6 of the best UK burgers can be found in London

The National Burger Awards has announced its finalists for 2026. There are 16 of them, and six can be found in London.

What’s the overall winner? We won’t know that until March 24th, when the National Burger Awards 2026 actually takes place.

That won’t just be a dull award ceremony either. The sixteen finalists will prepare their signature burgers for the judges, and then there are a further two cooking rounds.

There’s a challenge where they need to produce a burger based on a specific set of ingredients, plus a plant-based burger round.

The National Burger Awards 2025’s winners were Black Bear Burger, which won the lead award for its Miso Bacon Burger. El Perro Negro’s Nick Watkins won Burger Chef of the Year for his Bacon and Cheese Picante creation. And Fat Hippo won the plant-based Burger of the Year gong for its Sloppy Faux, which features a plant-based patty, vegan cheese, sloppy faux sauce, BBQ, Chipotle mayo and pickleback slaw.

Here are The National Burger Awards 2026’s finalists, broken down into the London lot, and the rest:

London finalists

• Bleecker Burger — Victoria, Soho, Baker Street (Bacon Double)
• Burger & Beyond — Borough Yards, Shoreditch (Bacon Butter Burger)
• Dover St Counter — Mayfair (Cheeseburger)
• Fat Hippo — Soho (The Lovue Loot)
• Honest Burgers — Multiple (The Honest)
• SoBe Burger — Walthamstow (Double Bacon Black Garlic)

And the rest...

• Danny’s Burgers — Bristol
• Dodo Pub Co — Oxford
• El Perro Negro — Glasgow
• Meat Stack — Newcastle, Leeds
• Mollie’s — Bristol
• Oowee Diner — Bristol
• Roddy Burger — Tunbridge Wells
• 7bone — Multiple
• The Boring Burger — Guildford
• The Flavour Trailer — Brixworth

Outside of London, Bristol is the clear winner for the burger fan. And it’s an impressive showing from Honest Burgers. These kind of awards are typically full of outfits with just a single, or a couple of, trendy restaurants. But Honest Burgers currently has 46 venues across the UK, and yet still gets a nomination for its signature The Honest beef burger.

There will also be a milkshake award round, just as there was last year. The National Burger Awards 2026 takes place at Big Penny Social in Walthamstow, on March 24th. You can apply to attend at the awards’ website, although sadly it is intended for folks in the trade rather than plain old burger fans.

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