in 2016 after they had quit their jobs and travelled through Hong Kong, China and the US, soaking up everything from neon basement bars and street-food stalls to American diners in the search for their perfect burger bar. Hanbao means “burger” in Mandarin and the burger spot they have created is deliberately conceived as an East-meets-West restaurant. All of which makes the char siu bacon in their signature Hanbao burger miles more than just a delicious Asian garnish in a very good burger – it is a nod to the whole origin story of the restaurant. My advice is to use the Hanbao as your gateway drug here: do not fear spiralling out of control and ending up with an Odd Future in your hands. It’s my second favourite burger to use glazed doughnuts as a bun. You can thank me later.
The Beefy Boys began when four friends started experimenting on typical back-garden barbecues around fifteen years ago. That early tinkering became a series of pop-ups, which before long led to them representing Britain at the World Food Championships in Las Vegas. They finished second in the world and used their winnings to open their first Hereford restaurant in 2015. The rest, as they say, is history: they now have six sites across the country. It goes without saying that their burgers are very good indeed, and the Chilli Cheese Boy is a pure Americana. The 100 per cent Hereford beef patties are topped with American and Swiss cheese, bacon, beef chilli, nacho cheese sauce, sour cream, Ball Park mustard, chives and pickled jalapeños.
Ham Jam Thank You Ma’am
This great little business from Hitchin was certainly punching above its weight when it made the finals of the National Burger Awards this year – its signature burger took third in the Bloggers’ Choice category. It is not the one that took them all the way to the finals, but the Ham Jam Thank You Ma’am is the one for me: a single dry-aged patty, their famous chorizo jam, manchego, shards of crispy serrano ham and a confit garlic mayo all make for a unique and engaging burger experience. And all in sunny Hitchin. What more could you ask for?
The Pig & Apple sits at Upper Meend Farm, home of Humble by Nature, Kate Humble’s working mixed livestock farm in the Monmouthshire countryside. It is deliberately off the beaten track and uses high-quality ingredients, often from suppliers based within the county. And it shows in the burgers, which are towering creations featuring the best local ingredients. The Pig Mac is a classic construction of two beef patties, cheese, bacon, lettuce, red onion, gherkins and Pig sauce, their take on a classic burger sauce. It’s a treat worth travelling for.
School friends Jack Phillips and Marcin Sadlos, from Port Talbot, were working full-time engineering jobs but decided in 2021 to buy a burger van, despite having no commercial-kitchen experience. That somewhat reckless impulsivity has been a loss for Welsh engineering, but an unequivocal gain for the burger fans of South Wales. Burger Boyz’ creations are no-holds-barred: the Chuck Norris, one of the burgers invented on their original truck, combines two smashed beef patties, American cheese, crispy bacon, candied onions and Norris sauce – which is addictive and a closely guarded secret. Their meat is Welsh ex-dairy beef – delivered freshly minced, hand-rolled daily and smashed to order – and has a depth of flavour that is hard to turn your back on. Branches in Port Talbot, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.
Aged cheese burger
Run by husband-and-wife team Sam and Alicja Bryant, every burger ever sold by Whole Beast has been cooked by one or the other of them. Starting with pop-ups in pubs around south London, Whole Beast now has a standalone site in Brixton where their nose-to-tail, live-fire cooking philosophy can be seen at full throttle.
They buy whole animals and have a plan for every one that comes into the building. And that plan includes using the stuff they cannot use elsewhere for possibly the best burger I have ever eaten. This aged cheese burger is not merely award-winning: in September 2024, the National Burger Awards brought back previous champions for its tenth anniversary edition, and Whole Beast beat the field to be crowned Burger Champion of Champions with exactly this burger. In all its glory it is aged beef, smoked bone marrow, bread-and-butter pickles, diced white onion, American cheese, Whole Beast burger sauce and a milk bun. You simply must go and try it for yourself.
Founded in Bristol 2018 by two brothers with a focus on locally sourced ingredients, grass-fed aged meat and their own signature bun, Milk Bun feels fancier and more polished than many of the street-food-seeded joints on the list. It puts you in mind of a high-end New York hotel lobby bar and the crisp, simple offering you might find there. There are four burger options: a simple smash, a cheeseburger, a chilli jam and peanut butter treat – and then there is the Mira. This construction combines patty, American cheese, white onion, beef tallow mayo and garlic jam in a burger that is considerably more delicious than the sum of its parts would suggest.
Starting as a sandwich shop that launched just before the pandemic, Please Sir! pivoted to burgers when owner Steve Lawrence needed an offering that could bring in money during lockdown. Starting with just a cheeseburger and his stated aim to “be the best”, he was soon selling 1,500 burgers a week from a single grill. People were loving the cheeseburgers so much that they kept asking him, “what else have you got?”. And so he’d conceive of another burger and add it to the menu.
He now has sites across east Kent – and if you find yourself nearby, The Splash is a rare treat. Taking inspiration from “French dip” sandwiches, this wonderfully simple smash burger features American cheese and is accompanied by a pot of beef-dripping gravy for dunking. So simple and yet so pleasing.
“Farm to table” can be meaningless restaurant rhetoric, but at Hoof it is literal: the cattle and potatoes travel four miles to the restaurant from the owner’s farm (only Tommy Banks of Yorkshire can beat that). Tired of formulaic chain restaurants, Hoof set out to do it differently, creating something radically local. The Hoof uses 100 per cent prime ground beef, cheddar, tomato, baby gem and homemade pickled cucumber, with fries made from the farm’s own potatoes and homemade tomato relish to round it all out. This feels like a pure expression of British farming on a plate, and is a joy to eat as such.
Mariners burger
Here again, Michelin pedigree meets storytelling – all played out on the simple canvas that is a good British pub burger. Having taken over The Mariners, a quayside pub in Rock, Paul Ainsworth proves to us that even the casual end of his oeuvre comes with serious consideration and technique. This is brought to bear on every element of the menu, but particularly so in the signature Mariners burger: a grilled aged beef patty from Cornwall’s best butcher, Philip Warren, plus smoked bacon, Cornish brie, tomato and nigella seed relish, pickles, lettuce and tomato in a clotted-cream bun. A thing of pure beauty.
As long ago as 2003, founder Richard Boon’s idea was to serve American-style street food made with well-sourced quality Cornish ingredients. Fast forward to 2015 and his Big Kahuna burger was the winner of the inaugural National Burger Awards. And so for over two decades Hub has served exemplary burgers on a Cornish harbour, preceding the current smash burger boom and looking likely to long outlive it too. The chilli cheeseburger is about as maximal as a burger can get while remaining a genuine treat to eat. The patties are topped with short rib chilli, pork ‘nduja, smoked cheddar, chipotle mayo, candied jalapeños, green chillies, tomato, and butterhead lettuce.
‘All You Can Eat’ by Ben Benton is out now (Profile Books, £18.99)