Need to find a tasty burger? There’s an app for that. Washingtonian Ammar Shallal has launched Burgerator, a mobile tool that helps users find the nearest, highest-rated burgers, and encourages them to rank their own experiences.
Those in need of a patty fix can sign in and find joints nearby such as Shake Shack, Five Guys, and Bobby’s Burger Palace, or sort by rating over proximity (from one, the lowest, to ten). Once you decide to review, the app requires a photo of the burger via your phone and your opinion in 13 categories, from the patty-to-bun ratio (“balanced,” “meat-heavy”), taste (“rather eat dirt” to “religious”), toppings, bun, and more.
Shallal says the idea came about from a burger club he and friends started in New York five years ago; most members have tech and finance backgrounds, so naturally they began rating their meals. While burger joints are already listed and rated across the globe, the current “burger feed”—all the burgers being judged in a given city—and a top-ten list are only available for New York. That will change soon, as any city with 500 burger ratings will have its own set of listings. Shallal says the second iteration of Burgerator will allow members to customize their experience: following others with similar tastes, adding burgers to a “bucket list” to try later, and incorporating restaurants that aren’t strictly patty joints (think Central and its lobster burger).
Shallal splits time between New York and DC, where he runs a summer internship program for college students. His all-time favorite burger in any city is from Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff Eatery.
“The farmhouse cheeseburger is all I need,” says Shallal. “I’m sad every single time I finish it.”
Grab a copy of our new Cheap Eats issue, which includes a list of the top 25 burgers, and get to rating this weekend.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
