Award-Winning Burgers in Austin, Texas

In the 2015 Austin Chronicle Readers’ Poll, Hopdoddy took top honors. Hopdoddy also earned best-burger awards in the poll in 2013 and 2014. The restaurant uses hormone-free beef ground on site to make incredibly juicy burgers. Truffle fries and shakes are also top-notch. The line is often long, but you can order a drink while you wait.

The Austin American-Statesman’s Matthew Odam named Odd Duck’s burger the best in Austin. The precise ingredients in the burger change with the seasons and the whims of the chef, but it’s always a fine burger. It’s often served with green chile mayo and topped with arugula. You can expect to pay a little more for this artisanal creation, but most agree that it’s worth every penny.

Texas Monthly magazine gave Counter Cafe’s burger the No. 2 spot on its exhaustive list of the 50 best burgers in the state. Don’t miss the sweet potato fries to go along with your grass-fed burger. It’s also a popular breakfast place, with an excellent crab cake Benedict and pancakes.

In November 2015, Austin Way magazine featured Goodall’s Black Angus beef burger in its “4 Austin Burgers You Can't Resist” roundup. It comes on a puffy challah bun with bacon marmalade. This is an excellent date place if one of you wants a burger and the other wants high-end seafood. The clams and scallops routinely earn rave reviews. The restaurant is located inside the lovely Hotel Ella, a renovated turn-of-the century mansion.

You might have low expectations for a cheeseburger served at a dive bar on 6th Street, but Casino El Camino has consistently earned top-burger awards for over a decade. Most recently, Austin Monthly magazine awarded top honors to the bar’s buffalo burger with bleu cheese in September 2015.

Come for the beer, stay for the burger. Culturemap Austin gave the top cheeseburger prize in 2015 to the Black Star Burger. Served with cheddar cheese and beer mustard, the burger is actually a brisket patty, so it’s sort of like having barbecue and a burger all in one. Also, since it’s a co-op, and all the employees own a stake in the business, Black Star has a no-tipping policy.