This post was updated in May 2025.
Garden District
1801 14th St., NW
Juicy, compact, delicious. The 14th Street beer garden’s offering is everything you could want in a cookout-style burger.
Ghostburger
1250 Ninth St., NW
I’m partial to the Frenchie at this Shaw spot, with blue cheese, mayo, and a ton of caramelized onions, but the straight-up cheeseburger is good too.
Joia Burger
 3213 Mount Pleasant St., NW; 2414 Wisconsin Ave., NW.
Purple Patch chef/owner Patrice Cleary is behind these Mount Pleasant and Glover Park burger places. And she makes my favorite smash burger of them all, with crisp, lacy edges of American cheese and a genius topping: a chop-up of onion, pickle, lettuce, and tomato bound in special sauce, so each bite delivers a little of everything. The beef doesn’t need to shine in a smash burger the way it does in say, a steakhouse burger—but still, Cleary uses American wagyu.
Le Diplomate
1601 14th St., NW
The Logan Circle brasserie’s Frenchified take on a Big Mac pairs a sesame bun, American cheese, and special sauce with an upgraded Pat LaFreida beef blend.
Lucky Buns
2000 18th St., NW; 1309 Fifth St., NW; 2401 Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington
Alex McCoy ‘s Adams Morgan burger restaurant now has spinoffs in Union Market and National Airport (the Wharf location recently closed). It’s tough to pick a favorite from his creative slate of burgers, but I lean towards the El Jefe, a double cheeseburger topped with hatch-chili relish, yellow mustard, onion, shredded lettuce, and pickles.
The Salt Line
79 Potomac Ave., SE; 4040 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 7284 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda
The New England-style seafood kitchens’ straightforward double smash burgers are big and messy in the best way.
7th Street Burger
1424 Wisconsin Ave., NW
You’ll find these minimalist burger joints all over New York City, and last year, it arrived in Georgetown. It has just three things on the menu: beef or impossible burgers (single or double) and fries. The delicious smashies all come dressed the same way, with American cheese, grilled onions, pickles, and special sauce.
Social Burger
350 Maple Ave., W., Vienna
You can design your own burgers—made from Virginia beef and set on a Lyon Bakery bun—with toppings like chimichurri, cherry-cola barbecue sauce, and housemade pickles at this Vienna stripmall stop. My favorite is one of the house creations: a double cheeseburger with bacon, fried jalapenos, sauteed onions, pickles, and special sauce.
Swizzler
1259 First St., SE
If only all fast food spots were as good as this food-truck-turned-burger-shop in Navy Yard. Go for the classic cheeseburger: two smashed grass-fed patties, pickles, grilled onions, ketchup, and mustard on a potato roll (you can get it with special sauce, too).
Unconventional Diner
1207 Ninth St., NW
Yet another smash burger, yes, but this one is extra-juicy thanks to a beef mix with a 30(!) percent fat content. It gets housemade pickles and caramelized onions, plus American cheese and a Martin’s potato roll.
Woodmont Grill
7715 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda
The veggie burger gets most of the attention at this Hillstone outpost in downtown Bethesda, and the standard cheddar-burger heaped with shredded lettuce and pickles is really tasty, too.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
