Patty & Bun

Patty & Bun grew out of London’s street-food boom in the early 2010s, starting as pop-ups before opening its first permanent restaurant off Oxford Street in 2012. It became one of the places that convinced Londoners a burger could be worth queuing for, at a time when the city was waking up to American-style burger joints.

The burgers have punning names, from the Ari Gold, after the foul-mouthed agent in Entourage, to the Smokey Robinson and the Lambshank Redemption. Behind the jokes is a simple formula: dry-aged beef, a soft glazed bun and a smoky house mayo that turns up on almost everything.

A handful of restaurants across London and a few other UK cities.

• Sunset Boulevard (Denmark, since 1996). Denmark’s biggest home-grown fast-food chain: a sandwich shop from Odense that became a burger chain with a béarnaise habit. Also built on beef, bacon, cooked onions and cheese.
• Holy Cow! (Switzerland, since 2009). The Lausanne gourmet burger chain built on Swiss beef and Swiss cheese. Also built on beef, bacon, cooked onions and cheese.
• Honest Burgers (United Kingdom, since 2009). The London burger chain that comes with rosemary salted chips. Also built on beef, bacon and cheese.
• Burgermeister (Germany, since 2006). The Berlin burger chain that started in an old public toilet under the U-Bahn. Also built on beef, bacon, cooked onions and cheese.