Restaurant That Sell Beef Patty and Chili

Ask anyone where to find the best burgers in Seattle and a heated debate will likely ensue. You have your local fast food staple that's so popular it was in a Sir Mix-a-Lot song, but then you'll also find gourmet burgers for almost $20 from James Beard-winning chefs.

To put my own palate to the test, I went on a burger tour of Seattle's best burgers to find the best of the best. I tasted more than 30 burgers in a few weeks, going to my tried-and-true burger joints and trying new ones along the way.

Here are the ones that made the list of the best burgers in Seattle.

Best Burgers in Seattle

I noticed a lot of the debates around the best Seattle burgers are because people compare $3 drive-in style burgers to $18 gourmet burgers. They aren't exactly comparable, so I split up the best burgers in Seattle by style.

Drive-In Style Burgers

Drive-in style burgers typically have thinner beef patties served on a potato bun with cheese, ketchup or special sauce, lettuce, onions, and pickles. The patties often have a charbroiled flavor, sometimes more if they add pressure during cooking to make sure all surfaces of the patty get some heat. This can result in a lot of flavor…but also dryness if the cook isn't careful.

These burgers are usually cheaper than gourmet burgers because they're made at scale to service fast food customers. However, as you'll see on this list, some more traditional restaurants make drive-in style burgers.

Here are the best drive-in style burgers in Seattle.

Rough Draft Burgers

website | neighborhood: Ballard-ish | price range: $6 – $8

Rough Draft Burgers is a burger popup that doesn't have a permanent location yet (Queen Anne coming soon!), but you can usually find them making the rounds at the Ballard breweries. They also graced the Portland food scene with a cart during the pandemic, but closed to focus on opening their permanent location.

RD focuses on drive-in style smash burgers. This means the patty is thin and cooked with some added pressure to get crisp char on every bite. It's then smothered with cheese, pickles, onions, and their secret sauce.

A lot of times thin patties can be dry, but RD's are super flavorful with a great bun-to-meat ratio and gooey cheese in every bite. This is definitely one of the best burgers in Seattle and is at the top of my list of favorite drive-in style burger joints.

Loretta's Northwesterner

website | 8617 14th Ave S | neighborhood: South Park | price range: $4.50 – $9

Loretta's Northwesterner comes highly recommended for their burgers and, I have to say, I agree. This tavern on a small, unassuming strip of businesses in South Park is a popular stop to grab a drink and some pub food. Their menu includes more than just burgers, but the burgers are consistently shouted out as the must-get here.

They sell two styles: the drive-in style tavern burger and the "restaurant-style" deluxe cheeseburger. While both of their burgers are yummy, I liked the tavern burger best. It's charbroiled and served with melted cheese, onions, pickles, and special sauce. The burger has a great char to the patty without losing the juiciness, a risk with most thinner patties.

Make sure to add the Irish nachos to your order. They're fries with all the fixings of a stuffed baked potato: cheese, bacon, scallions, and sour cream. Ask for extra cheese for a gooey good time.

Boss Drive-In

website | 9061 Delridge Way SW | neighborhood: White Center | price range: $3 – $7

Boss Drive-In is a small walk-up window spot near some of the best West Seattle restaurants. They sell super cheap classic burgers for under $3, but also have jazzed up burger options with interesting topping combos.

The Heavy Hitter is the perfect middle ground. It features the beef, cheese, and pickles of the classic burgers, but is served with 2 patties, 3 strips of bacon, boss sauce, lettuce, mayo, and jalapeños (though I remove these to keep the classic all-American burger flavor profile). I absolutely love mayo on cheeseburgers, especially when served with perfectly-crisped bacon.

Don't forget to also get a soft serve ice cream cone. I love soft serve ice cream because I grew up eating it on the east coast, but it's not super common here. So anytime I'm near Boss' I make sure to grab a cone if I'm craving some of the best ice cream in Seattle.

Lil Woody's

website | neighborhood: locations in Ballard, Capitol Hill, and White Center | price range: $6 – $9

Lil Woody's has made a name for itself serving drive-in style burgers beefed up (heh) by the creativity of local chefs who create limited-time menu items.

However, I really dig their Big Woody. It's a classic burger with a third-pound Painted Hills grass-fed beef patty, Painted Hills bacon, Tillamook cheddar, chopped onions, diced pickles, tomato slices, lettuce, ketchup, and mayo all served on a potato bun. I don't even like ketchup, but it all works on their satisfying version of an all-American burger.

Zippy's

website | 9614 14th Ave SW | neighborhood: White Center | price range: $5.50 – $8

Zippy's has the thickest patty of all the drive-in burger places in Seattle. We got the ZiP Royale double patty the first time and I swear the stacked patties alone were about 2″ tall. I recommend getting one patty so the cheese, bacon, and other toppings you choose really shine.

They also have classic-style burgers and more gourmet ones. And don't forget to get a side of tater tots. Not all burger places have tots, so when they do I always order them.

Red Mill

website | neighborhood: locations in Phinney Ridge, Magnolia, and Ballard | price range: $5.25 – $8.75

Red Mill often has a line out the door in summer, particularly at their Phinney Ridge location. When you get to the front of the line you can see bacon piled high on the griddle ready to be slapped onto some burgers.

Despite how thin the patty is, Red Mill gets a lot of flavor out of their beef. When paired with their special sauce, it makes one satisfying and nostalgic burger.

Dick's Drive-In Burgers

website | neighborhood: locations in Greenwood, Wallingford, Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, and Lake City | price range: $2 – $4

People become very passionate when giving their opinion on Dick's. Many are adamant that it's one of the best Seattle burgers, while others argue they're just nostalgic and these aren't worth the hype. While they're similar in style and price to McDonald's fast food, I think they're a way better local burger chain and one of the quintessential Seattle foods everyone needs to try.

The deluxe burger with two 1/8 pound grilled patties, melted cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise, and pickle relish is the only way to go. I love how the flavors are slightly sweet and have this really distinct flavor that you'd probably be able to guess is Dick's if blindfolded.

I also always get their thin, flaccid fries. Even though I know flaccid fries means they were in not-hot-enough oil, I can't lie…I friggin' love them.

Gourmet Burgers

Gourmet burgers are exactly as they sound: fancy. All bets are off when it comes to trying to define a signature "style", but the biggest factor is usually the patty. Most gourmet burgers will have a thicker patty, and a lot of times it's made up of a few different types of meats to add more flavor.

Because the patties are thicker you don't always get that charbroiled taste on the meat. However, you're often met with a fattier, juicier flavored patty. I find it's easy for drive-in style burgers to hide behind condiments if their patty is meh, but gourmet burgers can't really hide given how much surface area they take up with every bite.

Here are the fancy gourmet burgers I think are some of the best burgers in Seattle.

Joule

website | 3506 Stone Way N | neighborhood: Fremont | price range: ~$16

You'd probably never guess it, but I think Joule has the best burger in Seattle. Despite being a modern Korean restaurant, it has an incredibly juicy half-pound burger.

The secret is they use house-ground short rib, which results in one of the most flavorful patties I've ever had. It's served with one of the best brioche buns I've tasted, lettuce, red onion, horseradish aioli, and pickles…yes, that's right, even without cheese it's friggin' phenomenal

Big Max Burger Co.

website | 1935 Queen Anne Ave N | neighborhood: Queen Anne | price range: $10 – $15

Big Max Burger Co. (previously known as Eden Hill Provisions) is one of the best burgers in Seattle, hands down. The dry-aged beef they use is super high quality, so when it's mixed with bacon it results in an incredibly juicy patty. But what puts it over the top is the perfectly-balanced concoction of toppings: lettuce, bread and butter pickles, both red onions and caramelized onions, smoked cheddar, malt and maple ketchup, and their max sauce, all served on a toasted challah bun.

When you come, don't miss out on the kettle corn Brussel sprouts. They're sweet, crunchy, and oh-so-yummy.

Pro tip: Big Max Burger Co. is the casual sibling to Eden Hill, one of my go-to restaurants in Seattle for fine dining.

Taurus Ox

website | 1523 E Madison St | neighborhood: First Hill | price range: ~$14

This Laotian restaurant on the border of First Hill and the Central District creates one of the most unique burgers in Seattle. It has two pork and beef smash patties served with provolone cheese, jaew tomato, cured pork belly, jaew bong mayo, pickled onions, taro stem, and cilantro. Jaew is a sweet and spicy chili sauce typically made of fish sauce, palm sugar, dried chili, garlic, shallots, and tamarind.

To put it in perspective how good this burger is, Dan and I got one to share and literally got grumpy at each other for having to split it. So don't make the same mistake we did. Get a whole one for yourself!

The Swinery

website | 3207 California Ave SW | neighborhood: West Seattle | price range: ~$12

The Swinery is a local butcher shop and sandwich counter a bit off the main drag of California Ave in West Seattle. They serve one mean burger with a 1/3 pound Painted Hills beef patty, caramelized onion, greens, tomato, pickle, red onion, secret sauce, and your choice of cheese. You can even add bacon or pulled pork to make it over the top, but you don't need that for extra flavor. It has a sweet, earthy complexity thanks to the caramelized onions and a sharp bite thanks to the balanced greens.

Make sure to try one of their other menu items, too, because they're one of the best Seattle sandwich places.

Bateau

website | 1040 E Union St | neighborhood: Capitol Hill | price range: ~$14

I'll be honest I was a bit down on Bateau the first time I went because of the prices, but when I kept hearing they have one of the best burgers in Seattle I had to give it another shot.

I'm happy I did. Their burger is out of this world. It has a 5oz dry aged, grass-fed beef patty, aioli, onion jam, and gruyere cheese served on a brioche bun. The onions are so perfectly caramelized in the jam, and the sharpness of the gruyere cuts perfectly into the fattiness of the beef.

8oz Burger Co

website neighborhood: locations in Ballard and Capitol Hill | price range: ~$13

8oz is one of the honorary mentions in my self-guided Seattle food tour of Ballard. They make some mean gourmet burgers with thick juicy patties and interesting flavor combos.

Despite all the creativity, I always get their 8oz signature burger. It includes arugula, balsamic onions, Painted Hills bacon, Beecher's flagship cheddar cheese, and truffle aioli. It eats like a classic American burger, but has some interest thanks to the deep balsamic flavors and kick from the arugula.

Local Tide

website | 401 N 36th St | neighborhood: Ballard | price range: ~$9

Who would have thought one of the best seafood restaurants in Seattle would serve an awesome burger? Well, their smash burger is my favorite item on their menu.

It features a beef and pork patty, caramelized onions, homemade mayo, and American cheese on a brioche bun. I love how despite a menu full of fancier interpretations of seafood shack fare, they don't skimp on the processed American cheese. It's so key to making a burger with that quintessential backyard barbecue taste.

The Butcher's Table

website | 2121 Westlake Ave | neighborhood: South Lake Union | price range: ~$9-$19

You wouldn't think this swank steakhouse that's one of the best South Lake Union restaurants would serve burgers, but they started doing so for lunch during the pandemic. They leverage their beef wizardry to make some of the juiciest burgers I've tasted, then chef them up with wild toppings.

For example, you can find a mushroom and classic burger, but you'll also find a burger with hot link sausages, peppers and potato chips, and mac and cheese.

The mac and cheese burger is incredible. Since The Butcher's Table is owned by the same restaurant group that owns Beecher's, it's topped with Beecher's mac and cheese, charred jalapeño, Beecher's Flagship cheese, and sriracha aioli. The combination may sound odd, but it just works. I especially love the complexity the peppers add without making it too spicy.

Pro tip: Regardless of which burger you choose, you must get the beef fat fries. These aren't like any fries I've ever had, but rather like fancy McDonald's hash browns. They're one of the best things I've ever eaten!

S/T Hooligans

website | 4354 Leary Way NW | neighborhood: Fremont | price range: ~$12

S/T Hooligans, so named after The Smiths song "Sweet & Tender Hooligan", serves elevated comfort food with a Creole slant. Chef and owner Rodel Borromeo makes punny dishes like "gangster gumbo", "spiseattle" fried chicken, and the "Bal-Mont burger", a nod to their location on the edge of the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods.

While they get a lot of buzz for their fried chicken, I think they're secretly making some of the best nachos and burgers in Seattle. The burger has classic toppings like Tillamook cheddar, tomato, sweet onion, and romaine lettuce, but you'll also find pickled charred serrano and garlic-chili aioli to give it extra complexity. It's one of the most well-executed burgers I've had in awhile, so if you find yourself at this restaurant, make sure to get it!

Next Level Burger

website | 1026 NE 64th St | neighborhood: Roosevelt | price range: ~$8.50

You may not expect to find one of the best vegan restaurants in Seattle on this list, but there's no denying the facts: fast food burger chain Next Level Burger is serving one of the best burgers in Seattle and rivals its beef competition.

They serve all plant-based burgers. The must-get here is the All-American. It has smoked tempeh "bacon", cheddar "cheese", and egg-free mayo. I could have sworn it was a meat burger on my first bite. It somehow had that juicy, iron-y flavor despite being completely vegan…it even had the texture of beef!

Uneeda Burger

website | 4302 Fremont Ave N | neighborhood: Fremont | price range: $5.50 – $15

Uneeda Burger is one of the honorary mentions in my self-guided Seattle food tour of Fremont. They serve everything from humble single-patty cheeseburgers to fancier bison or lamb burgers. While I've experienced some inconsistencies in their burgers, when they're good, they're really good.

This is also one of my favorite places for shakes and onion rings. The breading on the rings are so flavorful and not too greasy. Definitely make sure to add these to your order!

The 5 Top Burgers in Seattle

There are a ton of great burgers in Seattle, but if I had to choose my top 5? It'd have to be these:

1. Joule
2. Big Max Burger Co.
3. Taurus Ox
4. Rough Draft Burgers
5. Bateau

But all of these have made it to my top 10 at one point (seriously, choosing the fifth one for this list was hard!). So give them a try and decide for yourself!

More Seattle Burgers to Try

Here are places I need to try still. I'll update this list of the best burgers in Seattle as I try them!

• Bait Shop – Capitol Hill
• Lil Red Takeout and Catering – Rainier Beach (served Mon and Tues only)
• Heyday – Mt. Baker
• Jak's Grill – West Seattle and Laurelhurst
• Rain City Burgers – Roosevelt
• Coastline Burgers – West Seattle
• Bottlehouse – Madrona
• Macho Burgers – food truck in Fremont
• Burbs Burgers – Pioneer Square and Montlake
• The People's Burger – Pioneer Square
• Flintcreek – Greenwood
• Essex – Ballard
• Shake Shack – South Lake Union (I've only been to the NYC location decades ago)

More Seattle Eats to Seek Out

• Try Bubba Flame Burgers on Whidbey Island
• Find the Best Pizza in Seattle
• Go on a Seattle Street Taco Crawl
• Visit the Best Cheap Eats in Seattle

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Source: https://www.emeraldpalate.com/best-burgers-in-seattle/

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