Our current pick for NYC's best burger is the thick, classic, purist’s delight at Red Hook Tavern. Guaranteed to be on every table in this cozy, saloon-like corner spot in Brooklyn, the burger is pretty simple: sesame seed bun, cheese blanket, Big Meat, and slightly sweaty onion. The quality beef patty is so tender that it falls apart like it had a long day and is eternally grateful to be at home in your mouth.

When you picture LA, maybe you think of traffic and celebrities wearing sunglasses inside. Here’s a better image: you, the beach, wine, oysters, and Dudley Market’s glam, beefy monster of a burger. Say hello to our favorite fancy restaurant burger in Los Angeles—a perfectly pink patty stacked with cheddar cheese, dill aioli, arugula, and caramelized onion-bacon jam, all on a brioche bun. It’s sweet and savory, briny and peppery, and something you’ll remember long after you’re finished.

Cowy Burger was worth stalking when it was a pop-up, and now that the restaurant has a permanent home, it’s worth enduring Miami’s Wynwood chaos. This spot makes smashburgers as thin as your patience after waiting in line at the DMV. And at their casual baby blue home, the burgers have only gotten thinner, crispier, and more delicious. The Cowy burger (our favorite) oozes chunks of their housemade bacon jam, which should be sold in jars at your neighborhood farmers market.

The Loyalist is a casual French restaurant hiding out on a quiet side street in Chicago, and the main reason to come here is for the outstanding burger. The patty is made from a mixture of chuck, short rib, and bacon, giving it a light, smoky flavor and incredible richness. The cheese is gooey and the caramelized onions are plentiful. In other words, this is a life-changing burger.

The smashed miso-y majesty at this Guamanian spot in Seattle is coming for all of the burger trophies. Its frizzled edges are so beefy-rich that the patties taste like brown gravy—and meat juice amplifies the effect. The caramelized crust, american cheese, and sauce-seeped bun become one singular essence of burger that all others should look up to. Slow down, however, and you’ll catch the hit of black pepper, a salty swipe of kewpie, or bun bits soaked in drippings.

Disguised in koji butter, golden trout roe, and Firefly squid at River Twice is Philly's best burger. What makes the Mother Rucker at this experimental tasting menu-only spot so special are the crispy edges and perfectly-pink middles on the patties, topped with high-quality american cheese, pickled red onions, and mayo. It doesn’t matter that the prix-fixe is four courses. Go ahead and add this one on, too.

There are a handful of spots in Austin making smoked burgers, but our favorite comes from the barbecue trailer LeRoy And Lewis. Maybe it’s the all brisket patty that’s thick and peppery with a juicy interior. Maybe it’s the springy potato roll, or the chopped grilled onions that add a little sweetness to each bite. Whatever it is, it’s worth waiting in one of Austin’s famous barbecue lines to get your hands on one.

Smish Smash in San Francisco has every right to brag about their patties—they’re so flat and lacy you could use them as an oversized doily. They taste the best in the Cheeseboiga, which is coated with greasy caramelized onions and a thick squeeze of tangy Vic Mac sauce. Always go for the double, because just one of these pancaked patties isn’t enough.

Atlanta has knighted a few white tablecloth burger giants, but our current obsession is grilled inside of a Chevron gas station. You can smell NFA Burgers—Atlanta’s famous gas station burger—cooking the moment you swerve into the parking lot. But this isn’t your typical grimy gas station, it’s a tidy barn-shaped building that looks like it was ripped from a scene in Charlotte’s Web. There are also picnic tables out back for you to inhale your perfectly seasoned burger.

In addition to being a beloved Minneapolis specialty, the juicy lucy is a heated local controversy, with Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 Club each claiming to be the originator of the cheese-stuffed burger. Although the real answer may be lost to history, Matt’s Bar gets our vote for the nostalgia: they’re still serving it decades later in a narrow, memorabilia-lined space that hasn’t changed much since the restaurant opened in the 1950s. The beef and grilled onions are extra flavorful.