The 14 Best Burger Joints in Dallas

Up on Knox is now called Knox Bistro, and chef Bruno Davaillon has updated the menu to encompass his vision for a true French brasserie. But don’t worry, that menu still includes a great burger. Served at brunch, lunch, and dinner, the Knox Burger starts with a wagyu beef patty and is topped with cheddar cheese, dijonnaise, heirloom tomato, and house-made pickles. It’s served with a side of crispy, delicious pomme frites (AKA: fries).
How to book: Call 469-250-4007 for take-out.

Modest Rogers is tucked inside a small house, with 24 seats and a Venezuela-meets-Texas menu. That menu is small, so you should bring friends and order as much as you can fit on the table. Just be sure to get the Cheeseburger. The eight-ounce Texas wagyu patty is topped with American cheese, charred onions, lettuce, confit tomatoes, and an addictive tomatillo aioli.
How to book: Parties of six can reserve via email. Otherwise, stop by for first come, first served seating.

After an extended closure and renovation, The Adolphus Hotel’s Rodeo Bar reopened earlier this year with neon signs, vintage posters, and strong Texas vibes. It also boasts a menu featuring five really good burgers. The eponymous Rodeo Burger gets 44 Farms beef, American cheese, a house sauce, pickles, and onions, while the El Tejano merges a beef patty with a corn tostada, smoked pork adobado, guacamole, pickles, and chipotle aioli. If you’re extra hungry, you can make any of the burgers a double, and if you’re recklessly hungry, you can ask for a triple.
How to book: Stop by for first come, first served seating, or call 214-651-3559 for take-out.

If you’re going to a game at the AAC or just need some emotional support after a long workday, Billy Can Can’s Billy Burger is there for you. The Texas beef patty is topped with cheddar cheese, Benton’s bacon, caramelized onions, Texas IPA mustard, and pickled jalapeños, served with hand-cut fries. It’s everything you need for a good night out—well, provided you also got a beer or the mole-spiked Old Fashioned, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Hudson House is best known for its East Coast-style, fresh-shucked oysters, and ice-cold Martinis, but don’t sleep on the burger. Two thin patties are topped with American cheese, pickles, minced onion, and “Hudson sauce,” with a seasoned pickle on the side. Snack on the latter for an acidic foil to the rich burger, and be sure to supplement your plate with an order of skinny fries or the irresistible truffle-parmesan fries. Or, you know, a salad.
How to book: Call your nearest location for take-out, reserve via Resy, or order delivery from UberEats.

Sure, there are fancier burgers in Dallas. And there are certainly more expensive burgers in town. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a more compelling reason to eat in your car than a trip to Keller’s. As our intrepid burger critic discovered, this 72-year-old institution serves diner-style burgers from another era. Stay in your car, wait for the staff to take your order, then gobble down the fan-favorite No. 5 Special—this double-meat cheeseburger with all the fixings can be yours for less than $3.
How to book: Drive in for service.

There are countless reasons to visit the Joule Hotel. The coffee, the cocktails, and the rooftop pool are three, but no list is complete without the burger at in-house restaurant CBD Provisions. The two-handed CBD Cheeseburger is topped with “fancy sauce,” beer mustard, grilled onions, and bread-and-butter pickles. It’s an antidote to a hard day—or an exclamation point to a great one. What we’re saying is, you should eat this burger independent of circumstance.
How to book: Call 214-261-4500 for take-out or order delivery from UberEats.

The Sky Rocket menu is simple. Choose a single, double, or triple burger (each fresh beef patty weighs a cool quarter pound), or get the grilled cheese if you somehow missed the whole point of this exercise. Those are the only options, not counting sides and shakes. Throw on toppings like jalapenos, onions, and bacon, pick fries or tots, and voilà, congrats on another successful day on this planet.

Chef Nick Badovinus plied you with burgers for years at Off Site Kitchen. Those days are over, but you can still cop a Badovinus burger at his upscale Town Hearth steakhouse. Rather than a simple burger, however, here you’re working with a hefty $24 Tillamook Cheeseburger befitting the chandelier-laden location. It comes with mayo and the standard veggies, plus Russet fries, but you can add bacon and a fried egg for a few bucks more. And try your best to appear genteel as juices and yolk run down your chin.
How to book: Call 214-761-1617 for take-out and reservations.

Sometimes the best burgers are found in unexpected places—like pizza places. And despite its focus on the round Italian staple, Zoli’s O. D. Burger (Obligatory Dallas Burger) is one of the best in town. This delicious play on the Big Mac will have you diving head-first into a chuck-brisket-short rib blend on a sesame-potato bun, with American cheese, cheddar cheese, horseradish pickles, and Zoli sauce, a mashup of mustard, mayo, and ketchup. If you’re feeling decadent, add fried mozzarella and soppressata marmalade for an extra $3.

Walk into this historic home known mostly for craft cocktails and a lively happy hour, then do your patriotic duty and order the double-meat Bowen Cheeseburger that comes loaded with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles on a kaiser roll laden with ketchup and mayo. And don’t stop there: Treat yourself to a side of the killer house-cut fries and a cocktail or two.
How to book: Call 214-484-1385 for take-out and reservations.

With more than a dozen burger choices on the menu and the ability to customize each with your choice of ground beef, chicken, turkey, or an Impossible patty, it’s easy to pave your own path at Rodeo Goat. Tex-Mex fans should try the Chaca Oaxaca—it adds avocado, pico de gallo, a fried egg, queso fresco, and Tabasco mayo atop a beef-chorizo patty. Tack on an order of Cheese Fries Surprise, which comes stacked with all the usual suspects plus brisket chili, and your hunger will be cured for hours. Possibly days.
How to book: Stop by for first come, first served seating, call your nearest location for take-out, or order delivery via Uber Eats.

Chef John Tesar’s passion for beef knows no bounds, as evidenced by his steakhouse and an offshoot specializing in all things burgers. The best—and simplest—of the bunch is the Ozersky (named after late food writer and longtime friend Josh Ozersky), which applies classic stylings to the humble sandwich with only four components, a fresh beef patty, thinly sliced red onions, American cheese, and a squishy white bun. It’s everything you want (including the ability to make it a double), and nothing you don’t.
How to book: Call 214-443-9339 for take-out.

A traditional approach has made Maple & Motor a go-to spot for burger enthusiasts ever since it opened in 2009. You get two choices here, burger or cheeseburger. Sure, you can add on chili, bacon, fried eggs, and griddled onions along with your choice of cheese, but it all starts with a half pound of ground all-American beef, flat-grilled in its own juices, then dressed up with mustard, pickles, lettuce, and red onion on a toasted bun hot off the griddle.
How to book: Stop by for first come, first served seating, or order take-out and delivery from Caviar.