Bembos

Bembos opened its first small restaurant in Miraflores, Lima, on 11 June 1988 and grew into Peru’s best-known home-grown burger chain, the local name people set against the American giants. It tried going abroad, with a restaurant in Mumbai from 2006 and one in Guatemala City from 2009, but those closed after the Peruvian conglomerate Intercorp bought the chain in March 2011 and kept only the business at home. It now runs more than a hundred restaurants, all of them in Peru.

What makes the menu worth reading is how Peruvian it is. Next to the classic, cheese and bacon burgers sit builds borrowed from the national table: the A lo Pobre, topped with a fried egg and fried plantain like the Peruvian steak dish of the same name, and burgers dressed with chimichurri and grilled sausage the way a Peruvian parrilla would serve them. Many burgers come with a fried egg, a common burger topping in Peru.

More than a hundred restaurants, all in Peru.

• Giraffas (Brazil, since 1981). The Brasília fast-food chain where the burger comes with a fried egg. Also built on beef, egg and cheese.
• Madero (Brazil, since 2005). The Curitiba steakhouse chain that sells itself on “the best burger in the world”. Also built on beef and cheese.
• The Food Truck Store (Argentina). Buenos Aires’s American-style burger brand, now in Miami and Barcelona and among the world’s top 25. Also built on beef, egg and cheese.
• El Corral (Colombia, since 1983). Colombia’s own burger chain, bigger at home than any American import. Also built on beef and cheese.