Once considered the city’s best-kept secret, Harry’s is a hipster-focused, dive bar-decorated reboot of a reboot of an original called Harry’s Charbroiled… and it may be the best version yet. You’ll never hear anyone complain their burgers are too big, but you’ll also never hear them say they aren’t delicious.

This pop-up turned permanent amid the COVID pandemic, opening a unique takeout-only storefront in Liberty Village where orders are placed and customers wait outside with buzzers while their orders are prepared. Both of the Drops’ two burgers are smashed, served on a soft potato roll and sold separately from the skin-on, homemade shoestring fries, which you’re going to need.

Rosie’s is all about sticking with the classics. Only offering single, double, or beyond patties, this small chain dresses each burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and their signature house sauce. If you’re feeling really extra, you can also add some bacon. That’s all anyone really needs, right? Paired with one of their shakes or floats, you really can’t go wrong.

What Apache Burger lacks in modern merit (housemade ingredients, a website or any digital presence at all, etc.), it makes up for in historic value. The Etobicoke eatery has been serving big dirty burgs for over 40 years and has retained much of the original cuisine, decor, and vibe. As the photos on its wall can attest, Apache’s also become a go-to for Toronto athletes, serving everyone from Mats Sundin to Danny Green over the years. There’s a reason for that: the food undeniably slaps.

Time was when Gold Standard was just an obscure takeout window in Toronto’s Roncy area with even more obscure hours of operation. Now that they’ve got a couple spots in the city and have assimilated to the Western world’s concept of time, they’re building some steady burger buzz.

Matty Matheson may not like the term “celebrity chef,” but he surely appreciates the consistent lines out front of his cheeseburger shop, Matty’s Patty’s Burger Club. The restaurant traces its roots back to a pop-up at a surf competition in Hawaii and now serves basic cheeseburgers to the waves of hipsters looking to soak up the craft IPA consumed across the street at Trinity Bellwoods Park.

The Extra Burger menu is minimalist, consisting of the smashed single and double burgers, Impossible burger, fried chicken sandwich and crinkle fries, but there are no losers here. The burgers are sizable, topped with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles, American cheese and Extra’s “secret sauce.”

Burg heads in the city have been raving about this new minimalist west-end joint. They specialize in cooked-to-order smash burgers cooked on a chrome griddle, covering in their mayo-based Happy Sauce and served up on buttered Martin’s potato rolls. They’ve got several iterations of the Happy Burger, including one topped with shaved pastrami, which looks beastly but goes down like a beauty.

For over 50 years, Johnny’s Hamburgers has been serving its namesake item to Scarborough’s hungry diners. Here’s their secret to long-lasting success: beef, cheese, bun, ketchup, mustard, pickle, onion, and tomato. The 4oz charbroiled patties are the standout ingredient here, but it’s the old-school approach and experience—always best paired with a milkshake—that gives Johnny’s its staying power.

Rudy doesn’t mess with all those fancy extras. Just lettuce, tomato, Rudy sauce and maybe one other topping over a smashed-on-the-grill beef patty. And its menu is at least partially responsible for introducing the majesty of the Maillard reaction (the scientific reaction that happens when ground beef is “smashed” on a hot griddle) to Southern Ontario. Honestly, thanks Rudy.