Bleecker Burger

In 2010 Bleecker’s founder, Zan, was a corporate lawyer in New York when she ate the best burger of her life at Zaitzeff, a burger joint in the East Village, and started working shifts there in her spare time to learn how it was made. When she moved to London in 2012 she left law for good, bought an old van, turned it into a food truck and started selling burgers as Bleecker St. Burger.

After years on the street the truck became a permanent kiosk in Old Spitalfields Market in 2015, followed in 2017 by small shops in Victoria and in the new Bloomberg building in the City. Bleecker has since grown to around ten London sites, built, as the founder puts it, off their own backs. Its Double Cheeseburger was Burger of the Year in 2020 and the Bacon Double was National Burger of the Year in 2024.

The menu is deliberately short. The beef comes from native British breeds such as Dexter, Hereford and South Devon, grass-fed on small farms and aged on the bone for 25 to 40 days before it is minced to a fixed blend of cuts. Burgers are cooked to order and dressed with American cheese, onion and the house sauce on a sesame bun baked daily in London; fries are cut from whole potatoes on site and fried to order, with no heat lamps. Some branches serve halal beef.

Around ten burger bars and kiosks across London, from Spitalfields and Soho to Camden and Westfield.

• Burger & Beyond (United Kingdom, since 2014). A London burger brand that began in a vintage Citroën van and now ranks among the world’s top five burgers. Also built on beef, bacon, cheese and a double stack.
• Honest Burgers (United Kingdom, since 2009). The London burger chain that comes with rosemary salted chips. Also built on beef, bacon and cheese.
• Patty & Bun (United Kingdom, since 2012). The London burger joint that names its burgers after TV characters and soul singers. Also built on beef, bacon and cheese.
• Holy Cow! (Switzerland, since 2009). The Lausanne gourmet burger chain built on Swiss beef and Swiss cheese. Also built on beef, bacon, cheese and a double stack.