The juicy cheeseburger au poivre at hot Shoreditch restaurant One Club Row comes with a dipping sauce richer than the collective net value of the room (which is high). Beefy, savoury, and moreish, it's the kind of sauce that makes you forget your manners—and the person sitting across from you. This is a tavern-style burger, so expect a thicker patty, served medium rare, with raw onions and pickles to cut through all the fattiness.

Of all the burgers on this list, Dove’s is the most elusive. The Notting Hill restaurant makes 10 per service from the offcuts of its bavette. When these babies are gone, they’re gone. It could smell like a gimmick, but what it actually smells like is melted gorgonzola draped over a juicy, thick patty. Uninterested in smashburger fads and best shared due to its richness, it’s combined with onions cooked in champagne and butter, and is blushing pink in the middle.

Four Legs made their name at The Compton Arms where they helped create a delicious and fun kind of pub eating. At The Plimsoll, a boozer in Finsbury Park, Four Legs have taken their winning combination of one of London’s best burgers and floral crockery to the next level. The Dexter burger is an outstanding piece of beefy, buttery craftsmanship. It’s all meat, cheese, sauce, and gherkins. No lettuce. If you’re not into McDonald’s-style burgers, you may not like this. But the odds are, you will.

Burnt has a halal menu and flavoursome BBQ platters. But the burger is our favourite thing to get. It’s so juicy and buttery that by the final bite, the bottom bun will have all but disintegrated. Hunker down in the archway near Leytonstone station, elbow-to-elbow on a shared table with strangers, and try not to make eye contact as you stretch your jaw biting into your double patty smashburger. The beef is incredibly tender, the onions are well caramelised, and the dill pickles bring some tang.

Arcade, a food hall near Tottenham Court Road station, is where you’ll find Manna and its perfectly formed smashburgers. It’s from the people behind Bake Street, so it’s no wonder the Nashville hot chicken is delicious, but when you’re in the mood for a dressed-up quarter pounder, their smashburger is an excellent move too. Heavy on the cheese, it’s also got plenty of pickles and some diced onion for good measure. Get a side of waffle fries as well, because… waffle fries.

Jupiter Burger is from the people behind Dom’s Subs, and they continue to prove how good they are at putting meat between bread (pillowy Martin’s potato rolls). This Netil Market stall looks like a ‘60s diner, but designed by Spock. The cheeseburger is our favourite, with four perfectly done elements—a buttery bun, a juicy, not-too-smashed patty, melting american cheese, and onions. It’s the ideal handheld size to wander around the market with.

If you’re into burgers, chances are you’re familiar with California-based In-N-Out Burger and its thin patties and not-so-secret menu. And chances are you wish you could try one of their burgers without jumping on an 11-hour flight to LAX. Thanks to Bun & Sum, an LA-style takeaway burger spot, you can have the next best thing in Mile End. The crispy smashpatties are stuffed between soft buns, and topped with everything from brisket or pastrami to a straightforward slice of American cheese.

This Hackney cafe’s fried chicken sandwiches are McDz-like in the best possible way. Soft buns, crisp, pounded chicken, and completely inhalable in under a minute. Flavours, be it a Nashville hot chicken or a spiced fish cutter, are above and beyond anything fast food-related, though. And for beef-lovers, the smashburger—a weekend-only menu highlight—is a perfectly done job, the kind that deserves a promotion.

For those who have never been big fans of the ultra-thick beef patty, a smashburger means finally having all the right ratios. And Buk’s special burger has a thin but substantial, flattened beef patty, a double portion of melted american cheese, plenty of creamy, chilli house sauce oozing over the patty, and sweet caramelised onion to top it all off. This halal burger laughs in the face of the Big Mac.

This American diner on the High Street in Uxbridge isn’t for those times when you could have a burger. It’s for those times when you want a burger that will result in unbuttoned jeans. Don’t let the hefty menu distract you. You want their signature Red Iron Burger. It’s got layers—yes, layers—of melted cheese, a juicy beef patty, house burger sauce, and jalapeños. Make sure to get the thick-cut chips on the side.

Junk's menu makes us fantasise about being hungover. A can of Coke Zero glued to one hand, a buttery soft, sweet bun in the other. The smashpatties at this Soho burger spot are lacy-edged but still juicy, the sweet onions are an extra worth adding, and the cookies will send your Fitbit into a sugar-related spiral. An S equates to one patty, an M to two, and so on all the way to an XXL five-patty burger. Go for at least an M, because they’re smashed thinly and meltingly soft.